I have had several days off this week, but was unable to get on the internet because myself and 6,000 people were without power.  While I was off I learned that living without power seems to be a simpler life.  No need to learn all those fancy subjects in school.  I became a person of survival instead of knowledge.  I was getting firewood and playing games with my son and nephew to pass the time.  We learned to stay warm and cook without electricity and become self sufficient people. No phones for communication.   My husband is a police officer so he was at work 90% of the last 4 days and is currently working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week till we get a little normalcy back in our county.  I know I am not a pioneer by any means, but I do feel that I understand more why people years ago didn’t see the need to finish school and go to college.  Their lives were focused on taking care of their families.  I also know that in todays world a high school education really isn’t enough to take care of your family.  I’m not saying everyone needs a bachelors, but some college education is essential to taking care of your families.  So the point is:  times have changed and education is necessary whereas it might not have been years ago. Why I felt to blog on that I don’t know, but there it is anyways.  

Solomon’s chapter 5

I have just read the chapter 5 out of Toward Digital Equity:  Bridging the Divide in Education. It was the hardest chapter so far for me to understand.  I read it slowly and tried to understand how all the pieces fit into literacy.  The only thing that I got out of the chapter is that literacy means different things to different people and in today’s world that is ever changing also.  If I had to define literacy it would be:  ”literacy is the ability to accomplish what you need or want to accomplish using whatever medium or technology you choose. ” For example, if you need to chat with your family in a different state or country on the internet and you are capable of doing that, than you have literacy in communicating with you family on the internet.  Again the chapter seemed to ramble and discuss things that were showing how literacy is in the eyes of the beholder.  The one thing that keep coming back up in the chapter was who has the right to define literacy in terms of what our k-12 students need to know.  I agree that literacy depends on what you will need to know and that takes in account things that other people can’t tell you.  With that being said, how can we test all students with the same test and determine literacy of those students??  Comments on what I said will help me to know if I’m on the right track??  Thanks

Distribution

I loved the article, Unevenly distributed:  Production Models for the 21st century.  It gives hope to the inspiring artists that get turned down by these big production companies.  I guess the media, whether it be video, movies, music, or podcast, need to be aware of the power of distribution.  From this article, you can read the way that we are beginning to control our own destinies.  If we can zone into the little markets that would appreciate what we have to offer, we can then convince them to purchase what ever it is we are selling.  Like the lady in Australia and her DVD.  She got it into the hands of the people that would most benefit from it and they used word of mouth to see that other people in the same type of market got it also.  That is what is great about the internet and being able to get your product our to the multiple mini markets that are around for your product.I was wondering about the Limewire and free services that are bitorrent.  Does that mean it is legal?  I have heard lots of students mention it and was wondering if it is now legal because if everyone is doing it without consequences, what keeps  people from doing it.  Also, I assume there is no way to trace who is getting all of this free stuff, so even the honest of people can use it.  I didn’t know that their were so many places to get free stuff.  I didn’t know that people actually filmed movies while they are there and put them on the internet.  I guess I am behind the times.  So this article was very enlightening to me and I learned a lot that I am probably the only one that didn’t know.  Dealing with teenagers daily you would think I would know everything (they do, at least on this subject it seems).  So distribution seems to be the way of the future. No one will need to worry about being rejected from the big companies if they can market it to the little markets that are more specific to their product.  Or if we can stick together and distribute whatever we want to.  Kind of reminds me of the old saying my mom used to say, “there is power in numbers”.  

Manifesto

I read a review on the Cluetrain Manifesto and it makes you want to read the book.  My impression from the review is that it is like self help guide to marketing on the Internet.  I might have simplified it a little, because it also sounds like it has a lot of great humor that not everyone will understand.  I am actually considering purchasing it to read and maybe start a business online.  The book seems like it would explain the ways you should do business and the don’ts of how not to do business.  I could be wrong, but I believe we were to read this because it shows how the current businesses are banking their future earnings on reputation or price.  The businesses of today need to look at the Internet and make sure they incorporate it into their company in order to keep their businesses going.  It discussed how, “GM mistook the Hondas and VWs for a passing fad” and links it to how businesses are overlooking the power of the internet and the distribution of power the people have just by communicating about a company.  A lot of people are distributing materials and products from their homes which is something that I think a lot of big businesses are overlooking because it is such a small operation that it won’t hurt their business, but what if 10,000 people began selling your product cheaper?  Then would your business hurt.    That is just my opinion of what the book is about.  I have not read it and don’t know for sure, but from the review that is what I got out of it.