Jared's ePortfolio at LaGuardia Community College
The technology today has evolved so much that it has become in a powerful tool for everyone. Today, almost everyone has access to a computer. As mentioned in class, it may be possible to consider a person illiterate if not technology savvy. This overwhelmingly availability of tools to become a publisher without being professionals in the field is discussed by Shirky. The limits set by what professionals do and what amateurs do are fading away with the advanced technology available to anyone who can afford to have a computer. People, suddenly, have become in a primary source of news for others by using means of mass reproduction such as Twitter. News through this popular microblogging site have become popular and even required for many journalists (I follow CNN journalists and find myself informed by their tweets without having to watch the News Shows where they appear). Likewise, bloggers become an important source of news and critique available to the public. In sum, no matter how we make a specific piece of information available to the public, we are literally publishing content. Does Shirky’s statement ‘if anyone can be a publisher, then anyone can be a journalist’ make sense then? In my opinion, it does.
Shirky embarks in his ‘Amateurization Breaks’ discussion by explaining the examples of both journalists and photographers. In the first case, journalists by profession (those who went to college and majored in journalism) seem to be outnumbered by those who are doing the same job, amateurs, using the new media technology available. A clear example is the iReport segment offered by CNN which allows first-hand witnesses to send footage or videos of news events for public broadcasting. The latter example, photographers, seem also to be outnumbered by those who can afford to purchase a digital camera at a mall. Not only someone who can take a high-resolution picture and take it to sites such as www.iStockphoto.com becomes in a photographer but also those who learn how to improve those photos for sale by using software (also available to everyone) such as Adobe Photoshop.
But not only how the content becomes available is what counts but also the content itself. A proper use of technology is desirable to taking advantage of it. What Shirky calls a ‘civic’ use of media is important to highlight because that’s what reaches society in its entirety. This type of media becomes crucial when it is for the better of not only the participants (i.e. those who send the tweets) but of the society as a whole (those who read the tweets). This proper use is what makes media and technology an important tool in our hands.
I owe the title of this post to an old posting I did back in 2007. In it, I spoke about how technology usage is increasing and how we can better use it for educational purposes in reference to a program called ‘One Laptop per Child.’ This program offers a laptop for children who cannot afford to buy one. It also offers children free access to the internet within a device that also supports open source software and applications to run. In accordance with Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the web, free access to the web (Hanson, 353) is crucial for learning the content available which, added to the free device provided by this program, makes this a clear example of how technology can be used to improve and enhance education.
I work as an ePortfolio consultant at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY). My job is as an instructor in what we call ‘Studio Hours’ (a lab session affiliated with a college-required class) where students build their own ePortfolios. Jared was a student in my summer 2010 class and is one example of how students get to become in publishers by having access to a tool provided by the school. Just like the ‘One Laptop per Child’ program makes a device available to children, the LaGuardia ePortfolio project offers students the opportunity to become in authors of their own work. Without the need to be a computer science-related major, students are able to publish their own work on the world wide web. As a consultant, I also found myself being a publisher by publishing my own personal website as a resource to my students. In it, I also post tutorials and more links available to them. This, in my opinion, demonstrates how our work as publishers can be a good resource for others to publish their own work as well. In this sense, and according to Shirky, the vast number of resources available on the web is fading out the ‘mass professionalization’ and is creating instead a ‘mass amateurization’ (79); thus, making us all publishers.
Indeed, technology has been made increasingly available to everyone to the extent of turning every user into a publisher. But it will up to each user, in my opinion, to make good use of this tool. In the end: ‘Everyone is a Media Outlet.’
Resources:
In this presentation, Shirky talks about civic and communal media. Click here to watch the video
Click here to visit the 'One Laptop per Child' program site
Click here to visit Jared's ePortfolio
Click here to visit the ePortfolio project at LaGuardia Community College and see more ePortfolios
Click here to visit my Studio site, a resource for my students
Click here to visit the iStock site
Designing a self-marketing site is becoming increasingly more important in the professional world. Employers and school committees are more likely than ever to search for prospective applicants on Google; they want to see how well applicants can use mass amaturization to their advantage. Then again, this means that applicants have to be careful of what they post on the web.
ReplyDelete"Who is a journalist?" Shirky asks. An amateur journalist is someone who blogs without a degree and a job, but a professional journalist is someone who can use his or her blog to get a degree and a job.