Post 10: Technology In Your Community

For this posting, think of an example of a communication technology that has been adopted in your community. Discuss some its unintended, negative consequences for the community as a whole. Were these negative effects addressed by the diffusion agent or by the adopters? If not, come up with suggestions how these consequences could be corrected in the future.

Post 9: FInal Paper Outline

For this posting, identify a topic you would like to focus on for your final paper. Provide the main research question(s) you are going to investigate. Outline the sections of the paper and explain which theory will guide your paper. Then, find two articles or books that seem relevant to your topic and give their complete citation.

A handout outlining the parameters of the final paper project will be distributed in class. Good luck!

Post 8: Blogs

On Monday we are going to be talking about blogs. Do you read blogs? If yes, why? What do you expect from a blog you would consider to be good or interesting? If no, find a blog on a topic that would be of interest to you. What did you like about the blog? Would you visit it again? Please justify your answer and link to at least one blog that you've visited.

Post 7: Distance Education

Please discuss your personal experience with distance education. Have you taken any online courses? If so, were you satisfied with the experience? If not, can you think of some possible benefits/drawbacks of online classes?

If you had a choice between an online or offline version of the same class, which one would you choose? Back up your choice with convincing arguments.

PLEASE NOTE: Bring your laptop to the next class for an in-class activity.

Post 6: John Atanasoff

For this posting you will research the background of John Vincent Atanasoff, “the forgotten father of the computer.” Some suggested areas include: his Childhood and Family; Student years; Student and Professor at Iowa State College; Invention of the Digital Computer, the ABC; Other inventions; Legal battle between ENIAC and ABC; Bulgarian ancestry. Please don’t forget to list your sources.

Post 5: Technology and Interpersonal Relationships

For this posting let’s continue our in-class discussion about the invasiveness of technology in everyday life. Please reflect on the impacts of technology (e.g., cell phones/texting, Facebook, Skype/MSN Messenger, blogs, etc.) on our interpersonal relationships with friends, family and significant others.

Keep in mind this reference to Baudrillard when writing your posting:

“We are more and more ‘wired’ to our interfaces. We react to simulations – to the television news rather than the world, to a computer program rather than social interaction, to email rather than vocal communication.” (Murphie & Potts, 2003, Chapter 1, pg. 16)

Post 4: Technology at Home

In this posting, list all the communication technologies you own. Then discuss (1) the purpose of each technology—i.e., what you use it for; (2) how much time you spend using each technology; (3) what are some of the intended and unintended consequences for you and your lifestyle.

Post 3: Create your own Adopter Categories

For this posting, come up with your own adopter categories. Name each one of them and describe the characteristics of each group.

Post 2: Innovation Attributes

Today we learned that the characteristics of a technology significantly influence its adoption. For this post, please choose an innovation that you are familiar with and rate it according to each of the five innovation attributes discussed by Rogers. How do these attributes affect the adoption rate in this particular case? Are there any other attributes that one may need to consider?

Feel free to add examples, images or statistics to support your arguments.

Introduction

Hi All,
My name is Melinda (Mindy) Heinz. I just added this class on Thursday, so I haven't met any of you in person yet. I'm in the second year of the PhD program here at Iowa State in Human Development and Family Studies, minoring in Gerontology. I chose Iowa State honestly because of the location (I am a native Iowan and really like it here). My research interests are all things related to Gerontology (i.e., aging), particularly older adult technology use. When I am not at school I really enjoy reading and being outside. I think this class will be great in terms of getting me on the right track for my dissertation!

Self-introduction Yuwei Sun

Hi,

I'm Yuwei Sun from China. I am a new graduate student in Greenleen Journalism and Mass Communication school. For the past six years I was living and studying in Hong Kong. I finished my high school and college there. I had a bachelor degree in International Journalism with a minor in French. My undergraduate study of journalism was in a very practical approach which taught me how to interview different people, how to write articles for newspapers and how to shoot videos. So I was started thinking it was better for me to equip with some theoretical knowledge in journalism and communication. That's the reason why I came here.

My current field of interest is media impact and international communication. But since I have not really involved in a research, this interest may changed in the near future. I hope to work for media outlets and news agencies after graduation.
Nice to meet you all.

Introduction-Jasmine

Hi everyone,

I am Shuyang Qu (Jasmine) from China. I am a second year graduate student majoring in Journalism and Mass Communication. I like Iowa State because of its good academic environment and strong academic ability. Also, I love the cold weather~

My research interest lies in science and risk communication, especially when social change or diffusion is involved~

I hope we learn from each other and have a good time in this class.

Jasmine

Post 1: Self Introduction

Welcome to our class blog! In your first posting, please introduce yourself and tell us where you are from and what brought you to Iowa State University. What do you like to do when you are not in school? Feel free to add a photo to your profile or share other information about your background.

The deadline for the blog posts is Sunday at midnight. Remember, the blog is open to the general public to read so please make sure you communicate in a professional manner.