No 14 - Journal of Social Informatics / Revista de Informatica Sociala

More documents

Recommendations

Info

THE TRANSITION FROM OLD TO NEW MEDIAThe development and increasing diffusion of the Internet have led to a profound transformation inthe sphere of communication. The whole mass media industry is currently facing the transition fromthe traditional broadcasting model to a new “participatory culture” (Jenkins 2006a, 2006b) in whichany user is potentially given the power to make her personal contribution to the creation,distribution and consumption of new and original media content. The scope of change has all thecharacteristics of a real revolution.Being able to anticipate what could be the consequences, in the medium and long-term, that such aprocess of change will entail for our society is not among the easiest task, as John Naughton (2010)reminds us: “I’m writing this in 2010, which is seventeen years since the web went mainstream. IfI’m right about the net effecting a transformation in our communications environment comparableto that wrought by Gutenberg, then it’s patently absurd for me (or anyone else) to pretend to knowwhat its long-term impact will be. The honest answer is that we simply don’t know. The trouble is,though, that everybody affected by the net is demanding an answer right now”.Major changes in the evolution of communication technologies and in the transmission ofknowledge surely can have deep impact on a social, economic, cultural and cognitive level. We allknow that the introduction of the printing press was one of the major forces that determined a seriesof long-term changes in politics, science, religion and culture, that finally contributed to give birthto what is commonly referred to as the modern and capitalistic society (Weber 1905; Eisenstein,1979). The Internet will likely produce similar effects, even if we are not now in the position toanticipate the direction and magnitude of these changes, as soon as they are still unfolding (Carr,2008; Castells, 2001).One of the things that we can do at present is trying to analyse more in depth the trends that seemsto be consolidating, as far as the transition from old to new media is taking place. A specific focusof attention is related, in particular, to the attitudes of younger generation, as they will likely be themain protagonists not only of this phase of transition, but also of the future of the Internet. In theinternational literature, a series of survey-based research and case studies are currently available(Lenhart et al., 2010; Ito et al., 2009; Rideout et al., 2010; Smith et al., 2009), that seem tosomehow provide supporting evidence to the thesis that teenagers and young adults today are moreand more connected to the web, and that a growing part of their social life actually is mediated by acomputer screen. In particular, youngsters are increasingly involved in social network sites likeFacebook and MySpace (Boyd, 2008), in the creation of blogs, in producing and sharing new audiovideomaterial on sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, and in general in all that complex of activitiesof social networking, bookmarking and sharing that is part of the so-called Web 2.0 (O’Reilly,2005). At the same time, they tend to gradually move away from traditional media (such as booksand newspapers) or are using “new” platforms to access to “old” content (as for example televisionprograms accessed through Hulu, or radio station listened to directly on the web).Unfortunately, the available evidence we have briefly mentioned above is related almostexclusively to research carried out in the context of the United States, that is one of the very fewcountries that has managed to put in place a systematic effort of data collection and analysisconcerning the development and the social diffusion of the Internet. Evidences related to othernational contexts are somehow more limited in scope and more scattered, and they are available forwhat concern countries such as the UK (BECTA, 2008; CLEX, 2009; Jones and Cross, 2009;Margaryan and Littlejohn, 2009; Ipsos Mori, 2007) and Australia (Kennedy et al., 2008, 2009;Oliver and Goerke, 2007). As far as other European countries are concerned, it seems that there issomehow a shortage in available data. This is particularly relevant, as it’s likely that each nationalcontext is characterized by very specific cultural traits, that can influence the transition from old tonew media.
As far as the Italian context is concerned, one of the few sources of data is represented by thePermanent Observatory on Digital Content (http://www.osservatoriocontenutidigitali.it/), whicheach year performs, in collaboration with AC Nielsen, a survey on the attitude of the Italianpopulation towards the access and consumption of media digital content. This kind of data surelyrepresents an important basis for analysis, but they are not specifically targeted to the distinctionbetween “traditional” and “new” media, nor do they address in depth the issue of the specific kindof use youngster do actually make of the more recent tools of the so-called “social web”.THE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MILAN-BICOCCAMethodIn order to contribute somehow to start filling the gap in data availability, we decided to make anexploratory research on the media diet of university students at the University of Milano-Bicocca.The research was carried out in 2008 and 2009 by the research group of the Observatory on NewMedia NuMediaBiOs (www.numediabios.eu) 1 and it was based on a integration of quantitative andqualitative methodologies. The quantitative survey was based on a questionnaire that was submittedto a random sample of undergraduate students at the University of Milano-Bicocca. Data werecollected in different rounds, between the months of March and April 2008 and April and July2009. To avoid selection sample biases, we choose to administrate the questionnaire when studentsaccessed the University laboratories in order to complete their test on informatics and on languageskills, compulsory examinations that all students need to pass if they want to go on in the course oftheir study. The questionnaire was compiled anonymously, even if the students’ registration numberwas recorded, in order to avoid the possibility of double answers. We also dropped out of theanalysis questionnaires with incomplete answers. Overall, we obtained a total of 1088 valid answersin 2008 and 1123 valid answers in 2009 2 .The questionnaire consisted of 30 questions, divided in four parts; in the first part, we asked a seriesof general questions concerning the relationship with technology and the rates of diffusion of somespecific devices (not only personal computer and mobile phone, but also digital camera, mp3player, satellite navigator and so on). The second part focused on the attitude towards traditional,“analogical” media such as printed press, radio, and television. In the third part we analysed thepropensity to use the personal computer and the level of involvement with the Internet, while thelast part of the questionnaire was specifically addressed to the use of Web 2.0 platforms andservices.ResultsAlmost the total of our sample reported to use a computer. Although we didn’t specifically askedwhich type of computer do students possess (desktop or laptop), we registered a sharp increase inthe percentage of subjects who declared to use the computer outside their own house between 2008and 2009. The Internet was widely used, with a student out of four connecting to the web for morethan 20 hours a week and more than the 10% of the sample connecting between 15 and 20 hours aweek; only a negligible proportion reported to never use the Internet (Figure 1). Overall, the 70% ofour sample connects to the web for more than 5 hours a week. The use of the mobile phone as a toolto surf the Internet, or to check the mail, does not appear to be widespread in our sample, with lessthan one student out of ten declaring to do so. Students were also asked to assess their level ofexpertise in the use of the computer and all the related technologies: the 63% of the sample defineshimself as a “basic level user”, the 14% as a “beginner” and the 20% as an “expert user”.1 We thank here all the research team of the Observatory, and in particular Nicola Cavalli, Elisabetta Ida Costa, AndreaMangiatordi, Stefano Mizzella and Francesca Scenini, for the invaluable contribution provided to the carrying out of theresearch.2The total number of students enrolled at the University of Milan-Bicocca is approximatively 21000.
Page 1: Revista de Informatica Sociala 14 /
Page 7: ● ● ●CONTENTS● ● ●[9-20
Page 12 and 13: 30252023.420.325.11510500.85.5Never
Page 14 and 15: Overall, we can therefore sum up on
Page 16 and 17: n.a.I often use itI seldom use it6.
Page 18 and 19: - Traditional web use: searching th
Page 20 and 21: 19. Kvavik R.B., Caruso J.B. and Mo
Page 22: IntroductionIn 1995, Bernie Dodge o
Page 25 and 26: The Web-Inquiry Project [WIP] is a
Page 27 and 28: and even orally. The teacher will a
Page 29 and 30: environment in which the teacher gu
Page 31 and 32: Transformation Through Online Learn
Page 33 and 34: INTRODUCTIONLeading practitioners a
Page 35 and 36: learning. We also describe how the
Page 37 and 38: Some of these transformations are b
Page 39 and 40: Recently, Twigg has received suppor
Page 41 and 42: Stage III: Unbundled Learning, Mark
Page 43 and 44: perhaps using Second Life-like virt
Page 45 and 46: performance. Indeed, Stage V will l
Page 47 and 48: Free-Range Open LearningOver time,
Page 49 and 50: New communities, tools and services
Page 51 and 52: Embed enterprise-wide predictive an
Page 53 and 54: In collaboration with Strategic Ini
Page 55 and 56: Wiki Tools and English for Academic
Page 57 and 58: eality. Besides being an additional
Page 59 and 60: StudentPage 1StudentPage nTeacher
Page 61 and 62:
100%90%80%70%60%50%40%30%20%10%0%Ac
Page 63 and 64:
200Correlation View/Page Edits150Vi
Page 65 and 66:
14. http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/llp/s
Page 67 and 68:
Simularea şi comunicarea electroni
Page 69 and 70:
RespondenţiRăspunsuriLa nivelul
Page 71 and 72:
RespondenţiRăspunsuriLa nivelul
Page 73 and 74:
Respondenţii au fost rugaţi să i
Page 75 and 76:
Itemul 9 doreşte să identifice ti
Page 77 and 78:
Identificara opţiunii, chiar şi p
Page 79 and 80:
EşantioaneRăspunsuri/Ranguriagita
Page 81 and 82:
modalităţile practice prin care u
Page 83 and 84:
1. INTRODUCEREÎn prezent, complexi
Page 85 and 86:
Figura 1. Analiza grafică a evolu
Page 87 and 88:
Faţă de această situaţie se deg
Page 89 and 90:
variabilele acesti noi culturi cybe
Page 91 and 92:
INTRODUCEREÎncă din anul 2000 am
Page 93 and 94:
după tipul lecţiei: prezentare de
Page 95 and 96:
Funcţiile oferite de AEL asigură
Page 97 and 98:
• elevi/studenţi, beneficiari di
Page 99 and 100:
Se poate folosi cadrul formal de co
Page 102 and 103:
Evaluarea formativă este comentari
Page 104 and 105:
Rezultatele elevilor, pe itemi:Diag
Page 106 and 107:
Nr. Denumirea activităţii AEL MOO
Page 108 and 109:
SEMNAL EDITORIALLaura MALITA, Vanna
Page 110:
IN MEMORIAMConstantin TraianCHEVERE
show all

No 14 - Journal of Social Informatics / Revista de Informatica Sociala

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?