game...adam lufrano

everyone that was talking about being in my group for this weekend hw just comment here

The New Cyber-City

In the article “ The New Cyber-City: The Interactive Game Industry in the New Millennium,”  written by Stephen Kline, he explores the video game industry and the influence on the world. The video game industry, he argues, is a combination of Fordist (large scale production, intensive marketing) and post-Fordist (segmentation and niche targeting by demographic markets).  Post-Fordism is described in this article as a multitude of “small enterprises, organizing production as high-technology craft-work and forming vibrant community networks of ...human-scale business.” The whole video game industry, he says, has three sectors: the computer industry, media conglomerates, and the toy industry. All of which play a key part in the success of the gaming industry.

            Major companies that have made consoles since the early 1990s have been in fierce competition. These companies were argued to expand the computer industry because of “high demands for processing speed, graphics display, and networking capacity,” (Kline). These consoles developed into high-powered machines (rivaling personal computers). Many people predicted that the personal computer would take over the game market, but the consoles have dominated.

The Sega Dreamcast console failed due to Sony’s release, which demonstrates the risk of technological markets. Not only is it the highest performing console that generates success, it is also the accompanying games and market strategy. Developers purchase rights to console games from console-making companies; for computers, the design makes it pretty easy. This industry results in a very complex system with an ever-changing amount of companies, many of whom are small development companies, where the top developers that rise to fame in large production companies start their own. Marketing strategy also plays a large role in the industry. Since there are so many titles, developers need to bring attention to their specific title and so they turn to larger companies with more capital. Their capital increases access to the marketplace and can give access to toy deals, film, or television spin offs. There was digital divides among demographics, for example poorer people do not have access as those with more money, but these divides are changing. More women are playing for example so the market is full of “distinct post-Fordist niches,” not a homogeneous market.

He also explained the influence of video games on the militaries worldwide. Video game companies are developing more realistic war games every year, which help militaries with simulation and operation planning. Military investment in the video game industry is a way to marketize the military in a sense (by absorbing some of the cost), but it also serves to assist the military in training and war purposes.

I find this article interesting that success and failure of a company depends on the player’s entertainment level and awareness of the title. Although large companies aren’t needed to develop these games, developers turn to corporate sponsors to compete in the market, making it a Fordist industry. I agree with Kline’s arguments in this article because I observe the competition on television daily. More video games are targeting specific demographics, like girls, and because the marketing is becoming more specific, I agree it is somewhat a post-Fordist industry as well. It is a complex system and this article was hard to understand at some points, but it was well organized and well written.

No Child Left Untableted

In “No Child Left Untableted”, written by Carlo Rotella in September of 2013, discusses the pros and cons of using tablets as a transformative educational tool for public school students. Every teachers and students in middle schools of Guilford County were to receive a tablet for the purpose of efficient teaching and learning. Rotella includes various interviews with professionals to have the general audience see both sides of the coin concerning educational technology and how this can impact our future generation.

Rotella interviews Joel Klein, who is the Chief executive of Amplify (manufacturer of tablets), and listens to his stance on the issue. One of the biggest claims he made on why he supports spending tax dollars on educational technology is the power of customizing an individual student. In another words, teachers are able to help each student according to their own pace and curriculum level. Britt, the facilitator that leads training sessions for teachers, also supports educational technology and stresses that their job is not to dispense knowledge but to facilitate a learning environment. He claims that teachers are able to architect and extend the learning environment. Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education, also seems to support the use of tablets from his concerns of students working on same materials at the same time, which has always been inefficient.

In beginning of the article, the author somewhat criticizes the use of tablets in a learning environment. As a professor who teaches college students, he complains that virtual connection only displaces real interaction between teachers and students. He also poses concerns about the increase of childhood obesity by linking it to “screen time” and addresses privacy issues regarding data. Larry Rosen, a psychologist at California State University, states an ultimate question, “Now that we’re doing this, what does this do to our kids?” It is important to note that the result of such transformation is unpredictable. Jay Giedd, a neuroscientist, shows his future concerns by stressing that adolescent brain undergoes enormous change from social interactions but the isolation from technology interferes with that development. In the end, Rotella ends with his second interview with Joel Klein and uses Finland as an example of a country that values teachers rather than technology. He concludes that respectable teachers are the main source of quality education and it would not make sense to provide them with “cool new gadgets”.

Although such transformation is criticized, development of educational technology continues to grow. Thus, instead of banning such technologies, teachers will have to effectively exploit these tablets and combine traditional teaching methods with new technologies that can benefit the whole classroom.

Carlo Rotella, born in 1964, is a professor of English at Boston College. He received a PhD from Yale University and specializes in American Studies, urban literature and culture, American literature, and creative nonfiction writing. He writes for the New York Times and Washington post, writing over twenty articles. This explains why his article was more conversational and creative in writing.

            I found this article very interesting and thought-provoking as this is a current issue that is unpredictable. The reactions I found from other audiences varied. Some people criticized the education system for wasting excessive amount of money on technologies when they can spend it on things that are necessary. Others stood with Rotella stating that they should focus more on improving the abilities of teachers, rather than technologies.

           Some articles that may have reached different conclusions:

           

Hill, J. (2014). Integrating Technology into the Social Studies Classroom to help promote Engagement of Twenty First Century Learners.

Armstrong, A. (2014). Technology in the Classroom: It’s Not a Matter of ‘If,’ but ‘When’ and ‘How”. Ann Arbor: Prakken Publication, Inc.

Manpower

At first glance this website seems very helpful in searching for a job. It is easy to use and has access to many cities. The first city I looked up was my hometown, Kenosha Wisconsin, without any keywords the search came up with 12 jobs around there. This really surprised me because although Kenosha is not a huge city it is still pretty large and Amazon just put up a big warehouse there so I expected there to be lots of jobs from that/ Next I searched Madison Wisconsin. In Madison it was only able to find 11 jobs total which once again seems extremely low. Then I search Green Bay Wisconsin because I would like to live there some day. Manpower was able to find 6 available jobs there. Lastly I search agriculture with no location and it found seven jobs. Overall although this website seems good at first glance it did not impress me due to the fact that it found so few jobs.

Manpower

From looking at the Manpower Inc. site, they help connect those looking for jobs with employers in an quick and easy fashion. All one has to do to find jobs in a specialized field or area is input their zip code and job type. I first decided to search for jobs in New York City, a few miles from my hometown. As expected, a lot of these jobs turned up to be pretty high up position wise. While there were some temporary jobs listed, most of the jobs that were being shown were permanent and contract jobs. The next area I decided to search was Madison, WI. I expected to see a lot more contractual positions listed, but, to my surprise, there were many permanent high-level positions in demand. Lastly, I decided to search for jobs in California. I've never been there before and would like to maybe work there in the future. I found most of these jobs to be contract jobs. This was not very surprising to me because it is such a popular area for people to live. After looking at all of the job opportunities, of course there were differences in the job types that were available, but what was more surprising was the fact that most of these jobs, if not all, required experience with technology. It is important to note this because most businesses now are building their business around technology and jobs now are requiring increased use and understanding of technological concepts such as the cloud and social media.

Manpower

While using Manpower, the job/ field I entered was "law", and I realized that my hometown wasn't even an option in the dropdown menu. This surprised me because although my hometown is not a major city, it still is relatively big compared to a lot of other cities/ towns that were on the list. I then did the same search for Madison, and also came up with zero results. It says beneath the search bar that 6538 jobs are available. I couldn't tell if this was talking about the state of Wisconsin alone or the cities I was searching for. However 6538 jobs regardless, limits you to only so much. I searched New York City to see what the website had to offer there, and I found that a lot of the jobs pertained to sales, but even in New York City, one of the largest in the world, there were still only 30 jobs that were shown. I personally wouldn't use this website to find jobs, I feel like there just aren't nearly enough options and there are other websites that will give you much more of a variety.

Manpower Inc.

While searching through the Manpower website, I found jobs in Washington, D.C, Madison, WI, and Annapolis, MD. In all three of these areas, most of the jobs were contract jobs. Contract jobs are temporary jobs where you work through contracting agency and the other is working through independent contracting.  In Washington, D.C, many of the jobs were permanent and they needed interpersonal skills.  There were many jobs that were associates in which you have to interact with people.  Most of the jobs that were in Madison were temporary and you didn't really need technology skills to obtain the job.  I noticed that Annapolis had the fewest jobs offered and they didn't and they were all contract.  It's cool to see that my home city has a lot of jobs to offer and technology skills may be nice to have but they are not required.