Weekly+Responses

**Welcome to My New Wiki!**
 * WEEK 2 - The Classroom: Virtual vs. Physical**

The virtual classroom is seemingly the "school of the future" and is growing rapidly. With online universities and virtual classrooms, such as the one in "Second Life", students are able to gain an education without ever having to get out of their room.

However, while this may be a convenient way to get a degree, many would oppose this idea in saying that it takes away from the university experience of socializing and getting immediate one on one time with a professor or classmates.

Speaking from experience in working with an online learning institution (Granton Tech []) I feel that these online learning programs need to have a very thorough system of operations for it to be successful. In my 6 months as their Accounts Receivable I found many dissatisfied students in the way that the institution was operating and as a result they had many lawsuits filed against them. These unsuspecting students invested their time and money into an institution that got them no where.

Despite that, many universities offer their degrees online but devise certain time periods in which to meet in discussion boards, or on online video chat or instant messaging. Also, the students would take their exams in person as opposed to being online.

This sort of collaborative method of online and physical classrooms is, in my opinion, the most convenient way for an individual who has a career and a family to study.


 * Week 4 - What impact does social networking have on your life?**

Admittedly, I never wanted to enter the realm of social networking. I joined Facebook by force (such as in the example from South Park). Even then I did not use Facebook that often. However, I began to really use it a couple months after actually getting an account and found it to be pretty addicting.

With the many pictures and wall posts on my friends' walls I was able to keep up with their lives without even talking to them at school. There were many friends from middle school and elementary school that I was able to reconnect with. For this I was actually somewhat grateful for Facebook. It also gave me a way to start a conversation with a lost friend very easily.

However, it started to become a problem when Facebook became a part of people's lives. Everything said and posted would have an impact on how people treated you in person. Tons of fights would break out in my school because of something someone posted on Facebook, couples would break up, friends would stop talking to each other. It started to become this virtual medium to create issues in people's lives.

Shortly after, Twitter came along, and I only recently joined. I joined to see what all of the craze was about and found it to be a good source to keep updated with news around the world and in the celebrity life. So far, I haven't really seen any drama created because of Twitter, but I'm sure it's coming.

Social networking is a great way of giving the world an inside look into the crazy minds of people; a great way to express the creative extrovert within us. However, if used incorrectly, it can also be a dangerous communication device and could ultimately create unwanted issues in your real life as opposed to your online one. I believe that people should only use social networking as an extension of what they portray in their real life and not as a way to deal with inner problems. "Face your problems, don't Facebook them" - Brotips 1093