Foot- Little Brother post #2

I am now done with chapters 1-14, and I am getting more and more into this book. In chapter 14, the title of the book is mentioned. The news reports that "the movement is composed of 'little brothers' who watch back against the Department of Homeland Security's antiterrorism measures, documenting the failures and excess." As I read this, I thought how perfectly it portrayed the message of the book so far. Marcus and his network of Xneters are "watching back." Little brother is secretly watching "big brother."I liked this because it really put the book into perspective with just a few words.

Foot- The Battle for Facebook

I need to start this post out admitting that I was sitting on my couch reading this article while simultaneously checking my Facebook. I caught myself doing this and I thought, "Wow, I am supporting this jerk by doing this." Then I realized that I didn't care because I am literally addicted to Facebook and that is what makes Mark Zuckerberg a very rich man--the millions of people that are addicted.

As I read this, I was literally getting frustrated. I couldn't believe how mean Zuckerberg was through this whole thing. It's the same way I felt about Microsoft when I read the "History of the Internet." Power and riches have really gone to these peoples' heads. Zuckerberg is extremely full of himself. I laughed to myself when I read that his business card says "I'm CEO...b****." Really Mark?

All of this controversy really got me thinking about Facebook and what it has become. I wonder if he hadn't of "stolen" the ideas of others and the Harvard Connection took off instead, would we have the Facebook that we have today? Would it have grown to the social networking site that we all know and love? I also got to thinking about the constant battle that seems to be surrounding Facebook. What would happen if someone successfully took Zukerberg to court? Would Facebook be gone? And if not, who would take it over?

All in all, this article really interested me and made me want to watch the Social Network to learn more about the whole story behind Facebook.

Foot: An oral History of the Internet

I just got done reading the article on the history of the Internet and while I can't say that I understood all the technological aspects of it, I did find it interesting. As I was reading it, I kept feeling so amazed that the things that I do every day on the internet are extremely new. I found it funny that so many people, including AT&T, thought that the internet was stupid and a waste of time when it was first thought of.

Another thing that interested me was the conflict between Microsoft and Netscape. Microsoft is such a bully! The story of their rivalry and many other stories shared in this article showed me how stressful and difficult the growth of the internet has been for some people.

Despite these arguments, however, the Internet has grown extremely fast, especially for those sites such as Google, Facebook, and Youtube. One statistic that surprised me more than anything else was that "in 2007, Youtube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet did in 2000." That is some MAJOR growth!

This growth that the Internet has show proves to me how important it is to include technology in our classrooms. The students that we will teach will depend so much on their knowledge of these things. This is why it is important that they are literate in a technological world. If they are not, they will fall behind their peers substantially.

Foot: Little Brother

I started reading Little Brother and I am about 8 chapters in. I must say that this book is extremely interesting. The excitement of it keeps me reading, and I am not as lost as I thought I would be when I first started the book.

As I have read this, I have come to the conclusion that this is a great book to introduce to kids who don't like to read, especially boys. There seems to be less young adult books that target boys, but this definitely does. I think it would keep boys that are into technology and gaming interested and get them to read a book (seeing as this is one group of people that I don't see reading a lot). The book mentions a lot of things that these types of people could relate to and enjoy such as manga, video games, operating systems, etc. It does this while exploring facts that they may not be aware of, but would find interesting. (I for one learned that grapes in the microwave create plasma. After Marcus mentioned it, I Googled it. It turned out to be very interesting.)

Because this book deals with so much technology, it would be a great book to use in a classroom that includes multi-modal lessons and ideas. It also raises awareness of the good and bad sides to technology. In the book, Marcus sees how the technology that he has come to love can be used against him to monitor and track his every move. I think that these issues could be brought up in class and students would be very interested in discussing this.

So far I think that this book is really good and I can't wait to read the rest!