Downloading Files from the Internet – Where is a Problem?

Downloading music, films, books form the Internet is a big problem but much more ethical then legal. In Poland we have an act, which allow people to downloading files but only for their private application. So in other words we can download films, e-books or music and then enjoy them. However we can not sell those files or copy them. We can use p2p programs like μTorrent or eMule to download programs and applications but we can not share them with others.

Legal issues



I think the real problem is in question: Should people do this? And to be honest I do not know the answer, because I understand both sides: people who create something – the owners, and people who download - the pirates of the Internet. The owners have all rights for their products, because they created something. Plenty of them are music or film stars and they live with this. It is normal that they want to sell as much their products as they only can. Quoting Paul Weller: Protecting the right of artists is not just about the big famous acts, it’s about the thousands of bands you have never heard of who are trying to make a living out of their recordings. For the owners downloading files from the Internet is not ethical and it is illegal. Each of us should remember that at one video or one song work plenty of people, for example: electricians, musicians, choreographers, assistants. Each of those people should earn money. And when we download music or film form the Internet, we do they out of their pay.
The pirates of the Internet see this issue in different way. Firstly, for them prices of CD’s or DVD’s are too higher, that is why they download music and films from the Internet. Secondly plenty of people listen diverse kind of music. They like for example new single of Lady Gaga and new single of Beyonce and one of older singles of U2, so if they want to listen those three singles they will have to buy three CD’s. And this is very expensive purchase.
Secondly, one of those singles could be not available in shops, because is too old or too new. This is the second big argument pro downloading files from the Internet – goods’ inaccessibility.
Thirdly, the pirates of the Internet save a lot of time and energy, because they can watch or listen or read something on the Internet and they knew is something good or bad. They can do an informed choice: should I buy this film on DVD or not? The Japanese Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry published their research from which come that downloading film form the Internet have a good influence on buying those films on DVD’s.
So the basic question is: what means word “theft” for us? Do we steal if we copy our favorite song form the Internet? Are we pirates when we watch movie on the Internet? In my opinion if we do it in non commercial way, we are not pirates. We should always put the name of author of song or film or book on the our private cover or on the MP3 list. What is your opinion about that question?
Maybe administrators of websites on which we can find music, films and book should bring little payment in for downloading files. In my opinion this is the best way to solve this problems. What you think about it?

Don't download - funny :)

Information Privacy – the Dilemma of XXI Century

Currently we live in a digital word. The young generation is called digital natives. They are people whose entire lifes are connected with the Internet and new technologies. They listen and read books on the iPhone, search knowledge on Wikipedia and spend their free time on Facebook. They have lived in virtual space a few months earlier than in the real world, because they parents have put their ultrasound pictures for example on Twitter, Facebook or on their blogs.

The digital natives can’t live without computer or Internet. This is their second live in which they aren’t anonymous, because they put on the Internet privacy information about themselves. I think most of people put on the Internet some peace of their private information, because a lot of them use a bank account, e-mails, social utilities like Facebook, Twitter, GoldenLine. Especially children and youth are at the risk of ineligible using their private information. As we can see this in this report, 38 per cent of respondents will be able to put their first and last name on the Internet. Almost 30 per cent will be able to put their address on virtual space. I think that this is a lot. Plenty of young people put their photography on their blogs or on their accounts on Facebook (65 per cent). Some of those photos are very provocative, because people photograph themselves or their friends in peculiar situations for example when they are naked or almost nude, when they have sex, when they are drunk or just mess around. They don’t often realize how harm it could be for them in the future. However the reality is diverse. If you put something on the Internet just ones and then you delete this information or picture or film, you should be confident that this will still exist in virtual world.
Currently very popular are diverse social utilities. A lot of people enjoy them and I think it is good. But each of users of those utilities should know that all information about him or her are store on special servers and many people and companies use they for their own purposes. But on the other hand if we want to feel safe on the Internet, we should make some private information of us accessible only for administrator. In my opinion best advice is: be more deliberate and always think twice before put some information on the Internet. Here are some good advices… Check it out!

Internet Security by Hacker - very good

Privacy & Personal Safety:
Computer Security: Personal Information & Passwords

Socio-Cultural Aspect of Computer Games

Computer games are an important part of our culture. They are not quite old, because they are invented in previous century. They changed a lot in this time, because they are related to culture and social changes. We can observed these changes in this video….

History of games


Computer games are very important issue, especially nowadays, when we spend lot of our time in virtual word. They have bright and dark sides, because on the one hand computer games have positive influence on cognitive development. On the other hand they can be addictive.

Here some research results…

Socio-cultural context have great influence on computer games. We can see this on example of characters or avatars, which we choose or create. They have changed a lot and present ideal models of femininity and masculinity, which are creating by presently culture. Female and male characters have great bodies. Female are slim, toll and beautiful. They have big eyes, breasts and long hair. They have fancy and sexy cloths and they show they femininity. They embody men’s dreams. Check it out - top 10 video game women.

Top 10 video game womEn


The male characters have got big muscles and big chests. They look like macho man, they are aggressive and formidable. They have got big and dangerous guns. They are tough guys. Top of the sexiest male characters you can see here.
Both female and male characters are strong, agile, brave and very clever.

Beautiful and sexy characters are good. They want to destroy evil and fight with bad figures, who are ugly and defaced. This creation is stereotypical, because people think that handsome men and women are good and unattractive people are bad.
So, we can see that very important attribute of games characters is their body. Both virtual and real bodies must be sexy, because this is a basic requirement of our culture. People like to watching beautiful and sexy bodies, so games’ designer should create characters who are attractive. In this case the everyday life is the ideal to virtual life.

Games create some special demeanors and behaviors, which are specific for postmodern culture. We can see this for example in The Sims, which is one of the most popular games in the world. This game have a few varieties, which cover both private and public dimension of life. Player in this game learn how should students life, dates or relation with another people look like. This game teach how we should live in the real world, what we should do to life in our world. We can ask is this good for people especially young people? I think it can help youth to find themselves in daily reality, which is very complicated and ambiguous.

You can see for example how to do a party...:)

The Sims 3 - PARTY :)



However this could have a bad influence on their life, because these games create word which is unreal. The real life looks rather differently. People may sometimes think, especially youth, that they should behave themselves and look just like the games’ characters. And this, in my opinion, can led up to disaster. Plenty of young people modify they bodies. They have tattoo, piercing, scarification. They go to the gym and work out very hard, sometimes too hard, or they give in to plastic surgery like breast augmentation.
To sum up, I think that our currently culture has great influence on games, but games heave influence on our culture as well. So we should be careful and teach our children that not everything what they see on games world is good.

part 2

Quest to Learn! Interesting school… More I read about using games in educational process than more I think that is an excellent idea. Students loves games and computer, so why we, as teachers, shouldn’t use these tools in our work?

Q2L Commercial



On the Internet we can find plenty of websites, which offer diverse educational games. This is my favorite one –iCivics

Short story of iCivics


And this is an example...


What we can play in iCivics?

Computer Games in Modern Education

Can pupils play games during lessons? Can they learn mathematic or physic creating new game? It is possible and very good example for this is Quest to Learn. This is school for digital children, where they can play, learn and develop themselves. They use there new technologies because children like them and use them in everyday life. I have to say that Quest to Learn is an educational experiment, which have been continuing for two years. This school was created by Katie Salen, who is a professional video game designer. She has wondered how to fit in education with young people’s needs.
Students use new technology, such as computer, Internet, cell phones to study. They have special lesson, which called Sports for the Mind. Students learn how to design games, which is very important for their development, because they do what they like and they develop their spatial reflection, cooperation with another students and logical thinking. Design and complex problem- solving are the most important ideas of Quest to Learn.
We can ask why video games? The answer is simple: games are composed of plenty of problems, which players have to first of all made up and then solve. The more difficult is the game the better it is. Games are interesting and most of people, especially youth, like them. Students spent a lot of hours playing games. Quest to Learn decided to use this phenomenon. In this school students have to create their own games, play games, which are created by their friends or schoolmates and write review of those games. Professor James Paul Gee argue that games offer children not only knowledge, but also experience in solving problems by using this knowledge. Eric Schmidt, the Chairman of Google, said playing video games, specially online and in multiplayer mode, teach cooperation, which brings more innovation. I agree with this statement and in my opinion computer games are very good teaching aids, which we (Polish teachers) should use in education in our schools. This is the future of modern education, because Polish student read fewer books year by year. On the other hand they like playing games, so why should not we use games in schools? Maybe because teachers have got little knowledge about computers, games or Internet. I think this is the real reason for this situation in Poland. I do not say that all teachers, but most of them. They are like said Marc Prensky digital immigrants and they have to learn because old teaching aids are not enough nowadays.




About Quest to Learn

Idea

Hmm..., I think I have an idea for my first refleksive post. A couple day ago I read very interesting article about using games in school. So maybe I write my reflection about using games in educational process. What do you think about it? Please write your comments. :)

First post

Hi, this is my first blog. I hope you like it :) I am going to write here about ICT in education, especially in cultural context.