With the progression of the availability and business prospects the internet has brought around mean that a lot of different industries are able to produce and sell original or new products online. 'Internet shopping' is a phrase which is highly popular, which quite literally means what it says, shopping for and paying for things through the internet. These changes have had a massive impact on social culture. Other features of the internet have also brought around changes not just in social culture, but also in areas such as learning, education and leisure.
The programme 'paint' is always one of the first programmes you learn to use when learning to use a computer for the first time. Older people and younger children often take these first steps as it's an easy programme to use.
There's been a direct correlation between the advancement of technology and art. Obviously with the invention of new programmes on the computer there has been room for new forms of art to take place. Photoshop and the uploading of photographs has become a main source of editing for journalists, as they can edit and change pictures to suit their story or their angle. Other programmes such as open source, character animation software, and more give people the opportunity to download these features which give anyone the chance to create art that would otherwise be reserved for specialists, or would have to be constructed on paper had the programme not been invented. This shows the positives and advantages of having these artistic, creative programmes available to us, as anyone has the chance to create this form of art.
In terms of other art forms such as literature, technology has recently been significantly upfront about new forms of reading. Literature is one of the oldest forms of education in the world. Reading and writing is one of the main skills you learn in primary education and you are generally expected to have extensive skills in both areas. Books and text are the classic ways of demonstrating these skills. With the internet, reading and typing are the new forms of reading and writing. You have to physically read what's on the screen, but typing has the same properties of writing apart from the physical action.
Kindle's, iPads and E-books are among new technologies which allow you to read books and texts on a screen that isn't a traditional computer or laptop. Although expensive, they've become very popular with all ages. ''IApple's iBookstore has seen 1.5 million books uploaded since 2010, with more than 400 million downloads. There are reportedly 2,500 U.S. classrooms using iBooks textbooks.'' - iBook stats
(Apple iPad)
These gadgets have become increasingly popular. 41% of readers of e-books consume their books on an e-book reader like original Kindles or Nook. This shows the popularity of e-books as well as the gadgets. E-books are the term for books downloaded onto and read from your tablet/device. The advantages of this is that the books are quick and easy to access, they are normally cheaper than buying paper back books, and are easier to store and read again.
There is always the argument of the authenticity and experience of buying and reading a paper back book. According to statistics, more than 70% of adults prefer reading a paperback book to an e-book.
Inanimate Alice
In our workshop we were told to go onto the website 'www.inanimatealice.com' and look around to see what we thought.
The website states clearly it is a website for children and pre-teenagers to help to teach them to read digitally and it is available in many other languages. It says it's interactivity helps the individual to co-create their own versions of the stories and to make their own decisions to keep them interested. This is a free and easy method of teaching that more and more teachers are supposedly starting to use.
''Designed originally as entertainment, Inanimate Alice has been adopted by teachers eager to develop their students' digital literacy skills. Available in French, German, Italian and Spanish and created around a high-quality robust text, the story provides the ideal context for teaching global citizenship and for learning across the curriculum.'' - Inanimate Alice Website
Personally after taking part in Episode 1 of inanimate alice, I found the activities quite tedious as it's obviously not directed at my age group, however I know if I were to use this when I was at the intended age I probably would've found it a lot more interesting. It's intention is to help children learn to read digitally and manually. The interactivity of having to use the 'player' as a camera at points and having to click on different things, as well as the tabs at the sides are useful however I personally wouldn't find it useful for learning to read as it's quite hard to concentrate because of all the background noises that are quite frankly irrelevant and annoying.
I can see how it would be relevant and quite successful in a primary education curriculum as it's obviously crucial for children to learn to read, and perhaps for children less inclined to traditional education and teaching this might be more attractive for the student as it is interactive and on the computer which children now find most desirable thanks to the evolution and constant reminder of technology today.
According to my peer Deena, she had the same mindset as me in that we can both see how it would be helpful for children however personally we both wouldn't use it. Deena doesn't see the point or understand how it would help children in the long run. I do see her point in that learning to read electronically could have it's downsides in contrast to learning to read the usual way, through physical books and words.
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