Austin TanckAre you tired of the expensive prices for name brand shoes and apparel? Are you an athlete tired looking for quality gear without having to pay an arm and a leg? Are you tired of not being able to contact a company’s customer service when it’s convenient for you? Or are you just looking for a more convenient way to shop anywhere you are? Well do not look any further than Eastbay. Eastbay is an easy to use app or website for any person looking to do shopping. What is Eastbay? Eastbay was established in 1980 by Art Juedes and Rick Gering. It was originally established to provide the needs of local high school and college level athletes of central Wisconsin. The two with a dream of selling shoes and having just under $10,000 would set up business in Wausau, WI. Wherever they would make stops and tell people about positive benefits and affordable prices that they could offer. They would start expanding their inventory in 1983, which would include basketball shoes track and field shoes, football cleats and baseball cleats. How they would start getting the word out is by sending out catalogs which would also start to boost their sales. In 1988 they would create a section where people would be taking orders on the phones. The next year they would start a Sale team division and they would create team sales catalogs to make it easier for the bulk buy for the teams that buy from them. The next year they would expand their call center, shipping department and also the creative department to almost an entire city block. During this time, they would also come out with their own clothing brand which would include shorts, pants, shirts, and jackets of various colors all having the Eastbay logo on them. It would not be until they after they would go public which was on September 29, 1995 that they would start to expand more rapidly. It would be two short years later that they would open a half a million square foot warehouse. Then the next year they would start an online section of the store, where today most people would do their shopping from Eastbay. In 2001, they would split into a new company called Foot Locker, Inc. which would be dedicated to the athletic shoes and clothing business. How is Eastbay Changing Sports Shopping? Eastbay like many companies have adopted the internet in order to stay in business. Brick and mortar shopping is slowly becoming obsolete. Over the past 10 years with the huge expansion of smartphones by Apple, Samsung and many more companies; people have been able to get apps to make it easier to make purchases whenever and wherever they want. Before this they would have a select period during the day and the week that they could make purchases. They have also spent the least amount of money on advertising in the past three years. In 2016 they only spent 100 million on advertising compared to 2015 and 2014 where they spent 104 million and 102 million in those two years. A way that they have been able to limit the cost of advertising is by using apps such as Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Other ways that they advertise the company is by using a popular social media which includes the previously listed apps but also Facebook and they also use Google+ and they even advertise on YouTube. Another way that is by using a newer form of media that the other competition cannot compete with which is cellphone apps. With that being said, the competition also does have apps as well but it is the pricing which they cannot compete with. They are always offering free shipping with a discount on their products when you purchase them over the name brand such as Under Armour. By doing these things they have been able to continue to make financial gain. This past year the companies cash operations was up 33 million dollars. Also their net sales which are the sales that have been made after a company subtracts returns and such. With that in mind this past year they have been up 3.6 percent in net sales to a total of 7.4 billion dollars. Even though the paper catalog is becoming more and more obsolete with the advancement of electronics such as getting one emailed out through the email subscription or even a text sign up in order to receive specific athletic needs. However, even though this is more convenient, I still like to have that paper catalog to have something that I can hold on to. Future of Eastbay Eastbay in the past has been a very adaptive company. It has been able to successfully adapt from the brick and mortar store, to a warehouse with a paper catalog and phone operators taking orders. To almost 40 years later they making easy to use phone apps that allow the convince of order placing. They have also said that they plan to spend $42 million on technology to make the ordering even more convenient. Sources https://www.eastbay.com/customerserv/help:aboutEastbay/ https://www.eastbay.com/customerserv/help:orderFaqs/ http://www.vault.com/company-profiles/retail/eastbay,-inc/company-overview
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Brianna JohnsonPeople love music. This shouldn't be a shock to anyone, as people have loved music for years. Many people believe music has been around in some form or fashion since prehistoric times, but we know for sure that in the past 200 years music has been one of the main forms of expression and enjoyment in our culture. While the genre and styles of music we listen to evolve, so has the medium in which we get this music. First it was "pre-recorded" cylinders, thanks to Edison, then we turned to records, then cassettes, then CD's etc., you get the point. Until now, in the world of technology where we have the amazing Internet and applications at our fingertips. These mediums can play millions of different songs with a click of a button. So, now we have to ask this question, is the Internet and this new wave of technology killing the music industry or is it the reason the music industry is what it is today? Evolution of Music Playing Formats Spotify is a music and video streaming application that was founded in Stockholm, Sweden. The streaming service was officially launched in October of 2008, and is becoming more and more popular daily. Spotify, the music app which I personally pay a monthly rate for along with 30 million others in order to access the “premium” features, is just one of many that allow you unlimited access to millions of songs with a push of a button. Apps like this that offer music streaming currently account for about a quarter of all music industry revenue. That’s pretty good if you ask me. Spotify is just one of the many apps that actually saved the music industry in a sense. In Sweden in 2014 the Film and TV Industry Cooperation Committee suggested that around 280 million films or TV shows were illegally downloaded and watched at the time. The same thing happened with music. Everyone got sick of paying the “legal” price of music and started to illegally download them through applications like Napster, LimeWire and Soulseek. This would have taken away millions of dollars from the music industry and end up killing a lot of musicians off, metaphorically of course. This is where Spotify Premium steps in. Spotify helps us to find that balance between, I am not going to pay .99 cents for a song and, okay I’ll pay $9.99 a month to have unlimited songs and downloads. With Spotify Premium you have access to more than 40 million songs and many new releases as well. However, if you still want to legally listen to millions of songs there is Spotify Free as well. With Spotify Free you still have access to more than 40 million songs you just miss out on some of the new releases that everyone is typically talking about. With Spotify Premium you never have to look, or listen to a stupid add again. This was one of the features that really hooked me. I used to listen to Pandora avidly, until I felt like I was listening to a 30 second add more than I was listening to music. Again, with Spotify Free there are ads and you do not get unlimited skips or offline listening like you do with Spotify Premium. This was another feature that prompted me to pay the fee. I don’t have unlimited data on my phone so in order to save that, I have to typically download my playlists so I can listen to the music without having to worry about needing service. Apple Music is also a prime example of music streaming. Typical Apple, looking at and analyzing the ideas of someone else and then trying to make it better in order to make millions off of it. That is exactly what happened with the creation of Apple Music. When Apple saw that music streaming was the way of the future they had to come up with their own platform in order to compete with Spotify. This was actually very smart on their end. Personally, since I was in the sixth grade I have had an iTunes account, and used to be an active user. However, I stopped using it. I was sick of always having to pay for the specific, individual songs I wanted to listen to on my iPod. I think that’s why music streaming is so amazing and important in our culture today. We listen to a song for a few weeks, and then were sick of it, or the new latest and greatest single comes out and that’s our new “favorite.” Everyone is always trying to keep up with the times and that’s what music streaming offers. A variety and a chance at discovering a hit song first. At the end of the day it’s all about convenience. Music Streaming, and apps like Spotify and Apple Music, saved the music industry because of its convenience and reasonable price. We live in a world where we want the best of the best, but we want to take the easy way of going about that. We also don’t want to pay an arm and a leg to get the best of the best. My only question is where does it go from here? What is the next big “evolutional” idea that will take over the music industry? Links: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-evolution-of-music-consumption-how-we-got-here/ http://www.davidwallace.com/2010/10/evolution-music-playing-formats/ https://www.europeanceo.com/profiles/through-spotify-daniel-ek-has-changed-the-music-industry-forever/ https://www.theverge.com/2015/6/8/8729481/apple-music-streaming-service-wwdc-15 Carly BraultHave you noticed anything different in classrooms lately? Like how chalkboards have turned into smartboards, how paper and pencils have turned into tablets/ laptops, or even how writing classes have turned into computer/ typing classes. The reason behind all of these changes is New Media. With all of these changes comes many new advantages and of course disadvantages, I am specifically going to discuss the advantages it has in the classrooms.
As the world is adapting to new technology every day, it is a good start to have students in classrooms learn how to use the new technologies before getting into the, “real world.” Now when I say real world I am talking about once someone is out of school with a full time job and living on their own, rather than being someone who is at school with a part time job still living with their parents. Many jobs out there focus on using technology, such as computers and different computer software’s. Having the younger students, work on things such as, PowerPoints or Excel documents will help them be successful in a future job because many companies use these types of software’s in their workplace. Another way in which new media is an advantage in schools is that it keeps students engaged. Almost every child has had access to some type of media before they get to school, so being able to have the media in the classroom keeps them engaged and interested in learning more. When the teacher is performing a lesson, having the media right readily available so the students can look up more information to discuss with the rest of the class allows them to learn more along with allowing the teacher to learn more as well. Allowing the students to have media right in front of them indicates that there will be more participation. More participation leads to more interaction and a confident class who are all willing to communicate and learn more about the topic upon discussing. Not only does discussing and participating helping children learn more, having new media in the class is helping children read more. According to Grace Chen, children are learning how to read faster and earlier in their lives because of the use of new media. Chen writes, “With that in mind, it is possible to teach children how to read not only books, but movies, television shows, commercials, and all sorts of other “new media” texts. You can show them how to break down, or decode, all the information that is being thrown at them. In today’s highly commercialized world, showing kids how to process all the advertisements aimed at them is a huge advantage to them. Theoretically, they will now be armed against these constant ads and be better prepared to ward off their influences – all because they were taught how to read “new media” in the classroom.” New media in classrooms is important to incorporate because students are able to experience worlds beyond their own. What I mean by that is that being able to look up new information on a topic gets the students to see what else the world has out there for information. Students no longer have to only listen to their teachers, or read the information in the book they can look up the information online and become more knowledgeable. With the new media, they not only become more knowledgeable, they also become more confident in their speaking. With the correct information right in front of them, they will be more willing to share what they have; found knowing it is correct and not have to worry about embarrassing themselves if they are wrong. For now, I have just been talking about new media in classrooms for the younger ages. New media is also helping people in college and people who are going back to school. Being able to use the new media to learn is helping people stay at home and do their schooling rather than paying excessive amounts of money to pay tuition to go and learn. With classes being online and being able to do everything virtually keeps it more time consuming and more of a “on your own time” kind of learning. Not having to go to class and being able to stay home and do it online on your own time is more efficient for yourself and saves money on tuition, gas that gets you to school, and allows you to use critical thinking and use your own ways of learning. Janelle Cox believes that snow days will be a thing in the past because of all the new media and the new things that we can do through technology. She writes, “Snow days will be a vacation of the past. If students and/or teachers can't get to school, they participate through the real-time interactive GHO-type environment. Teachers will teach from their home while students watch from home. No fuss.” That is crazy! Growing up looking at the news hoping school is canceled for a snow day was a thing I looked forward too. No school, go have fun in the snow, every kids dream. Now because of new media and teachers being able to email students a virtual learning session can ruin a perfect snow day. Diante MosesSports have been a way to escape for millions of people. Forty-five minutes to an hour of watching sports could motivate your day. But the real question is what makes you watch them? What causes you to gravitate to a certain sport? Is it the lousy flyer they send in the mail to millions of people with the same boring bolded words stating, “watch me on DirecTV”, or is it a hype video of your favorite team scoring. Video promotion is the best way to go when it comes to promoting sports, instead of flyers because video promotion comes with reliability, technology, and easy access. Video promotion generates more fan based because of the ability to see pictures, videos and feel them as well.
97% of marketers use videos as a promotion strategy. Video promotion grabs the audience’s attention more than just a flyer. Seeing what the hype is about allows the audience to put themselves in the video, giving the audience the power to grasp the energy and emotion of the people in the video. When the audience relates it ends up becoming credible, which persuades the audience to come to their event. For example, have you ever felt prideful after watching a promotion video of your favorite sport team and saw them score multiple times? Well, this gives power to the promoter and the audience, which suggests video promotion has a push or pull method. The push or pull method is simple. It has the power to pull others to attend an event or push others away from the event. I created this method after noticing the differences between flyers and videos. This method is different from the other Push and Pull method that may be out there because I tested the outcome of flyers and video promotion for my fartintiry parties. The Push and Pull method works into this phenomena because of the amount of people would attend my parties. After year of throwing parties I notice flyers would bring less people and videos would flock in a heard. Flyers are a attention grabber, but it only grabs the audience attention for a short amount of time. It will be forgotten soon after, and eventually the lose the audience attention. The effects of video promotion last for a long period of time. Many can watch the video over and over again with the ease of access. This brings me into my next point, technology! Technology has changed the world and how things are promoted. For example, “Customers who are seeking information about products and services feel that video- and image-based content is more trustworthy.” This proves that videos are the new era and in this new era video promotion also holds that higher power over flyers. The more technology grows the more video promotion becomes a strong point in marketing especially for sports. Giving people the power to feel the video mentally and physically gives the event a strong pull which allows for more people to want to attend the advertised sporting events. Many people spend a majority of their time on their mobile devices strolling through apps such as, Facebook, Instagram or other social media sources. This brings me to my next point, which is easy access. Videos are accessible by millions of people and are easy to obtain. Instead of trying to hand out flyers to everyone you see, you can push a promotion video and in a matter of seconds tons of people will have already viewed your advertisement; rather than the couple hundred people that the advertisement would reach via flyers. “About 81% of adults in the United States have smartphones, according to the report, which are used about one hour and 39 minutes daily on average to consume media.” People are exposed to many more videos because of the growth of technology. It makes video easily accessible. With that being said, flyers cannot give the same feeling of excitement as a video can. Flyers give picture and words that may or may not relate to the reader but with a video it is all about the ability to tell a story, which has the capability to emotionally pull people in. Allowing people to visualize a dream, something they can look forward to. This can influence their actions and in a blink of an eye some may even plan to watch the sport that was being promoted. Video promotion is a better route to take when promoting for sports because of the reliability, technology, and easy access. This allows the push and pull method to be beneficial to pulling the audience in with visuals. Linking the emotional side of people with the visual aspect of promotion makes connecting them to the event more effectively. Jon RiveraTechnology has made a huge impact towards consumers and the world we live in today. There are various things technology has assisted with, such as gaining knowledge, developing certain abilities or even helping numerous employees with their jobs. As we move deeper into the future, education has started to implement technology into it’s system. It’s purpose is to broaden the mind of students and give teachers the ability to give feedback more efficiently. Sure, there are definitely more purposes for technology being in existence in the field of education. But, sometimes technology can give us some grievance. There are a lot of advantages however, there will always be that one question that always lingers. Is there a line to draw where technology has too many disadvantages to it? Technology causes distractions and allows students to pay attention to things that aren’t even relevant to their school work. This doesn’t necessarily have to do with just cell phones, but even laptops fall as victims here too. Teachers and professors do have those days where they want to prep the class by using a study guided type of website. There are those websites such as Kahoot!, where students have a certain amount of time to guess an answer from their laptops or cell phones and the score isn’t taken into consideration for their grade because it is used as a study guide for that class period. However, the class has to wait until every single student has answered the question or until the time limit runs out. That causes some “dead time” and give students the opportunity to look something up that has nothing to do with their class at all. Distractions come into place and then the student isn’t focused enough to pay attention to if their answer was right or if the teacher had any additional notes on that specific topic. From a University of California Irvine study, It does take an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to focus on your task after you pay attention to any sort of technology. Sometimes, technology isn’t always at it’s best. Technical difficulties do unfortunately happen and it causes a stir for students and teachers. What is there to do when you have a paper due at midnight, it’s 11:49 p.m., and your computer just froze or restarted? Then your in a bit of trouble and that can affect your grade, depending if the teacher or professor believes in you or not. We can even look at it from a teacher’s perspective. If something goes wrong with anything that is included in their class time or the website that they do their grading on crashes, the teacher must have full knowledge (or even instincts for this matter) to know what to do next. It’s all in their hands and technology just threw them in a scramble. Technology isn’t always perfect but it does have it’s consequences when it doesn’t work. Technology has potential to eliminate communication not only from an individual standpoint but in a classroom. Communication plays a huge role in everybody’s lives and is really emphasized in education. We live in a society where we base a lot of our resources or connections with other people using technology. Education wants us to learn the basics of English. However, there isn’t any opening or willingness to enhance our knowledge on grammar, vocabulary, or spelling because of what technology can do to us. We are all aware of spell checking and it does it’s job so that we don’t miscommunicate with anybody. However, if you happen to own a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram there are plenty of people out there who use the wrong words that doesn’t have any meaning in their post. Sometimes, you’ll experience someone using the wrong tense at the wrong time. Because of that, people could possibly have a misinterpretation of that specific person. Everybody goes through a ton of english courses throughout their years as students. Technology can overturn all of that process. Cite: https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/01/20/research-college-students-more-distracted-than-ever.aspx https://lifehacker.com/how-long-it-takes-to-get-back-on-track-after-a-distract-1720708353 http://lakelandcom.weebly.com/new-and-social-media-posts/education-taking-on-new-media Joshuan McNealPhysical activity is now being tracked by Fitbits and I-watches, each device can be used in a negative or positive way, but how a person uses the device dictates the device purpose. The effects new media has on Fitbits and I-watches produce negative and positive emotions. I do not own neither device, I do have friends that does. I am convinced that each device can be useful for an individual, or miserable. If an individual does not use each device properly, the device will become a wasted investment. Fitbits and I-watches both should help people exercise, eat, and sleep better to become a healthier human. To track a person's heart rate, calories burned, and steps taken was uncommon for a watch to function, because of new media data can be surged through a watch to help benefit individual’s physical activity. Fitbits have new features that are beneficial to physical fitness, which can be used to perfection for physical gains if a person avoid distractions. The “distractions” that I am specifying are conspicuous. Commercials persuade people to buy a specific product based off their motive/purpose. The purpose for the Fitbit and I-watch is to help develop a healthier human lifestyle. People get distracted by commercials because they are drawn into believing if the device is purchased he/she will become fit. This notion is supported by people seeing other individuals with Fitbits or I-watches get in shape, because an individual purchase one of these devices that doesn't guarantee that outcome. The features that Fitbit has that’s beneficial to physical fitness are Fitbit App, Fitbit Scale, and Wireless headphones. Consumers of Fitbit Company can take a survey online for the right tracker. The “tracker” is the Fitbit watch itself, which tracks a person's physical activity. Consumers can take a survey online that helps appoint the best Fitbit for he/she needs. People can also create workout times weekly on their watch, but also use GPS. Fitbit local uses GPS and connect consumers with groups that do workouts. I-watches allow consumers to share numbers by bumping watches, different watch bands are available for consumers, individuals can answer phone calls from surfboards, swimming under water is available for I -watch users, and the I-watch reminds people to work out or wake up. The Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Scale is Wi-Fi smart. The new scale records body fat and weight than applies/compare that data to a person's individual goals. The scale automatically sends the data to the web and cell phone device. This allows consumers to share their results on social media, such as Twitter and Facebook. The scale gives people badges based on their productivity, and provide productivity charts and graphs for individuals. Giving individuals badges based on their productivity is what beneficial about new media, consumers are motivated by devices because of their own physical fitness. Instead of people trying to find ways to motivate themselves through workouts, now devices help motivate individuals. It is harder to motivate yourself, which is a skill that develop overtime. The new scale is less time consuming as well because it calculates a person’s weight even if they leave their shoes own; old weight scales could not achieve such things. The I-watch in terms of the swimming perspective helps individuals be productive through different swimming workouts. Because of new media the I-watch can be useful to not only a demographic of runners, but swimmers. I-watches in the past could not be used underwater, but now it can be. Workouts on the I-watch calculate how many yards an individual have swim, and calories burned. The amount of laps an individual want to pursue can be set on the watch, also the amount of time can be set as well. The old I-watch forced consumers to always have their phone nearby, that was the only way the watch could use data. If the phone wasn't nearby the I-watch would not receive text messages or calls. The new I-watch do not need the phone nearby. The I-watch functions like a phone without the phone being close. This allow individuals to leave their phone at home and use their I-watch instead. Being allowed to leave your phone home prevent robbers from snatching phones and running. Recent issues of I-phones have been phones purchased by consumers being snatch, but now that can be prevented because of the I-watch. Fitbits and I-watches cannot guarantee perfect physical fitness, but each device provides the resources for physical activity. Taking advantage of each device can have a positive impact on a person. If he/she uses each device purposeful and live healthy that can encourage a human-being. Seeing the results of a healthier body, or even being more productive at work can drive a person to use a device more. Purchasing either of these devices can be motivating, because having one of these devices creates commonalities between people. Now workplaces are implementing contests between employees that are decided on who has the most steps. These types of contests make individuals want to purchase a Fitbit or I-watch, but also stay fit. Sources: http://www.mtv.com/news/2367706/things-you-can-do-with-a-fitbit/ https://www.tomsguide.com/us/apple-watch-guide,review-2817-2.html https://www.wired.com/2012/07/fitbit-aria-scale/ https://www.fitbit.com/aria2 https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-watch/apple-watch Mason RossSocial media, social media, and more social media! The way people communicate throughout the day is through social media. How you see what is going on in the world is found out through social media. How you experience events. And, even corporations are constantly using social media to communicate with their customers, stakeholders and employees. However, companies are using new media through social media. I am going to explain how companies are using new media to reach out to their customers through YouTube. A lot of people would consider the term “new media” to be social media, but there is a difference between the two. New media and social media are two different ways to communicate. New media is when you are posting content for a purpose. Social media is when you are commenting on posts, and posting for yourself or randomly. The main difference between the mediums is what is your purpose for sharing it and what are you posting? If you are posting selfies on Instagram, then you are using social media, but if you are posting a newsletter on Facebook so your community of consumers can read it and get some information, you are using new media. Companies are using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and many more social media sites as new media. Why are companies using social media to get through to their customers? Because their customers are always on them. The average user logs onto a social media platform for nearly 1.7 hours every day or 12 hours a week. YouTube is ranked second out of all social mediums in the amount of users. They offer a way of new media that other platforms are not known for. Companies often use YouTube for creating vlogs. A vlog is a blog, but in video form. Which makes it more personal and relatable to people. Companies use this new media for numerous reasons. It becomes more personable than just a blog. It allows the company to get a face out there and talk to their customers, rather than just having them read a blog. The more human and relatable your company is, the more trustworthy the company appears to their customers. Once you have a customer’s trust, they are more likely to do business with you as an individual, not just from a website. How else is the new media of vlogs helpful for companies? It also makes it easier and quicker for the customer to watch a vlog and gather information about the company. Vlogging is new media that is being exposed through YouTube and it is the future. Studies have found that by 2020, 82% of all consumer web traffic will be video. By starting now, it gives your company the edge because you will have the experience of posting vlogs. Vlogging also helps your company more than blogs because only 20% of text on a website is read by the users. So, not only will vlogging create a more personal relationship with a company and their customers, but the customers are going to get more out of vlogs and learn more from them, rather than blogs. Now, when you are creating a vlog, what should the content be? The first vlog your company posts should be one introducing the company and what your brand stands for. This allows for the customers to look at you more than just someone who is going to be selling them a product. It allows them get to know the purpose of the company and what makes you trustworthy. Another great way to gain the trust from your customers through vlogs are customer testimonial vlogs. Customer testimonials vlogs are when previous customers share their positive experience with the company through a video. Again, a vlog is a great way to get personal with your customers and target audience, so do not be afraid to get personal with them. You want them to trust you. There are also knowledge vlogs, which, quite frankly, are the closest thing to a normal blog. This is just informing the customers about anything about the company, just like a blog does. There are many other creative and effective ways to make successful vlog, but the main focus for every vlog is to try and be a person talking to the customer, instead of a company trying to sell to the customer. Using new media through social media is a great way for companies to interact with their customers. YouTube has been around since 2005 and it is still the second most popular new medium. Companies are allowed to interact face-to-face, through a screen, with vlogging. Like blogging, it is very information to its customers. Unlike blogging, and why it is very successful, is that companies are allowed to create a face for their customers, which makes the company a lot more relatable and trustworthy. Blogging is still a great way to get out information and it is new media, but vlogs are the future of interacting with customers, and they are highly recommended for companies. Zachery MockCellphones absorb children and young adult’s lives through the use of social media, apps, and games. But, is this something to be oppressed by the education system, or taken advantage of? As technology advances, many education facilities invest more time and money on enhancements such as smartboards over chalkboards, Chromebooks instead of notebooks, and reviewing for tests using Kahoot! instead of paging through textbooks. This blog is designated to discussing some of the many actions K-12 and higher education institutions are taking in order to improve focus and enjoyment from students in the classroom while teachers are still able to teach the required material necessary to boost students’ knowledge. This is not an action taken by all schools, though, which is another segment we will feature periodically throughout this blog called “Around the World.” These segments will feature different cities or school districts and how they specifically take part on the journey toward a more technological society. As people will notice, some schools are very willing to create a more futuristic learning environment for their students. Others do not wish to introduce these large leaps of technology into the classroom as they feel it can be distracting, unnecessary, or just too costly. Every school feels differently about the situation similar to how every student thinks and feels differently, too. Technology in the classroom is a topic consisting of many different components. To start, there are some advantages and disadvantages with enhancing the classroom experience. For me, interacting with a history article about WWII on a Smartboard in front of the class is more interesting than taking notes about the same article in my notebook at my desk. At the same time, technology can be confusing for me, such as learning how to sign into the Kahoot! account in an English class to learn about William Shakespeare in a more interactive way. As stated previously, this is a subject that everyone has different opinions on. This same learning concept applies to not just the students, but the teachers, as well. If something goes wrong with the Smartboard, it is the teacher’s duty to use their knowledge to fix the problem in order to keep the class running smoothly. Technical difficulties can drive any teacher crazy, especially since one simple element within a complex contraption can cause the whole thing to go haywire! The use of this new technology does not just ride in the hands of professors and teachers to teach it correctly, but it also rides in the hands of students to comprehend the material with these new pieces of educational technology. Some very common statements heard all around the world consist of “Kids are always sitting on their phones” and “The only ones who know how to use all these fancy TVs and computers are millennials.” I am here to tell all you readers that this is not true by any means. Just like adults, children, teens, and young adults also have trouble with functioning in an environment that is consumed by the use of updated smartphones, Smartboards, and high-end laptops. In many education institutions students are given Chromebook laptops and are almost expected to know how to properly use them. Most students do participate in a course on how to use these Chromebooks; however, if they have an issue with the laptops as time goes on, it could drastically affect the progress they make in their classes since teachers will depend on the students’ laptops properly functioning. For other students, the overuse of technology can cause a brain overload due to the inability to focus on what is being taught during class. For some students, when presented with a laptop that has the capability to search anything in the world in less than a second, it is an excessive amount of power to hand over. As we progress throughout this blog, we will discuss the different perspectives of the advancements of technology within the classroom. Readers will discover that to some, this advancement is a blessing, while to others, it is the sketchiest idea since the creation of the Apple I (which was a bust by Apple until their release of the Apple II, but that’s a different story we can all look up at the end of this blog post). Technology is something that will continue to move forward in society as long as people update their arsenal by buying the new and ditching the old. The Samsung S7 was a thing of the future until the S8 took over one year later. The IPad Air was so cool, but then came the IPad Pro. The question still remains: “Should classrooms update their teaching technology from chalk and whiteboards to laptops and Smartboards?” This blog will show exactly why this question is a yes for some and a no for others. Kyle DomarkWhat is the role of new media in corporate communication? I have been struggling with the concept and how it differs from social media being used, but I think after doing some research I have figured it out. Taking this concept of new media and putting it in correlation with corporate communication has not been easy, but has opened my eyes to what has already happened and what is to come. To be more specific, I am going to focus this post on the role of new media in corporate communication. The way that new media has increased communication throughout the world is illustrated for us in this article about new media and corporate communication. Being able to communicate with customers, stock holders, buyers’, investors, etc. is probably the most advanced feature that new media offers. Big businesses take advantage of this opportunity and conduct meetings with partners from around the world without anybody leaving their office. If big corporations decide to create a website (which is a great idea and most do), then this new media gives the holder of the website the ability to immediately interact with whomever inquired about something. What I find interesting is the role that new media plays in crisis management. For example (New Media, Corporate Communication): “If a blog is speaking negatively about an organization or spreading false information, crisis communication can respond by posting counter remarks or linking to other blogs and online content that sets the record straight.” While interesting, I want to focus on corporate communication and the role new media plays within. The way that new media fits into corporate communication is the work that the corporate communication managers do with writing and distributing press releases and responding to any media inquiries. These corporate communicators are also given the task to monitor any media in which they are involved in (i.e. newspapers, television news, etc.) and check on what is being said about the company and then figure out ways to address wrong information, if any. Like the example I shared above: crisis communication is helped so much by new media. In crisis situations, the corporate communicators work with CEO’s and senior leaders as advisors to manage the crisis. Hopefully, this happens before anything catastrophic happens, and so that they have a plan if it does. They should have plans on what to say to the media and how they will say it. The corporate communication model has changed in recent years. It used to be a business-to-consumer model, but now it has turned into a consumer-to-consumer model. With the consumer-to-consumer model, communication is easier to interact with. Academics that study new media explain that there are two main challenges: 1.) communication that uses new media usually has many different disciplinary skill sets. “For instance, corporate communication departments usually handle all facets of a communication campaign, which use traditional media. New media campaigns, however, frequently require the amalgamation of different disciplines (for example, creative producers, software designers, technical systems engineers)” (Hearn and Foth). 2.) And perhaps more importantly new media changes constantly. The business message and content will continue to change with the different platforms that appear and gain popularity and with any changes that the business makes within itself. The last topic that I want to discuss deals with new media models and how they help in corporate communication. These models are the stepping stones for corporate communication to figure out what they need to do to get their product/service out to consumers. As I stated in the previous paragraph, one of the big challenges is to keep up with the new media. The first model that I want to point out is the media model. This model says that there are three components to media: a common logical space for coding and interpreting the exchanged information objects, communication channels connecting the different agents over space and time, and organizational structures and processes which describe the relationships of agents in a community. There are some terms in there that I did not know of at first, but had an idea about. These were agents and communities. Agents can be organizations, humans, or machines and communities are ensembles of communicating agents in media that share a common language. The other model that I want to point out is the media reference model. This model shows the different dimensions of interaction between agents. These dimensions are as follows: community view, implementation view, transaction view, infrastructure view. To describe this model in a larger view, we could say that the model describes how media can be developed. These models are essential for corporate communication because they are what will help the business get closer to their consumers with the new media that is ever-changing (University of St. Gallen). Links: https://www.google.com/url? a=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiW34vC7KzWAhVR-lQKHZORCowQjB0IBg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.draperinc.com%2F2012%2F11%2Fscreen-real-estate-in-video-conferencing%2F&psig=AFQjCNHgRGKLS4G5gkzYClfAIEWxSyeVUA&ust=1505759259197995 https://www.slideshare.net/shalinipandey77985/role-of-new-media-in-corporate-communication http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.202.7005&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://eprints.qut.edu.au/15340/1/15340a.pdf Aaron BarthAre you starting a business and need a certified lawyer to write out your terms of service? Or, do you need a cool new company logo? Maybe you are looking for someone to play online games with you and help you win more. These services might seem unrelated, but they can all be found on the website fiverr.com. Fiverr, describing itself as “Freelance services for the lean entrepreneur”, is a website that allows users to hire others to do any online task they need through a digital marketplace. What is Fiverr? Founded in 2010 by Shai Wininger and Micha Kaufman, Fiverr aimed to provide an online marketplace for people to buy and sell digital services through freelancing. Fiverr starts its services as $5, thus the name Fiverr. Since then, Fiverr has gained a huge userbase and has completed an impressive 30 million jobs through the site. The massive popularity of Fiverr comes from its two-sided business. People who want to make some extra money on the side while working from home can easily find people who are willing to pay for their services. And people looking for cheap online freelancing can browse through hundreds of users willing to perform the task they need. Each time a transaction is done, Fiverr takes out a fee of 20%. This means Fiverr has plenty of money to advertise and make their website run smoothly. Fiverr is rapidly becoming the most common way for freelancers to make their money. How Fiverr is Changing Freelancing Fiverr is now the go to way for people who are looking for freelancing work. Many people love the ease of access and convenience Fiverr offers. People who want some extra income can work from home with little problems, and jobs are always available. As the demand for freelance work continues to grow, Fiverr makes it easier for its thousands of freelancers to find work. Fiverr takes care of everything, from advertising to payment once the job is done. Freelancers have a safe and easy way to continue their work without worrying about getting paid on time or losing their clients. One woman, Charmaine Pocek, made an impressive $1 Million just by using Fiverr to create resumes for people. However, it is not all positive for the freelancing community. Many people have criticized Fiverr for cheapening the freelance market and flooding it with competition that is willing to work for less. Fiverr starts most services at $5, and takes away $1. Considering a task like creating a company logo would easily take a half hour, this means freelancers are only getting paid about $8 per hour for their work. With the high amounts of competition, many freelancers have no choice but to work for little money. And the quality of work often suffers as a result. With the need to do so many jobs a day to remain profitable, many people provide services as quickly as possible. And Fiverr seems to embrace and even market the lifestyle of working as hard as possible for low wages to stay competitive. Fiverr labels hard working freelancers “Doers”, and it makes sure to romanticize a lifestyle of constantly working for the clients. A campaign in 2015 received criticism when it posted a picture of a woman with a caption stating how she misses sleep and skips lunch to provide freelance services for Fiverr. This clearly is not a healthy lifestyle to be living, and it seems unfair for Fiverr to expect this out of its freelancers. While Fiverr may be good for many people looking for side income, it certainly has its downsides Friends for Hire Fiverr was primarily started to get business related freelance services, but it has evolved over the years to become something much more diverse. You can find nearly anything you want, and many of the services provided are very strange and unique. Under the fun and lifestyle section, Fiverr has many services that people can get that would be nearly impossible to find elsewhere. A very interesting part of this section is found in gaming, where you can pay others to play online games with you. While many of the people advertise as skilled players who will help you level up or increase your competitive ranking, others make it clear they simply going to play with the buyer for fun and provide a friend for a limited time. With a camera and microphone, people can get a social experience for a fee. The sad truth is there are millions of lonely people out there who may not have any real-life friends they can spend time with. Since people are naturally social, it makes sense that others would pay for this socialization, even if it temporary. This interesting social media like service is shockingly popular. One person, who offers to play the online game Overwatch with buyers, has many positive reviews and several dedicated fans who are repeat customers. While many may assume that the sellers are purely in it for money, often they enjoy what they do. One seller says, "I'm just a really friendly person and I like playing Overwatch with people who don't have that many friends." While the idea of paying for a friend seems odd, it is clear this is a service many people are looking for. The Future of Fiverr With how popular Fiverr is, the company is only going to grow more and more over time. From the convenience of buying a cheap service for your company to the interesting market of paying for friends, Fiverr clearly has a successful business model. Because Fiverr lets people do any work they can think of, who knows what services will be created in the future? The Freelancing market is certainly changed forever, for better or worse. Cited https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/04/25/how-to-make-1-million-on-fiverr-secrets-from-the-sites-top-earner/#7b45c4e631f8 https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/05/i-paid-women-to-play-overwatch-with-me-and-it-was-fantastic/ |
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