May 15

Assessment 5 – Persuasive Blog Post

For an online digital learner, it is ethically unacceptable to spread fake news.

From my academic learning experience, I believe that it is unacceptable for an online digital learner to spread fake news. Fake news can be a difficulty for even academics to spot, so some fake news can be hard to stop if the person sharing it is not aware that the information they are sharing is fake. Some fake news may even hold some truth to it but not tell the whole truth to bias the readers view towards a particular agenda. Even when trying to prevent the spread of fake news the reader can make it spread further just by interacting with the post.

Hard to spot fake news

How do you prevent the spread of fake news if you can’t even tell what is real or fake? As an academic learner I have been taught what to look out for when it comes to good sources of information, so what happens when even academic can’t tell the difference. An article in the TIMES magazine “how your brain tricks you into believing fake news” by Katy Steinmetz points out some ways into spotting fake news. The interesting thing with this article is that the site it is on does exactly what Steinmetz points out as being not a good source of information. One of the points Steinmetz makes is about sites with auto-playing flashy videos which is the first thing you see on the page. (Steinmetz, 2018) Does this mean that the article is fake news? To determine what is or isn’t fake news, a digital learner needs to investigate where the source of the information is coming from. In a study by Sam Wineburg and Sarah McGrew, they found that even academics can be misled into believing fake news, those who went and looked into the site where the fake news was published were nearly always able to determine fake from real. (Wineburg & McGrew, 2017) Preventing fake news from being spread starts with being able to determine what is fake, as a digital learner that is the hardest part.

Half-truths and full lies

Fake news doesn’t need to be complete lies just not 100% truth; the easiest lie to believe is one based on truth. Often fake news is spread to make readers believe a certain point or vote a certain way.

(the Facebook post has since been deleted)

A Facebook group Australian Youth Coal Coalition posted an image of a park covered in trash, they claimed that Hyde Park in Sydney had been trashed by climate protesters. While the protest and photo are real the whole truth hasn’t been told. The photo was taken of a London park months before the climate protest took place. Many commented that the protestors are a disgrace while few pointed out the falsehood of the image. The post was eventually taken down but goes to shows how easily people were swayed. For a digital learner, the above example should have been an easy one to see as false news. Coal verse climate, there have been many protests over this topic so seeing of coal Facebook page criticize climate protesters should have been easy to spot as a bias post.

Accidental spreading

How do you stop the spread of fake news without accidentally promoting it? Every like, dislike or comment spreads the news. The Facebook algorithm works to show you what those you are connected to like, comment and share. You could be accidentally helping the spread of fake news by commenting on a post that its fake or leaving a dislike. You could always report the post as a violation in the hopes that it will be taken down. Maybe with enough people commenting on the falsehood of the information, it could be enough to stop the spread however it is reliant on a human that may be bias themselves to remove the content.

Final thoughts

While I believe spreading fake is unethical it can be very hard not to. It can be so easy to fall into the trap of believing false information when it has been presented so well that it is made to look like fact. Hiding, bias, half-truths behind the illusion of truth makes determining real from fake a very hard task. Even attempting to stop the spread of fake news can lead to it being spread further.  As an online digital learner staying vigilant and reporting falsehood may be the best way to stop the spread of fake news.

Reference

Steinmetz, K. (2018, August 9). How your brain tricks you into believing fake news. Time https://time.com/5362183/the-real-fake-news-crisis/

Grant, J. W., & Lamberts, R. (2019, September 25). Merchants of misinformation are all over the internet. But the real problem lies with us. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/merchants-of-misinformation-are-all-over-the-internet-but-the-real-problem-lies-with-us-123177

Wineburg, S., & McGrew, S. (2017, October 6) Lateral reading: reading less and learning more when evaluating digital information. SSRN. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3048994

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May 1

Assessment item 4 – Original content: Video

A small video showing some of the struggles I face when I try to study at home.

There are some many distractions :'(

 

REFLECTION

Creating a video was really time-consuming, more so than the podcast. Coming up with an idea and creating the content wasn’t too difficult, but getting the angles and shots just right was frustrating. The whole video was shot using my Samsung Galaxy 10. Gathering all the little clips together and putting into sequence was tricky as I had to remember what scene started where. Creating my own Youtube channel was much easier than expected. The editing software I used was iMovie as I have a Macbook and it comes with the laptop. I learnt from the podcast that finding sounds and music is very time-consuming, so all the sound effects were made and recorded by me, it helped to save time plus it was very easy to do. The music came from Bensound and made it easy to work out what was Creative Commons for videos and what was free to download. The image I used for the thumbnail for the video was from Pixabay. Overall I enjoyed creating the video but I could use practice with holding a camera steady.

 

Credits

Video created and edited using iMovie

Video published on YouTube

Music from Bensound

Thumbnail for video from Pixabay

Narration and sound effects recorded using Android app Voice Recorder

Narration and sound effects created by me Kyrstie Clarke-Smith

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April 20

ITC174 Assessment 3 – Original content: Podcast

.Listen to “ITC Assessment 3” on Spreaker.

This assessment required me to record a podcast, mix it and embed it into this blog. I have learnt a lot along the way of the podcast creating process.

Firstly, coming up with the content for the podcast, to make sure I had a smooth flow to the podcast I wrote a script of what I wanted to say. I did not stick to the script word of word during the recording as I knew that I wouldn’t be able to smoothly read it back.

Secondly mixing the audio, I used Audacity and while the mixing of the audio itself wasn’t too much of a challenge, finding downloadable music was. I spent many hours looking for useable content, finally getting the music from Jamendo. Tweaking the audio with the layers of sound was a nice challenge, though I don’t believe I came close to using the Audacity to its full extent.

Thirdly being able to correctly embed the podcast. That require some googling to do correctly. In the end I found that creating a podcast to be a highly time-consuming task and a lot of searching is involved.

 

Image from Pixabay

Music sourced from Jamendo

On a Falling Petal by Mattia Vlad Morleo

The Epic Sport by Soundbay

Sound effects from Free Ringtones for Android phone app

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April 16

4.3 Podcast recording

Todays study lesson was audio, creating a minute long podcast and uploading it. Seemed simple enough sure or not.

Here are a few hard lessons I learnt on the journey of creating a podcast.

Firstly what to say. The task was fairly simple “Describe the tool you are using for the recording and why you chose it”. I prepared by writing some notes for myself and I played around with the app so I was familiar with the basic workings. I felt ready so hit record, this is where it got interesting, I no long knew what to say. My preplanned notes failed me and my brain turned to mush. Time to stop that recording take a minute, a few deep breaths and start again. Second time was a much better recording.

Secondly I had to mix the recording, try and be a little bit fancy by adding some music. I only had one choice of song as it came with the app and I don’t have anything saved to my phone so picking music was easy. The actual mixing of the audio was tricker, still not sure how trimming works or really how to layer sounds but I did manage some lovely background music.

Thirdly I needed to upload it and I went through 3 storage location til I found one that was free, the only thing I needed for the time being. I’m sure I only managed to upload the audio file out of sear dumb luck but hey whatever works right.

Lastly embedding the code into this blog post. I felt like quite the techie playing around with the coded material and using all those random numbers, symbols and letters. Yep real techno women right here folks. It took some googling to find out how to embed audio code into a blog and even then I failed 4 times before I got it right.

Finally it is done and as proof of my success you will find below my lovely ITC 4.3 podcast.

Enjoy.

Listen to “ITC174 4.3” on Spreaker.

 

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March 21

Connect

What?

 

 

My connect skills quiz results showed me that I am a bold beginner, I am just starting to build confidence and develop connections with others online who I share interest with. I tent to lurk in the background and not contribute much. I have never tried to reach out and connect with colleagues, with the exception of a few that I added onto Facebook. I have many friends I schooled with on Facebook and Instagram.

Even though I had these accounts and had friends and colleagues on them I always tended to sit back and observe rather then add comments, likes or even my own content. Most often I had accounts with my name on them that anyone who knew me could find but it was mostly empty. I had alias accounts too where I could be more myself with the groups, pages and people I followed or liked.

So What?

Connecting online is important as it allows for new opportunities. For small businesses like mine I don’t have a shop front and only sell online, so connecting with customers or potential customers is very important to for business sales. Personally, connecting online helps me improve my business with new ideas as well as being able to bounce ideas with others who share the same interest. If it wasn’t for online connects my business would not be what it is today. I have connected with other professionals that do similar things at I do, and we talk about the ins and outs of an idea and can it be possible to create.

What Now?

Until I started studying at Charles Sturt University I had never had a LinkedIn account. To me it was always something only real professionals used, and I did not think of myself as a professional. I realise now that if I had of had my LinkedIn account, I may have been able to find myself better job opportunities. I used to work in mining in a very specific field that I know has few people in it.  If I had of made those connections back then before I was made redundant, I may have found more work in my field again, instead I had to take work elsewhere and now a decade of skills is wasted.

I have changed what my future career will be, so I am going to start using LinkedIn to help me gain a foot in the door for getting a job in my future field of study.

I did not realise that blogs were useful, I have never invested much time into them as I do not read them myself and only thought hippie city goers or travellers would ever read them or write them. Having asked around to friends and family I have found out that I am the odd one out when it comes to reading blogs. I blame this on my very hermit like nature when it comes to interacting online. I plan to start to put myself out there a bit more when it comes to contributing online. My business page has a section for blogs on it. While there is only one on there at the moment, I am quite keen to try and add more to it. The anxiety I have about putting myself out there online is easier to manage when I am being the professional businesswomen.

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