Summary report

This is my first time writing a blog for academic purpose. At the beginning, I think that maintaining a blog for the course would be boring as people seldom use blog for academic purpose but to write about themselves. However, during the process of writing the blog post and commenting on the others’ blogs, I realized that it is a very interactive platform for us to share our insight towards different new literacy practices and discuss on the topics.

When writing a blog, we use not only text but also images, videos or hyperlinks to other internet sources etc. This affordance allows us to enjoy a new way of discussion. Online discussion within the blog is multimodal compared to traditional classroom discussion, we can make good use of visual elements, not only text, to create a interesting blog for academic topics.

On the other hand, the discussion is more flexible as it is not restricted to the three- hours lecture time. Actually, the three- hours lecture time is impossible for everyone to share their opinion about the different new literacy practices being taught in lectures. We can share different ideas outside the classroom and the message can reach everyone within the blog network.

It is interesting to know others’ real life experience from their blogs as we may not know everyone in the class very well. By reading their blogs, we know more about our classmates as well as how the others apply the theories in real life.

This blog allows me to have new experience on blogging and encourage me to start discussion with other classmates by reading their blogs.

I choose the post about online social network as the sample post. I am impressed by the concept about strong weak ties. When we use social networking site, the setting and the ideology are so transparent and natural that embody in the system. We don’t aware what kind of ties that we are making with others and just accept friend requests or refuse them. I am surprised when I realize that I am making good use of strong weak ties for my modeling. The concept influences me in a way that I even don’t aware. This post is based on my real life experience and the theories learnt in class are applied in my own modeling job hunting. This post allows me to share the integration of theories and real life experience with others. 

Link to the home page of my blog:

http://en2848apple.blogspot.com/

Link to the sample post:

http://en2848apple.blogspot.com/2011/03/social-networked-life.html

List of blogs that I have commented on:

Aimee:

http://en2848aimee.blogspot.com/2011/04/are-your-workplace-and-your-lifeword.html#comments

Claire:

http://en2848claire.blogspot.com/2011/04/normal-0-0-2-false-false-false-en-us-zh.html#comments

Eva Lau:

http://en2848eval.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-much-are-we-controlled-by.html#comments

Geran:

http://en2848geran.blogspot.com/2011/04/work-or-play.html#comments

http://en2848geran.blogspot.com/2011/03/does-technology-control-us.html#comments

http://en2848geran.blogspot.com/2011/03/social-networking.html#comments

http://en2848geran.blogspot.com/2011/02/does-textspeak-make-you-stupid.html#comments

Joanna:

http://en2848joanna.blogspot.com/2011/03/game-is-not-just-game.html#comments

Julia Li:

http://julia0406.blogspot.com/2011/03/session-8-games-learning-and-literacy.html#comments

Kay:

http://en2848kay.blogspot.com/2011/04/msn-with-person-sitting-next-to-me.html#comments

http://en2848kay.blogspot.com/2011/03/clever-to-be-lazy.html#comments

http://en2848kay.blogspot.com/2011/03/who-are-they.html#comments

Maggie:

http://en2848maggie.blogspot.com/2011/04/week-12-online-cultures-and.html#comments

http://en2848maggie.blogspot.com/2011/03/games.html#comments

Summer:

http://en2848summer.blogspot.com/2011/03/attention-economy.html#comments

Ursula:

http://en2848ursula.blogspot.com/2011/03/technology-as-employee-relationship.html#comments

http://en2848ursula.blogspot.com/2011/03/technology-addiction.html#comments

http://en2848ursula.blogspot.com/2011/03/facebook-privacy.html#comments

New workplace for us

As fresh graduates, we are entering the workforce in a few months. It’s the milestone of another stage as well as a big change and challenge in our life. Do you all prepare well for the new challenge?

Due to the economic change, the economies of the world are switching from agriculture to manufacturing and now to service. It is a knowledge-based information economy now and we face “new work order”.

Firstly, most of the new work is “knowledge work” and employees are no longer only requiring physical work. According to Gee, James and Colin, people need integrated knowledge which is made up of both highly technical components and components dealing with communication, motivation and social interaction. “Knowledge work” requires high order problem solving skill, excellent communication skill, critical thinking skill and flexibility etc. We face greater global competition for jobs as some people work overseas or the business is outsourced to other countries.

Secondly, workers will be distributed and work in virtual teams. Workers belonging to the same company are distributed all over the world, and work with people based in different locations. The idea that working with people that they may never meet or on other countries is called “virtual teams”. Business process outsourcing (BPO) is very common nowadays. Many services like call centers and back office are now outsourced to developing countries to lower the cost. Employees of these industries are distributed and work with co-workers in outsourced countries. The idea of collaboration is changing.

Thirdly, work will not just happen in the “workplace”. People no longer only work in traditional workplaces such like office. They can work at home, street or even everywhere. Work is no longer restricted to the places with the use of technology. We can work freely without the supervision of the supervisors and have less pressure.

Fourthly, workplace hierarchies will become flatter. In the past, the management structure is rigid. Subordinates are managed by management and bosses. But the hierarchy is flattening now and we can work together with leaders and partners. It is more self-managing and independent rather than formal management given by bosses. The power relation between employers and employees are changing. Employees are now having more power over their work. Industries such as insurance, finance and retail are examples of flatten management.

Finally, “nomadic” workers emerge. Workers are not aim at life long employment because many companies use contract and freelance employment. Employees can work for different companies at the same time and do not have to stay at one company for many years. Both employers and employees can benefit from this. For the employers, the companies can easily find out what kinds of employees are not suitable for them and hire someone else next time. For the employees, they are not required to stay at the same company for a long time and can try different types of work. However, the “nomadic” workers need to adapt quickly and reinvent themselves frequently to respond to changing conditions.

“New work order” have effects on power relations, collaboration, management structures of workplace. As a fresh graduate, how do you going to adapt these changes?