Checking the pulse

It's strange to start the semester in the middle of the week. But here we are, with a new batch of victims for Computer Literacy 1 and 2. We did our usual unscientific show-of-hands survey to find out how many students have access to the Internet at home (100%, wow), how many use Macs (very few, so sad), how many have mp3 players (lots, not surprising), how many know what RSS is (about 1, surprising), how many have downloaded podcasts (a good-sized handful, even though they don't know what RSS is), etc. One interesting find is that many seem to be abandoning personal blogging in favor of social networking sites like MySpace. When I asked why, one girl said "I found out that I just wasn't that interesting." I don't think that's true of her, but I can see that keeping up a blog is burdensome at times. Another student felt that social networking sites win out because they serve multiple functions -- photo displaying, messaging, blogging, etc. I think of them as yearbooks on steroids. Here's another good quote about MySpace: "It is pretty much like a xanga just with a touch of AIM in it."