New media presents today’s students with a hyper-reality where what they see and hear is not real, but instead is made up of out-of-context soundbites and videobites. They view “reality” themed television shows that demonstrate little about the actual world in which we live. Some education scholars are concerned about the demise of ethics instruction in school ; others about the lack of foundational knowledge students need in order to build higher-level thinking skills. I’m interested in how educators can make use of digital media, specifically the use of simulation, to provide a hyper-reality that teaches students quality-of-life concepts, such as empathy, social skills, and the understanding of a variety of world perspectives. I want students and teachers to use digital technology to – literally – expand themselves.
Below is a list of websites that address the concepts of simulation, hyper-reality, and electronic prosthesis:
http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/es/at/emassumi.html
http://www.jahsonic.com/JeanBaudrillard.html
http://www.ebooks.com/SearchApp/SearchResults.net?page=1&term=Author%3A%22Tiffin%2C+John%22
http://www.media-ecology.org/publications/MEA_proceedings/v1/hypermedia_and_synesthesia.html
http://sth.sagepub.com/content/24/1/31.abstract
http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/prosthetics.htm
I will provide annotations for each of these sites as I begin to narrow the focus of my dissertation research...
