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Friday, September 9, 2011

The birth of a symbolic culture and education in online information

In "Theory of leisure in the Information Age" by Wes Cooper and "Reflections on the Study of Leisure, Parks and Recreation" by Daniel L. Dustin L. Thomas Goodale, the authors raise two important issues for the growth and impact of a growing culture symbolically constructed. This new culture has developed through information technology, and these changes in our culture have created a type of specialized training to more closely the careers that are increasingly being taughtelectronically. In turn, these changes in education have undermined the traditional community of scholars interested in the values ​​and serve the public good.

Cooper describes it, work and leisure time is increasingly taken the form of "symbolic manipulation" instead of manipulating the physical environment, so that more and more "us and our environment are increasingly symbolic constructions ". This symbolization of our society has increasingly affected both the work andfree time, so if you are working or involved in leisure activities, is increasingly not interact with the physical world with a virtual world created symbolically.

For example, instead of going bowling in a bowling center with a group of friends, you can participate in an online bowling game with a network of other bowlers online, you are communicating electronically. Instead of meeting friends to talk about an event in person or by telephone, pleaseexperience an event through the TV or online submission and then the text back and forth with others about it. Instead of going to the movies with friends and family, you can download a movie from Netflix or watch a video or a series of short video webisodes on YouTube or Hulu, and then share it with emails from other viewers. The rise of video games through the sides of the game as a social problem Farmville and Mafia Wars, where we provide virtual team and help advance agame is another example of this manipulation and symbolic constructions in everyday life.

Cooper Test is dedicated to think what to do with this transformation in a more symbolic. Their model suggests that Alpha in the future, these symbolic worlds become increasingly important, and we should be able to adapt to this growing list of symbolic to non-symbolic in our world, depending on whether you see this change as something Evaluation orwarning of a future that is more a symbolic construction. Or as Cooper puts it: ". Alpha ... a gesture toward the future possibilities, such as the growing importance of virtual spaces in our lives" (p. 469). In this view, Alpha, this growth in online social spaces are becoming a natural part of our lives, we assume, as we have assumed the development of a subjective consciousness as an essential part of our identity. As this examplethe increasing influence of virtual spaces will help create new forms of educational work and leisure, as reflected in the increasing number of online courses and study programs, telecommuting for work and leisure activities online.

As an alternative to this acquisition, Cooper virtual growth suggests it could be a beta test of the hypothesis and error, which represents a compromise between the approach of yielding to the inevitable purchase a virtual socialthe replacement of a worldwide reality on the ground and a Luddite, an effort to return to the "golden age of freedom of high technology." However, this approach of trial and error, a person can choose to search the best of both worlds by combining an interest in a symbolic form built with participation in the activities of real life. Likewise, organizations and institutions can choose work that approaches the best for them, such as the decision to combine real and virtual coursesthe.

Finally, Cooper suggests the hypothesis that symbolic utilities range suggests that the symbolic meanings that are useful for something that is symbolic (or SU) to be taken into account, along with the expected utility (EU) of something, and both can influence someone's decision making, contributing to the value of the decision (or DV), which consists of any utility. In other words, we do not just make decisions based on rational factors, as proposed by RationalChoice theory (RCT), which is the method used by economists to evaluate options for people to spend their money, but by other considerations. As Cooper says: "The decision value (DV) ... seeks a balance between maximizing performance and maximize profits and this has a positive meaning for an agent." The implications of this hypothesis to examine the influence of the most symbolic buildings and most important is to recognize the ways in which different people may assign differentis the choices you make, or participate in physical activities in virtual worlds.

I think this debate about the growing influence of virtual worlds and symbolic structures in our life today is very important, because this debate is a problem for assessing the health of our modern culture and recreation providers and recreation, which has become increasingly the domain of private companies as the financing of public sector organizations have free timereduced. While many people, including Cooper, seems to have a negative outlook to see high-tech companies and the acquisition was to blame for the separation between those who participate in virtual activities, like social games, I think a bad-direct approach . I've actually seen studies that suggest that the news are more active in online virtual worlds also have more social connections, and they socialize in the real world every day based on their experiencethe virtual world and use that to supplement their other physical activities in the real world.

Sure, there are some misfits who are in the anonymity of virtual worlds a way to have a social life that can not have in everyday life because they lack social skills. But for most people who participate in online activities is not an escape from everyday life, but a supplement or complement. One example is the popularity of social gaming for the popular group at the topschool and college. In addition, many employees and independent contractors, including myself, have always found that they are technologically advanced and have everything from seminars to be used for online conferences vital in today's economy. At the same time, employees and independent contractors, including myself, participate in a series of meetings in real time, as the clubs of reference, the Chamber of Commerce mixers and industry conferences. Not one or the othersituation, but the use of two worlds that need to be competitive today.

Although Goodale Dustin and do not use the terminology of symbolic constructions or refer to the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and assumptions in his article, explore how this affects the symbolization of a better life and better education, and particular, how it has affected the education of leisure and recreation professionals. The authors suggest that this change has undermined the traditional use of training to prepare studentsonly to enter a profession, but the humanist values ​​that leads them to want to help make a better world. Dustin and Cooper also expressed concern that the new technology that allows these virtual worlds has undermined traditional educational institutions that have provided a geographical place where students can meet and have a personal-social interaction with others. Instead, there has been a growth in courses and programs, allowing students to acquire the professionalcredentials for a field without having to interact with other students or teachers.

Dustin and Goodale As noted, the field of leisure studies first emerged at the University of Minnesota in 1937, where he was guided by an ethic of public service to provide leisure services "has contributed to a better quality of life of individuals in the community. "Then in 1960, which was characterized by the rise of national reconstruction and Park Association as an organization primarilycommunity of professionals and non professionals in the area for recreation, leisure studies have been devoted to preparing students to work as professionals. However, since 1970, public leisure who have lost funding, the private sector has become more important and more and more students were educated to serve private companies.

Consequently, attention to spend their free time as well as in other fields, has moved more to prepare students for jobs well paid incareer specialties, and this education has always been delivered through distance learning, making it more convenient for students to follow courses in your home or office at any time, it is more convenient for them. As Dustin and Goodale said: "The ultimate expression of this is distance learning, correspondence courses and degree programs in electronic format ... Since the printing technology has had an impact on learning and the dissemination of information. " This change hasalso meant that there was a decline in the face to face, and degrees and certificates have become like commodities, which are sold to make a more marketable for a career.

These are important changes, made possible by the growth of new technologies and new systems for distributing information, and have been transforming their education systems, as they have been transforming the interaction in everyday life. For example, computers, along with mobile phones, e-mailand online accounts have become a necessity in daily life and in education, whereas they were more like a luxury of a decade ago.

However, while Dustin and Goodale argue that these high-tech developments are detrimental to the educational experience, I believe that these developments open up enormous opportunities for people who once could not, they can now have access to education to its convenience. Of course, this system can be abused, as when someonetake someone else to take their courses, they write their articles, and after them online for them, without any way for the teacher to see exactly what's taking the class, because of the anonymity of the computer (unless that some system is designed to record, found on the computer writing a response paper or online). But overall I think the system offers great opportunities. For example, there are now large library of digitized materials online, and no longer need to spendtime to go to a physical location, which involves the fight against trafficking in the queue, or stack of research to get that information. In addition, the privatization of leisure time has opened up many new career opportunities in the private sector, for those who are able to respond to these opportunities and creating new careers for themselves as a researcher of pleasure or a consultant, advising people new leisure and entertainment venues. In fact, it has become a new world with all kindsnew possibilities for those who can respond and adapt.

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