12 years ago
Representation: Young People and Free Expression with Google Apps
Monday, September 26, 2011
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| Image: Google Inc. (n.d.) via Google |
Through my research of the area of representation as it relates to the Internet, positives and negatives of the freedom of young people to access and contribute to online materials have both vied for attention. Closely linked to the idea of production, the ability of young people to create shared meanings on the Internet is determined by their ability to access tools of creation, collaboration and publication. For some, this may be hugely difficult due to a lack of access to physical hardware. For others, the difficulty may arise in terms of software and knowledge, or accessing communities of interest with language or perceived cultural boundaries.
The inception of Web 2.0, and the ability of people to become creators and distributors of information, has certainly changed the way we interact on a global scale (Hargadon, 2010). Many free tools have risen to assist this collaboration. In particular, the company Google has developed a range of free applications which specifically aim to ‘organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’ (Google Inc., n.d.).
Traditionally known as a search engine, Google has now exploded its range of services to incorporate desktop, mobile and online products. Not only does Google allow people to customise their online experience, seeking representations of material that appeals to their world view and desires, it also gives people the ability to delve into content creation on the scale of programming and code creation (“List of Google Products”, 2011).
Similarly, collaboration across cultural boundaries is catered for with users of Google Apps being able to create groups, share content such as videos and images, and collaborate on documents in real-time. Google’s other services, particularly applications such as ‘Google Translate’ scythe the barriers between different language-speakers on the web, allowing communication between collaborators and interest-driven groups with ease.
Young people today are able to have a voice in the way they, and topics close to them, are represented online. Through online tools which promote content creation, allow personalisation of media streams and foster international collaboration, media influence in terms of stereotyping and bias can be greatly reduced.
References:
Google Inc. (n.d.) Everything Google: corporate information. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/about/corporate/
Google Inc. (n.d.) Google Logo [Image]. Retrieved October 1, 2011 from http://www.google.com
Hargadon, S. (2010). Web 2.0: The essential ingredient in education. Educational Technology Solutions, 37. 46-56
List of Google Products. (2011). In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 25, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products
You make some great points about the diversity of Google Apps and how they enable young people to fully participate in a contemporary online society. The way you have highlighted the elements of the Circuit of Culture (du Gay, Hall, Janes, Mackay & Negus, 1997) with respect to the Google suite of applications immediately brought to mind the diagram of the Circuit of Culture, with the Google logo twinkling brightly in the centre of the graphic!!!
What also came to mind though, were the concepts of access and regulation with respect to education authorities. I am employed by a State education system, and as such filtering restrictions dictate that my students do not have access to any of the Google apps that are collaborative in nature, or involve authoring to the cloud.
Admittedly, we have our own secure online environment that enables our students to collaborate with one another and to author online, but their audience is limited to being within that closed secure environment. This limits possibilities of our youth communicating and collaborating with global partners and audiences.
This group assignment was the fist time I had used Google Docs, because prior to this all of my online collaboration with peers had also taken place within my employer’s secure environment. The point I guess I am trying to make is that until regulations and access restrictions are lifted locally (and globally if we consider government restrictions such as those in China), then we will not be able to fully consider the true power of online resources such as the Google suite of apps, nor the full impact they may have on the young people of today!
Reference:
Du Gay, P., Hall, S., Janes, L., Mackay, H. & Negus, K. (1997). Doing cultural studies: the story of the sony walkman. London: Sage/The Open University.