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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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- Keyword
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- Literacy (3)
- Computers (2)
- Folksongs (2)
- Leisure (2)
- Parks (2)
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- Rural India (2)
- Social network sites (2)
- Technology (2)
- Web 2.0 (2)
- Art (1)
- Busyness (1)
- Children's narratives; globalization; international development; rural India technology (1)
- Community participation (1)
- Cybercafés (1)
- Cyberspace (1)
- Digital cultures (1)
- Digital games (1)
- Education (1)
- Edutainment (1)
- Edutainment; media literacy; karaoke; folksongs; same language subtitling; empowerment; digital content; India (1)
- Engagement (1)
- Expert and amateur (1)
- Gender (1)
- Globalization; leisure; metaphor (1)
- Inclusive community (1)
- India (1)
- Information (1)
- Information and communication technology (1)
- Information infrastructures (1)
- Instructional design (1)
Articles 1 - 20 of 20
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Web 2.0 Spaces For Activism: Critiquing Its Novelty Through A Historical Lens Of Public Political Space, Payal Arora
Web 2.0 Spaces For Activism: Critiquing Its Novelty Through A Historical Lens Of Public Political Space, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
This paper draws parallels between the use of public leisure spaces in the city such as parks and squares, and the use of certain forms of digital networks. Similarities between these two sorts of social contexts are worth considering, particularly their political dimension. This effortsituates the current conversation about social media as sites of political mobilization into dialogue with the historical analysis of public parks as spaces that, in a similar fashion, were designed for leisure and consumption but was appropriated as sites of resistance. It brings together the literature on urban parks as centers of democracy and the literature …
Digital Leisure For Development: Rethinking New Media Practices From The Global South, Payal Arora, N. Rangaswamy
Digital Leisure For Development: Rethinking New Media Practices From The Global South, Payal Arora, N. Rangaswamy
Payal Arora
No abstract provided.
Global Cities: Global Parks: Conceptualizing The Globalizing Of Digital Leisure Networks, Payal Arora
Global Cities: Global Parks: Conceptualizing The Globalizing Of Digital Leisure Networks, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
No abstract provided.
Walled Gardens: Privacy Within Public Leisure Space Online And Offline, Payal Arora
Walled Gardens: Privacy Within Public Leisure Space Online And Offline, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
Social network sites are the new urban parks where people congregate, socialize and exercise leisure. Its web architectures however are being walled in, dictated by market systems and State ideologies. These cyber-enclosures are justified along the lines of privacy that garners protection, efficiency and functionality. There is significant concern for the potential irrevocable loss of the ‘public’ and ‘open’ character intended of internet infrastructures, fearing the fostering of social segregation, homogenization and corporatization of leisure and a loss of civic sense. This paper addresses these concerns by looking at contemporary material architectures that are shaping public social and leisure space, …
Typology Of Web 2.0 Spheres: Understanding The Cultural Dimensions Of Social Media Spaces, Payal Arora
Typology Of Web 2.0 Spheres: Understanding The Cultural Dimensions Of Social Media Spaces, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
It has taken the past decade to commonly acknowledge that online space is tethered to real place. From euphoric conceptualizations of social media spaces as a novel, unprecedented and revolutionary entity, the dust has settled, allowing for talk of boundaries and ties to real-world settings. Metaphors have been instrumental in this pursuit, shaping perceptions and affecting actions within this extended structural realm. Specifically, they have been harnessed to architect Web 2.0 spaces, be it chatrooms, electronic frontiers, homepages, or information highways for policy and practice. While metaphors are pervasive in addressing and normalizing new media spaces, there is less effort …
Rural Poverty = Information Poverty? Computers As New Knowledge Brokers In Rural India, Payal Arora
Rural Poverty = Information Poverty? Computers As New Knowledge Brokers In Rural India, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
No abstract provided.
Museums 2.0: A Study Into Expertise And Culture Within The Museum Blogosphere, Payal Arora, Jessica Verboom
Museums 2.0: A Study Into Expertise And Culture Within The Museum Blogosphere, Payal Arora, Jessica Verboom
Payal Arora
While studies on popular culture have a more vast understanding of the impact of the participatory culture on experts and expertise, there is a dearth of literature on the impact of Web 2.0 on museums, which are established authorities within the cultural field. We aim to answer the following research question here: who are the experts and what is the nature of their expertise in the museum blogosphere? In addition, we look at the spatial culture on these museum blogs and its role in shaping expertise. We address this question by conducting a content analysis on a sample of the …
Arm Chair Activism: Serious Games Usage By Ingos For Educational Change, Payal Arora, Sorina Itu
Arm Chair Activism: Serious Games Usage By Ingos For Educational Change, Payal Arora, Sorina Itu
Payal Arora
The battle between educators and entertainers continue when it comes to gaming. While this is so, the edutainment battleground has expanded to include actors outside formal schooling agencies, namely International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs). These actors employ digital games with the aim to educate and activate towards specific social causes. These serious games are viewed to have tremendous potential for behavioral change through their interactive and persuasive aspects. This paper examines serious games deployed by certain prominent INGOs and analyzes the educative aspects of such new media platforms. What is revealed at the design, audience, and content level compel us to …
The Folksong Jukebox: Singing Along For Social Change In Rural India, Payal Arora
The Folksong Jukebox: Singing Along For Social Change In Rural India, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
In designing digital literacy content for marginalized demographics, we need to garner local resources to structure engaging and meaningful media experiences. This paper examines the socio-cognitive implications of a novel edutainment product in rural India on learning, stemming from an e-development initiative funded by Hewlett-Packard. This product encapsulates a multiplicity of media forms: text, audio and visual, with social-awareness folk themes endemic to the locality. It uses the karaoke ‘same language subtitling’ feature that won the World Bank Development Marketplace Award in 2002 due to its simple yet innovative application that has proven to have an impact on reading skills. …
Busyness In Cybercafes: An Indian Context, Payal Arora
Busyness In Cybercafes: An Indian Context, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
No abstract provided.
The Rise Of The New Experts: Decision-Making In The Art World In The Digital Age, Payal Arora, Filip Vermeylen
The Rise Of The New Experts: Decision-Making In The Art World In The Digital Age, Payal Arora, Filip Vermeylen
Payal Arora
In this digital age, declarations surface on the death of the expert. Crowd wisdom is instead seen as the new guide to constructing and evaluating knowledge. In the context of the art world, this tension between the amateurs and the experts becomes particularly pronounced as popular meets high culture. Questions arise such as what is the role of the amateur in the evaluation of art in current times? Does social media level the playing field here and can we assume that equity in participation results in better judgments? Does online participation on art valuation impact its actual market pricing? Who …
Online Social Sites As Virtual Parks: An Investigation Into Leisure Online And Offline, Payal Arora
Online Social Sites As Virtual Parks: An Investigation Into Leisure Online And Offline, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
Currently, there is much excitement about Web 2.0 as a novel platform for experiencing, producing, and consuming leisure, particularly through social network sites. Conversely, there are skeptics who sound the alarm on these spaces, viewing them as diluting of human relations. The perspective that guides this article is invested in neither a utopian nor a dystopian posture, but sees historical continuity, pointing out that performing leisure is a basic human impulse that has found expression over the centuries. With regard to the online sites used for leisure, it makes the case that the history of the development of the public …
Hope-In-The-Wall? A Promise Of Free Learning, Payal Arora
Hope-In-The-Wall? A Promise Of Free Learning, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
Hole-in-the-Wall as a concept has attracted worldwide attention. It involves providing unconditional access to computer-equipped kiosks in playgrounds and out-of-school settings, children taking ownership of their learning and learning driven by the children's natural curiosity. It is posited that this approach, which is being used in India, Cambodia and several countries in Africa, can pave the way for a new education paradigm and be the key to providing literacy and basic education and bridging the digital divide in remote and disadvantaged regions. This paper seeks to establish why two such open access, self-directed and collaborative learning systems failed to take …
The Ramadan Controversy: Dilemmas In Negotiating Media Discourses Post Iranian Uprising, Payal Arora, Ashok Panikkar
The Ramadan Controversy: Dilemmas In Negotiating Media Discourses Post Iranian Uprising, Payal Arora, Ashok Panikkar
Payal Arora
No abstract provided.
Copycats Of The Central Himalayas. Learning In The Age Of Information, Payal Arora
Copycats Of The Central Himalayas. Learning In The Age Of Information, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
This case study highlights practices of a rarely documented group of neo-users of the Internet or newbies from Central Himalayas, serving as a catalyst for delving deeply into the act of ‘plagiarism’ in online learning By looking at such ‘learning’ practices away from schools, namely at cybercafés in Almora, a ‘rur-town’ in the Himalayas, much is revealed of its educational system and learning in the broadest sense. There is an urgent need in educational environments to move beyond the punitive approach to ‘plagiarism’ through computer usage and instead pay attention to the actual learning and teaching that goes on through …
Evaluating Online Dialogue On 'Security', Payal Arora
Evaluating Online Dialogue On 'Security', Payal Arora
Payal Arora
This paper explores evaluation strategies to gauge the impact of a novel instructional design on international community participation online. This is done by conceptualizing and devising indicators for measuring “engagement” online amongst marginalized adult communities worldwide. In doing so, a review of online evaluation literature is conducted. In comparing dialogue sessions based on an ongoing traditional model to the new instructional approach, various challenges are faced in “measuring” asynchronous discussion. While the initial findings of marginal increase in engagement with the adapted instructional approach is not sufficient to prove that the new model works, this paper demonstrates various strategies/ challenges …
Instant Messaging Shiva, Flying Taxis, Bil Klinton And More: Children’S Narratives From Rural India, Payal Arora
Instant Messaging Shiva, Flying Taxis, Bil Klinton And More: Children’S Narratives From Rural India, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
In this article, story (re)productions by children in rural India are seen as a potential tool for addressing current `participatory' issues facing development practitioners. A project was implemented to involve children from a rural village in South India in e-literary storybook productions. The intention was to foster online representations of the rural voice through the lens of the child. Drawing on the material of children's stories, multiple subjectivities are revealed that compel us to reconsider relations of the 'rural' with technology and current social contexts. An analysis of these narratives highlights children's appropriation capabilities as they weave the 'urbanness' and …
E-Karaoke For Gender Empowerment, Payal Arora
E-Karaoke For Gender Empowerment, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
A folksongs karaoke product has been created to increase usage of subtitled media to enhance literacy and technology use, particularly among girls in rural India. This entails generating and proliferating popular local folksongs with social and cultural themes of interest to girls, accompanied by the award-winning Same Language Subtitling (SLS) feature. In this paper, the prime goal is to discuss possible implications of this novel technology content on girls’ socialization, education, and activism. Based on initial findings from a pilot test of this product in schools, private and public in rural India, I propose that this product has the potential …
Karaoke For Social And Cultural Change, Payal Arora
Karaoke For Social And Cultural Change, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
This account demonstrates the key challenges faced in producing engaging educational content for information and communication technologies (ICT) deployed in rural India. The ‘Stills in Sync’ (SIS) project aims to enhance literacy through the revival and proliferation of popular regional folksongs with social awareness themes in rural India. This product entails the use of the Same Language Subtitling (SLS) karaoke feature that won the Worldbank Development Marketplace award in 2002 and the ‘Tech Laureate’ honor from the Technology Museum of Innovation in 2003. This case study highlights the struggles faced in the production process as we sought to negotiate localism …
Profiting From Empowerment? Critique On Dissemination Avenues Of Educational Technology Content Within An Emerging Market, Payal Arora
Payal Arora
The Stills in Sync (SIS) project is a joint initiative of the non-profit organization PlanetRead and the global information and communication technology (ICT) company Hewlett Packard (HP). The SIS project entails creating a multi-media product designed to enhance literacy in rural India through the revival of regional folksongs on relevant social issues. This product utilizes the Same Language Subtitling (SLS) feature that won the World Bank Development Marketplace Award in 2002 and the Tech Laureate in education honor from the Technology Museum of Innovation (San Jose) in 2003. This paper explores the dissemination avenues of the SLS folksongs product and …