Brandon Voelker
Team #5
Article 1: How to Burst the “Filter Bubble’’ that Protects Us from Opposing Views
Date: November 29, 2013

The article on how to burst our ‘’Filter Bubble’’ is actually a very interesting phenomenon due to the fact it is actually full of very good information that is supported with testimonials. In 2011 Eli Pariser found that the way two people googled the same term received different answers was because of what they had beliefs in. Research has showed Pariser that people are more likely to use information or read information that they agree with. The use of social media and how they can filter things has developed a problem due to the fact now people only view the content that they want to hear or say.
Eduardo Graells-Garrido, Mounia Lalmas, and Daniel Quercia at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona have used Yahoo to try to burst the filter bubble by trying to find things that people do agree on even if they do have opposing views on strong topics. By doing this they have gathered that people are shown many more ideas, people, and opinions than they would ever experience by keeping their filter bubbles. Why this is being so successful is due to the fact that people are still using their own interests to be exposed other opinions and interests. The case study that they found the most information and productivity was with the abortion case. They chose to do their study in Chile one of the most restrictive anti-abortion countries in the world. Researchers chose to take to twitter to find that 40,000 people had tweeted with hashtags using pro-life and pro-choice and of those people 3,000 of them were from Chile. The team then looked at users to see what else they had interests and views on using keywords in their tweets. It allowed them to see all the views and draw pictures on them. By doing this they showed that by tweeting about different views they can let other people see their abortion views differently. They may not change their views, but they were more open to read and understand the other side of the opinion. In essence the whole point was to prove that indirectly we can connect in different ways with people to see the sides of the opposing views that they have.
Brandon Voelker
Team #5
Article 2: Case Study: Nationwide Vision sees Results with Technology for New Hire Training
Date: October 25, 2013 A company out of Phoenix, Arizona called Nationwide Vision had a great deal of new hires. The way that they presented the new information to the new hirers was by sitting them all down and having a PowerPoint presentation projected on the wall, just like in most classrooms. However, the presenter one night woke up in the middle of the night and realized something. He realized that the way that the information was being presented was very boring and repetitive and the new employees were taking nothing away from it. He had an idea, an idea that made learning more entertaining, and an idea that gave his team of presenters a way to say everything they had to say and the employees get something out of it. Russ D’Amico figured out that by giving his new employees around that hire meeting an IPad with the slides from the PowerPoint on them and an app that allowed them to draw on them he could keep them a little more engaged. He found that they could then save their notes to look back on at times. He also gave the rest of his team an alternative where they could change the color of the filter for the slides. On the first day they found that after the presentation students were forty percent more efficient and engaged in the presentation. D’Amico said that before the switch he only saw a handful of people jotting notes down and now he sees close to everyone writing and drawing notes on their IPads, thus keeping them more engaged. As far as the future Russ thinks that he will be able to make a difference all over the world. Using the Skype app he can then connect with both the people far away by talking to them, but also by having them open up the slides and drawings he can create on the spot with his new technique. It makes things a lot easier to be able to show people right in front of them more than trying to explain the little details to them. He discusses that medically it is a huge difference being able to show kids the things super little right in from of them instead of having them try and understand from looking from the back of the room to the from.

Brandon Voelker
Team #5
My Response Taking a look at both articles which look at very different things, but what they do have in common is technology and how we can use technology successfully in the workplace. In many different ways we can see that the first article points out the obvious that social media has an impact on work environments, but I believe that they are showing it can be a good impact rather than a bad impact. Looking at the article as an outsider I took the perspective as the people who used the technology to do the research. What I saw was a group of people who took newer technology such as twitter and made it a research tool, but they also made it a way to reach out to so many new people and show them different sides. They never once stated their sides and stayed completely unbiased, which meant they needed to know both sides. Maybe social media is better for the workplace, depending on the kinds of work and what it is being used for. In article number two I saw the aspect that different things are out there and learning is constantly changing. Being a student I agree with his philosophy that learning and sitting gets boring. After all we all learn different ways and giving an option to write notes on the screen, in a notebook, or not take them at all can be very helpful. The small tools in the learning environment are the ones that make the biggest difference. With technology growing every day and the spread of globalization, we need to be able to contact people all the way across the world in an instant. By having tools such as this application we can use to show people across the world a PowerPoint, a drawing, and much more, we are giving ourselves opportunities to grow as human beings. In the end I believe that the growth of technology in the workplace is going to be a good thing. With everything we are always going to have our flaws but for the majority of the aspects I think social media and the spread of new technology will be a good thing to all of us. These articles have shown me that people are using social media for more than talking about their everyday lives or selling random things. They have also shown me that with things growing technology is only getting better. The spread of newer technology can only help our business and industry from the way I see it.