Education

New Media has revolutionized the way we view education. As more and more of our daily lives have become contained online, so have many aspects of education and learning. Students are now able to receive a degree online from the comfort of their own homes. Teachers can post and grade assignments electronically and use programs to detect plagiarism as well. New media has even revolutionized the way students receive help in the form of tutoring. The online tutoring market is predicted to increase twofold in the next ten years, as it is solving many of the problems seen in face to face tutoring, including time, money, and anonymity.

The introduction of new media and new technologies has also created some problems in the classroom, as older teachers struggle to adapt their curriculum. Educators have to find a way to balance traditional learning techniques with skills that will be relevant in the real world. It has also become increasingly difficult for students to pay attention in the classroom and as education is becoming increasingly integrated with new media, it has become more and more difficult for students to separate their social life from their educational responsibilities.

At the same time, technology has the ability to revolutionize how users interact with the business environment. Namely, the creation of the mysterious currency known as Bitcoin has transformed the economics of virtual currency and has gained sizable traction over the years.

History
Over the years, more and more methods and approaches were developed to enhance the whole online learning experience, which resulted to a significant increase in students preferring to get their degrees online. The history of online learning goes even beyond the history of personal computers. The first distance learning course was established in Boston in 1728, with lessons sent by mail. In 1922, Penn State began offering courses by radio and by 1925 over 200 colleges and universities had been granted broadcasting licenses. By 1982, CALC (Computer Assisted Learning Center) established a learning center for adults. When the first personal computers became commercially available, in the early 1990s, course programs and degree programs were not yet easily available. In fact, it wasn't until 1994 that the first fully online curriculum was introduced by CALCampus. People were only beginning to understand the complex technology behind the PC and the internet was still in it's developing stages. Eventually, many educators and educational institutions started offering education programs online. Some of the earliest online courses offered were developed by the British Open University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the University of British Columbia.

Online learning is also referred to as computer-supported collaborative learning because online courses often involve some sort of collaborative effort where different instructional methods are developed to encourage students to work together. This has become more and more evident as virtual classrooms, online chat, discussion boards and even social media or social networking sites become a regular part of the learning curriculum. Today, online learning has become so popular because of its numerous benefits, especially the flexibility they offer to those who do not have the time to attend traditional classes. Other benefits include cost and accessibility, as all course materials are available online. Currently, 96% of traditional universities offer courses online.

Online Tutoring
Just decades ago, there was no such thing as a paid personal tutor. Those privileges were reserved for either the extremely wealthy or those with learning disabilities. Despite this fact, the U.S. always excelled above their global competitors academically. In the last few decades, however, America has begun to fall behind its academic competitors, who have better embraced the online tutoring industry. As a result, many parents see tutoring as absolutely necessary to their children's academic success. Because of this growing belief in the value of tutoring, the global tutoring market has soared, and over a span of several years, has become a $102 billion industry. Tutoring demand is predicted to grow even more, as parents and schools are beginning to fail at preparing students for for college and the workforce. According to Virtual Strategy Magazine, 60% of students going to community college must take least one elementary class. However, most students attendign said colleges cannot afford the cost of a private in-person tutor. Moreover, many parents of younger students, whose lives are filled with multiple extra-curricular activities, find in-person tutoring to be inconvenient, expensive, and limited in range of subjects compared to the wide range of tutors found online. Today's generation of students also prefer online tutoring because it provides the anonymity factor that prevents peers and teachers from knowing they need extra help.

Tutorspree
Tutorspree was a platform launched in 2011 to help parents find tutors and tutors find students. The site worked by collecting local tutors who have education credentials and putting them in a searchable database. For parents, the process would begin by finding the tutors closest to them by entering their zip code on the main page. They could then look though tutors based on price, distance, and subject area. Parents could then contact the tutor and even pay for the services using the Tutorspree platform. Afterwards, parents an even leave feedback so that tutors can learn from their previous experiences. Prospective tutors would apply to the site and screened for the appropriate credentials. If they qualified, tutors were able to set their own rates.

Despite high expectations, Tutorspree was forced to shutdown mid-2013. The reason for the shutdown remains unclear. Some sources report that it was a lack of funding. CEO Aaorn Harris, however, released the following statement on the Tutorspree blog: ''Ultimately, we learned about the challenges of willing a company into existence, of building an incredible and unique team to tackle constantly shifting challenges. And finally, we learned about how to make the toughest decision of all – to shut Tutorspree down, not because it was not a business, but because we could not make it the company we wanted. '' Ultimately, Tutorspree was not built to deal with the problems it would inevitably face in the online tutoring world. For one, in order for an online company to be successful, it has to be discovered by new customers every day. Tutorspree simply wasn't attracting enough traffic to their website. Another problem is "student poaching." Basically, like most tutoring platforms, Tutorspree relied on commissions paid by tutors for every session set up through the site. However, most tutors could easily make contact with their clients after just one session, which means the website would have virtually no repeat customers. Finally, more and more websites, such as Knearn, are offering live tutoring, which is much more convenient, timely, and cost efficient than in-person tutoring.

Knearn
Knearn is a start-up educational tech company that will be launching December of 2013. The website aims to be a student platform that will offer much desired services for high school and college students alike. This include mentoring and tutoring, while also providing a newsfeed that displays stories and interviews with students regarding college life. The mentor and tutor base that Knearn provides includes top-of-their class students in addition to mentors with notable internship and full time job offers that are in high demand in the college environment. Knearn platforms aims to overcome the anxiety that comes with approaching a professional or alumni on certain social networking sites by uniting their experts will the sole mission of helping students. Users can ask questions anonymously, further catering to more apprehensive users. Ultimately, Knearn hopes to put students on the path to the right college, career, and when tutoring launches, to the high grades that will get them there.

Khan Academy
The Khan Academy is an online education platform available to all users. The mission behind the Khan Academy is to give people a chance to experience education in a whole different perspective by offering free online education services. The site provides hundreds of lectures, video tutorials and personalized services that show how much a user has progressed. Lectures include courses such as economics, trigonometry, history to even computer science. The more personalized features of the site help demonstrate how one has developed since the start of using Khan Academy. There are also badges that users can earn every time they complete an educational game. From second graders to people with degrees, Khan Academy provides global educational content to a diverse group of individuals. Along with the free educational services there is also a blog where users can find out about new competitions, class lectures and new supporters.

Ivy Leagues
When you think of the ivy league, the first thing that comes to mind is the expense and exclusivity of attending such a university. However, more and more professors are putting their lectures online for free. In 2011, Stanford computer science professor Andrew Ng put his class online, attracting over 100,000 students. To reach that many students in traditional settings he would have to teach his usual class for 250 years. In addition to lecture videos, this class included quizzes, questions and answers, a grade and a certificate of completion. In an interview with NPR, Ng discussed the reasons behind his decision to take his classes online. ''You know, when you talk to top universities, ultimately, I think the mission of top universities is to educate people and, frankly, not to make money. And I think when you talk to a professor of a top university and offer them the technology to teach tens or hundreds of thousands of students, the answer is almost always an enthusiastic yes. Most professors are passionate about what they do and found that - and took on these jobs to advance the state of the arts and really not to make money. '' Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, UPenn, and Yale all offer free online courses. Brown offers a number of online programs, including pre-college programs designed for college-bound high school students. The university's "So you wanna be a doctor" program teaches medical science and allows students to evaluate virtual patients. It also discusses the medical school admissions process. Brown also offers degree programs that take anywhere from 15 months to 4 years to complete. Cornell, meanwhile, offers professional development certificates and individual classes through their eCornell learning program. The certificates focus on the following areas: human resources, hospitality and food management, leadership, project leadership, financial management, healthcare, marketing, and management essentials. These programs usually consist of approximately 5 professional development classes. Most notably, Yale University offers courses in over a dozen subjects through the Open Courseware movement, which is designed by MIT. The movement allows colleges and universities across the world to put their courses online so that individuals could access them worldwide and at no cost.

Hybrid Classes
Hybrid classes are courses that combine traditional face-to-face class time with online learning activities. The purpose such courses is to take full advantage of the best features of both face-to-face and online learning. Rather than treating online learning as a supplement or add-on component to what is taught in the classroom, a hybrid course is designed to integrate face-to-face and online activities so that they complement and elaborate off of one another. There is no right or wrong definition of a hybrid class but most instructors can agree on three components: (1) Web-based learning activities are introduced to complement face-to-face work; (2) "seat time" is reduced, though not eliminated altogether; (3) the Web-based and face-to-face components of the course are designed to interact pedagogically to take advantage of the best features of each.

Furthermore, there are no universal parameters that specify whether a course is a hybrid or not. Generally, courses in which less than 20% of learning content is online are more likely to be labeled as "web enhanced" rather than hybrid courses. Most institutions require that courses labeled as "online" must occur 100% online and involve absolutely no face-to-face contact. Some such courses may, however, include orientation sessions, or ask students to take exams in class. This further blurs the line between hybrid, online, and traditional learning.

Problems
While online education offers many benefits, such as flexibility, cost effectiveness, and work-life balance, there are still many challenges that come with this type of learning. For one, while flexibility gives students an opportunity to manage their time more efficiently, this can become quite difficult without a professor pressuring them to study and complete their assignments online. It's important to stay committed and self-motivated so as to avoid procrastination. Another challenge is the extra distractions that come with learning online. This includes not only social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, but also calls and emails from family and friends, amongst other responsibilities. In a traditional setting, one would be less inclined to take out a computer or cell-phone because it is considered rude or is against class policy. Computer literacy and accessibility is also a limitation of online learning. Lack of access can occur for both economical or logistic reasons. This is especially true in lower income areas. From an business perspective, if students cannot afford the technology necessary to take classes at a certain university, they will be lost as "customers". Finally, not everyone has unlimited access to online resources. There are still people, especially in underdeveloped neighborhoods that pay a monthly rate for internet use, which limits the amount of time they have to access online resources. Finally, online education has a bad history involving fraud that has even resulted in legislation restricting profit for online universities and degree mills. This has caused many employers to become suspicious of applicants who include online degree programs on their resume. The underlying assumption is that these degrees are bought and not earned. There is also a stigma that said applicants are those who were unable to study in a traditional college or university. In short, employers not only assume that online education is substandard, but that it fails to provide students with the "real-life" experience necessary to thrive in the workplace.

Cheating
The use of new media in education allows for methods of cheating to be utilized that never before existed. Baruch College has undergone extensive reviews for cheating scandals concerning the popular VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Association) program. A student was able to hack into the e-mail accounting of an officer in charge of the program and e-mail all applicants with an opportunity to purchase the answers to the entrance exam.

'Test Banks' are another way for college students to gain access to potential exam questions and answers, which violates policies at most universities and colleges. Using file sharing services such as DropBox, GoogleDocs, etc., electronic versions of past exams and other material that is against school policy to possess are being distributed to many students. In 2010, a significant increase was shown in the amount of students who admitted to using test banks. UCF (University of Central Florida) had a large scandal with them, where the students claimed that they were using these questions and answers for studying purposes. It was determined, however, that "The test bank was meant only for approved professors — which Pearson, the text's publisher, confirmed. So studying from it was determined to be a violation of UCF's student code."

At Stuyvesant High School in 2012, a student was accused of cheating on state regents exams by taking pictures of the exam on his cell phone and sending them to schoolmates. This type of cheating has been seen before, but never on an exam as important as a state regents exam. Proctors and professors now have to be more on top of watching over students as they administer any type of exam, to make sure nobody is sneaking a picture of it with a cell phone.

Overview
Bitcoin has come out as the newest combination between new media and economics. The revolutionary virtual currency has mysterious roots that trace back to the Japanese hacker, or group of hackers (still not known), Satoshi Nakamoto in January of 2009. While it has been approximately 5 years since inception, the currency is still in its infancy and is slowly being adopted into mainstream business and economics. The currency is currently trading at all time highs of approximately $1,040 (subject to change over time).

Satoshi Nakamoto has only created a supply of 21,000,000 Bitcoins, however, all of them haven’t been released to the public. In order to obtain a Bitcoin, one must go through a process referred to as mining. This involves inputting a complicated sequence of algorithms until one finally goes through and a Bitcoin is created. Until recently the value of the virtual currency has largely been based of speculation, however as vendors and investors begin to accept its place in the word, the usage and acceptance of the currency has gained as well. Unlike a stock, users and investors of Bitcoin can actually influence its value by spending it or pushing to open up the outlets for the currency.

Vendor Acceptance
Initially one of the main outputs for Bitcoin was the infamous website, Silk Road. The website was taken down by federal officials in the fall of 2013 as it became a method for importing contraband and illegal substances. Because the privacy surrounding Bitcoins is so high, it is more appealing as it is harder to track the consumer or vendor where the currency is exchanging hands. The lack of government regulation in the exchange is one of the main benefits and appealing factors behind the currency. However as it gains traction many have become weary of increasing government regulation, specifically in the form of raids on database information. Today an increasing number of websites and brick-and-mortar retailers are beginning to look to Bitcoin as a form of currency. It does hold an advantage as the value rises and at the same time it comes with privacy from federal regulators. One pub in Manhattan has laid out the groundwork by becoming one of the first establishments to accept Bitcoin for food and beverages. EVR NYC uses cellphones and web developed applications to process the transactions and send bitcoin into personal accounts.

Mt. Gox
Mt. Gox has become synonymous with Bitcoin trading, as it is virtually the only exchange used by investors/users of Bitcoin. The exchange is based out of Tokyo and, like the virtual currency, it too was created in 2009. The exchange was originally founded by Jed McCaleb, however, was later sold off to Tibanne Ltd. in March of 2011. Originally Mt. Gox was created to serve the purpose as an exchange for trading cards, such as animation or sports memorabilia. Mt. Gox has faced an increasing amount of difficulty as federal officials shut down trading for regulative purposes. Trading frequently faces delays or holdbacks on Mt. Gox either as a cause of lapses in security, intervention from United States authorities, or lags in trading capacity.

Social Movement
The following behind Bitcoin has created a social phenomenon trailing cities around the world. Today users can tap into social networks that have been formed by users and pioneers of Bitcoin, inorder to make better use of their investments. Today communities are striving to bring together users so they can first educate them on the idea and philosophy behind Bitcoin, and then go on to eventually make them users of Bitcoin. One organization in particular, Satoshi Square, is a group of individuals who meet frequently around Union Square in Manhattan, New York City and hold meetings ranging from a variety of topics and goals- all related around Bitcoin.

The movement serves as an epitome of how new media can create a community involving a collaborative effort and a communal environment. At the same time, developers around the world are constantly working on technology that can integrate Bitcoin into everyday business and make it easier for businesses to accept the currency and for users to access it. Bitcoin users come together in various events, often focusing on how to implement the currency into the mainstream population.

Security Issues
Arguably, one of the largest problems facing the existence of Bitcoin is the issue of security relating to the currency. Initially when Bitcoins are mined, they are to be stored in a simple harddrive, therefore, if anyone were to lose the harddrive or have it stolen, there is no insurance or backup protection and the asset is simply lost. Some companies have made the initiative to create storage services for bitcoin users and protecting the asset for them, however, nothing prevents them from being hacked or stealing the currency themselves.

On the second phase, the origins of Bitcoin are unknown, and therefore it is unsure whether or not a backdoor to the currency exists. It may even be possible that Satoshi Nakamoto has the ability to wipe out quantities of the currency and not only destroying the millions that have been invested by users, but depressing the entire industry.