What is Mediated Social Environments

By retracing the tracks of the popular educational game, the Oregon Trail, this chapter presents both positive and negative realities of the incorporation of computer-based education that will necessitate students venturing away from safe, closed systems to access information in the open frontier of the Internet. Information presentation is increasingly multimodal. The fidelity of that information is not always clear. Access to information, though often assumed, is not always available. Individuals’ selectivity to the variety of information can influence how it is internalized. Exposure to violent and sexual content can result in desensitization. Bias opens opportunity for fragmentation. And our connections to others, though overwhelmingly positive, also make us vulnerable to aggression and exploitation. Certain research and news stories presented here detail the most disturbing acts of humankind; those that children must be safeguarded against.