“Today’s real borders are not between nations,
but between powerful and powerless,
free and fettered, privileged and humiliated.”
- Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations -
Kudos to everyone for surviving the first five weeks of school! I’m sure it must have been a busy month for everyone especially with all the mid-term tests, assignments and project presentations coming up! Hang in there and before you know it, it will be our well-deserved recess week and soon final year exams and finally, our one-month December holiday! Meanwhile, all of us just have to grit our teeth and persevere till the end of
the semester! :)
The main issue of discussion for Lesson 5 was ‘ ICT and World Change’. ICT stands for Information and Communication Technology. I find this Tuesday’s class especially informative because our main discussion topic was circled around mass media and how it has changed/impacted our way of lives and the society in recent times. Apart from knowing about the revolution of social media (Facebook, myspace) and mass media (televisions, music players, computers Etc), I pretty much do not know about the other aspects of ICT (in-depth) till I went for lesson 5. These aspects include the different versions of the web (1.0,2.0,3.0,4.0),
Mifi(setting up a device as a ‘hotspot’ area), cloud computing and knowledge management.
During class, Professor Shahi asked what are these ‘web 1.0,2.0,3.0’? I answered ‘different software updates?’ Of course, I was wrong. These different versions of the web are not software updates (I am so used to updating my laptop or phone in different OS that I thought those were software updates!). In fact, after watching the video that Professor played in class, I found out that the static web is 1.0, interactive web is 2.0 and the intelligent and omnipresent web is 3.0. It is so amazing how in today’s times, signals are sent among gadgets, the computer, the Internet and people without us realizing it. I just realized that each time I press the button to ‘delete email off handheld and mailbox’; I am indirectly sending a signal to my blackberry, which in turns send another signal to my email inbox to remove that particular message.
The third video was about cloud computing and how it has allowed us access to information that is not on our system. It can also run like a business application- providing a platform for businesses to interact and carry out their business operations efficiently. Not only does it cost less, it is more secure and more reliable. It is one application that everyone shares—like a giant office building and any basic/ new start up firm does not need to hire a technical team as well. Cloud computing has indeed changed the way businesses function. For instance, with the sudden craze in online shopping, one does not need to get out of the house and head down to any retail outlet to take a look at fashion, all one needs is just a computer and a bank account!
Moving on…
I was truly intrigued by invention of Project Natal. The link for the youtube video is as follows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluWsMlfj68
Today, we are moving towards the age where technology may actually take over our world. The X box Kinect is the latest version of Play Stations. Now, we don’t need to use game controllers to play games anymore, our hand actions are in fact the controllers. It is definitely more enjoyable because it is in a way, more ‘REAL’. As such, I feel that this form of visual reality is starting to integrate into reality in the living world. Having milo (the character on the television) as a friend is practically like having a friend in real life. This then leads to the issue of confusing what is real and what is not real. Personally, I feel that in this case, if I do have a visual friend like ‘Milo’, I may reach a stage whereby I am confused with having a real friend and a visual friend. The longer I spend interacting with him, the higher the tendency for me to treat him like a normal human being. This ‘visual reality’ concept links very closely with 3D films and even 4D films today. Who knows, maybe one day we will be living in movies visually?
All in all, I would rate the lesson 9/10!
See you next class!
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