Firstly, i will talk about the future of the internet, in 10years time. Given the rate at how internet is moving now, i believe in 2019, everything we do would be related to internet. Perhaps, by then, schools wouldnt even exist physically. Students can just enrol themselves online, and they can start taking a diploma,degree,masters and even PHD. As much as it may sound absurd now, it is definately possible in the future.
In terms of social relations, i believe, in future, people would have lesser and lesser face to face interaction. Even now, chatting within my own family members exist via msn. Considering there is SKYPE, IM, so on and so forth, people would be less and less inclined to meet people physically and they would rather meet people via the internet. I mean, think about how convenient it would be. Seating at home, and getting to know new friends, catching up with your old friends. In recent time, i have been wanting to meet a couple of my friends whom i never meet in a couple of years. Due to work commitment, and my school timetable, we are able to fix a time to meet up. However, because of the internet, we decided to talk online. We used the msn messenger and used the webcam to see each other and talk there. As much as it has it advantageous, i still feel very uneasy over it because of the lack of personal touch. Therefore, i am certain that even though in future, no matter how much social interactions exists in the internet, it will never be able to replace the kind of "feeling" when one person meets another person in real life. Such feeling is unexplainable with words and can only be felt through experience.
In terms of commerce, i am quite certain that in future, less and less people would rent a shop and run a business. Personally if you ask me, if i were to open a shop that sell shirt, jeans and so on, i would definately open an online shop rather than renting a shop outside. Think about the cost incurred that you have to pay for the rental. It will take quite sometimes before one is able to earn back the capital that one invested. In my personal experience as an avid online shopper, i prefer to shop online rather than going to the shop physically. As much as i lack the personal touch, i feel that the convenience of buying goods online is worthwhile losing the personal touch. Imagine ordering something that you love, and make your way to the office, and by the time you get back home, its there in your home. Think about it.
In terms of politics, by then, i believe, people wouldnt even have to vote physically and they can just vote via the internet. Furthermore, the way the candidates send their voice and message across to their supporters is most likely to be from their own personalize websites, blogs and even social networking website, whereby most people would have access to. By doing so, the candidates can save a lot of time travelling and they can the other free time to prepare for their campagin, which will be advantageous to them.
Last but not least, in terms of entertainment, certain real world entertainment activities cannot be replaced with the virtual world. Nonetheless, you have second life, which allows one to fly, something that you are not able to do in real life. So with aspect to entertainment, i feel that, it would not change as drastic as what others might. This is because certain entertainment can only be truly felt in real life while certain entertainment that one dare not do in real life/unable to do in real life, one is able to do it online.
To sum up, in 2019, i am expecting a major change with most of the changes in favour of the internet.
Overall, i felt that i have learnt a lot in COM 125 class. Ever since the first lesson, i learnt that there is something known as the google group. Since then, my group mates and me, have used it for other modules and we find it to be an excellent google tools. I specifically enjoyed the lesson on google tools as i find it very inforrmative and it will be very useful for my future use. There are tools from google that i doubt i will ever know if the lectuerer never introduce it to the class. Furthermore, one of the psychological test that was given in class was also rather accurate (lingusitic, interpersonal .....). The topic on Bloom's taxonomy brought me to a new level of learning. All in all, i feel that i not only gain knowledge relating to the internet, but knowledge to learning as well. I shall stop here as the list would goes on and on if i were to list them all down here.
I would like to end off with
Thanks Mr Abel Choy,for passing on to me these invaluable knowledges and to the other students.
~me~ at 9:39 PM This week i learnt about journalism and the internet.
Personally, i feel its a good thing as it allows us to see certain opinion held by people or reports of an incident that was not reported anywhere. For instance, an incident that has happened yet, it was not fully reported by the news, with current technology, those people who are at the scene or who witness whatever that has happened, can give the first-hand information to reader. For readers, especially those who are catching the news, it is essential to get stories from the different aspect rather than one aspect. We have to listen stories from both side to ensure that what we heard is fair and not bias in a way or another. These news are especially essential as some news might be harmful to people yet not being released, and to get these news up and let people know about it, it might save many lifes.
However,i believe the issue of ethics come into play when one journalist has an information yet he/she has to withhold certain of the information and only releasing some of the information. Take for instance, if one is to report the full news, it would definately not be published by the publisher and that person might get the boot off his jobs. On the other, if he knew the news that he/she is going to report is essential to be reported fully, and yet he/she does not do so, in a way, the perosn is fufiling his work ethics, but what about his moral ethics? This is an ethical dilemma.
Well, with such dilemma, it is really diffcult to make a decision. But with the current technology that allows user to be annoynomous, one could still have his/her work ethics yet fufiling his/her moral ethics. He/she can post the comments or information that he/she wants on the web, and at the same time, sitll reporting what he/she needs to report. As much as this is not the best way out, i feel that this can be a pro or a con, depending on the perspective that you hold.
At the end of the day, i feel the current technology does not give us or anyone any sense of privacy. To me, its anything goes. And with the current technology, anyone can be a journalist, as long as there are readers who read what you are posting.
To sum up, there are pros and cons in the journalism and internet aspect and depending on the perspective that you hold, it can be good or bad. With the internet, anyone can be a journalist, however, at the end of the day, wherever we get our information, be it online from an unknown "journalist" or a newspaper, we have to be critical of what was written and reported.
~me~ at 11:00 PM This week we learnt about the internet and the politics. The main area that i would be covering in my post would be about youths apathetic towards the politics.
Well i think there are a few reasons behind this.
Firstly, most youth are not interested in politics and that given the immaturity age, most of the youth would be talking about games rather than politics. Even if there is to be one youth or a small group of youths, who are really into politics, to prevent himself/herself from being placed in the outgroup of a group, he/she would typically talk about topics that is norm to the youth (i.e games). As time goes by, their interest toward politics would be diminished and their area of interest would shift to what is in the group norm (games).
Secondly, most of the youth, at their given age, would be ineligible to vote for the politician/party that they like. Given that you are not invovlved in something, one would not even bother listening what the politican/party has to say. This is because you know that you heard what the politician/party has to say, but yet you are powerless to support any of the party. Its like, at the end of the day, redudant and waste of time to get yourself involved in the politics as it is something beyond your control. Thus as times goes by, even if one is interested, the interest would be diminished yet again. On the other hand, adults have the power to vote, to them, it is important as a vote makes a different. Furthermore, it in a way, affected the adults, as whenever there is to be an election, there might be new policies brought up by the different politician running the campagin, that might make a different for these adults. The policies could include like example (No Sat job) or any other form of policy, so if the adult is interested in the policies that that particular politician is implementing if he/she gets elected, the adult would vote for that particular politician. So to simply sum this up, it just means that politics affects the adult in a way or another, so most of the adults tend to get involved, while, it means little or none to the youth, and thats why they tend not to be bothered by it.
Finally, in my opinion, politics is something that is not easy to comprehen. Given the ability of a youth, they might lack the knowledge and may not be able to understand what the politician is talking and what the politician has to offer if he/she gets the vote. On the other hands, by adult age, most adults would have no diffculties comprehening such message, and this is also one reason, in my opinion that the minimum age for voting is 21years old.
Given all these different reasons, it is no wonder that youths tend to be apathetic towards politics.
On a side note, my nation's election is occuring somewhere in April this year, and at age 22 this year, i wasnt even called up to go for the election. I only realized that my nation's election is in April when they sent a letter to one of my family member to go for the voting on one of the days in April. Frankly speaking, i cant be bothered by it, as i feel that whatever the case is-whoever the winner is (president), it wouldnt affect me in a way or another. Thus, for me, probably i would be like the youth, being indifferent to politics, perhaphs, things will change when i get older.
~me~ at 3:57 PM Hello...
This week we learnt about multimedia. I thought the idea of E-newspaper is very fascinating, and this happened to be one area that i have never got into, and thus, e-newspaper will be my this week's entry.
Firstly, i think the future lies in I.T related products and e-newspaper is just the begining. Personally, i am wondering, how many would pay for the amount that one has to pay to buy the e-newspaper. I mean, such product would not come cheap and i guess those who would buy such newspaper are the businessmen, who always need to be updated with news and are always on the go, thus this add to their convenience.
The technology of e-newspaper should have been around for sometimes as there are a couple of model available for sale. One of the older version would be Amazon Kindle and Sony eReader. The latest upcoming model would be manufactured by Plastic Logic and the name has yet to be named but it is expected to launch in the United States sometime this year.
The image of the different e-newspaper
From left: Plastic Logic, Sony eReader and Amazon Kindle
credits: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/technology/08ink.html
One of the benefit of the e-newspaper in my opinion would be that one would save more in the long run. Putting cost aside, without paper, means one can save the earth as we need not cut down on trees. I feel with both cost advantage and enviornmental advantage, it would be really a plausible plan in the future.
Although it is still costly at the moment, (i.e Amazon Kindle- $260USD about $400 SGD), i feel that in the future when it is a norm that everyone is using an e-newspaper, the price of it would eventually drop.
To sum it, eventually e-newspaper would eleminate the convention newspaper as it is definately more convenient with an e-paper, and with the long term cost saving and enviornmental friendly advantage, the future no doubt lies in e-newspaper.
This is a video on e-newspaper.
~me~ at 10:51 PM This week we learnt about internet crime.
It happened that this was part of my research paper in one of my module. I will extract the information from my research paper which includes, cases of internet crime and defination of the internet crime. 2 of the cases are of overseas case and one of which occurs in local-Singapore context.
Email banking scam.
Basically, it is an email that involves “phishing” which is actually “the practice of luring unsuspecting Internet users to a fake Web site by using authentic-looking email with the real organization's logo, in an attempt to steal passwords, financial or personal information, or introduce a virus attack; the creation of a Web site replica for fooling unsuspecting Internet users into submitting personal or financial information or passwords”.
However, in this scamming situation, it was created in reality format due to the nature of the message which looks to be one that is from the bank. However, the link that was in the email would link the victim to the fake bank website, whereby the victim would divulge his or her information to verify the account after which there would be an error message and the victim would then be redirected to the real bank website.
Furthermore, the web page used by the scammer includes of encrypted SSL (a form of encryption that provides additional security) connections which the US Federal Trade Commission advises the public to look out for the lock icon at the bottom of the webpage. As such it adds on to the influence of the public causing them to be scammed
To read full article:
http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39118902,00.htm?r=1
Social interaction online crime
In this case, a man from Dayton would likely face a minimum jail term of 35years when sentenced. Basically what he had done was to persuade underaged girls to engage in sexually explicit acts for him in front of the webcam.
He would get to know the girls in online chat rooms by using an interesting name and some unknown young man’s photo. During the chat, he persuaded his victims to commit sexual acts in the webcams and recorded it and even distributed the video around.
His luck came to an end when one of his victims sent love letters to his former work place with one of the interesting names he used. His former employer found it to be related to child pornography and reported the matter to the authorities, after which he was caught shortly.
In his case, it was also reported that he even hacked into the minors’ webcam whereby he would be able to look at them once they activate their webcam. A statement by Lockhart was released saying that computer being an important part of our life but it was also a way people would exploit its vulnerability. Therefore he advises parents to be vigilant about their children online activity (Lockhart, 2006).
For full story:
http://www.cybercrime.gov/millerPlea.htm
Singapore cybercrime: Internet seller cheats buyers
In Singapore, there is also an increase of cases related to cyber crime. In the most recent case, there was an internet seller who cheated the buyer. Basically, the sellers involved were a man and a woman. They had scammed off nearly $10,000 from buyers. They were actually supposed to purchase imported goods for other internet users, but after the money had been transferred to them, the goods did not arrive and they could not be contacted.
Not long later, their web page closed down. However, in this case, they were unlucky as justice caught up with them and they were soon nabbed by the police. If convicted, they are likely to face a jail term of up to 7years.
Full story:
http://www.spf.gov.sg/mic/2007/071024_internetsellercheat.htm
From these 3 cases, we can see that there are many internet crime around, and we ought to be vigilant in whatever we do when in the online world.
Till next week. Cheers!
~me~ at 4:07 PM Hello people,
just spent a couple of hours on the video, and here it is :)
Hope you guys enjoy -D.
Anyway, i will now move on to talk about the google tools.
I have download before google desktop. I think it is very useful because of the shortcuts it allows. But in my personal opinion, it lags the whole computer start up. When i checked the use of system memory. It seems that, google desktop takes up alot of it. Therefore, after sometimes, i decided to uninstall it. I guess these are the pros and cons of free software?
Next, my favourite use of google tool is the google translator. I feel it is very useful as when you do not understand certain language article that you are reading, you can use it to translate. For me, i always use it to translate HongKong drama synopsis. Well, i would say the translation is not exactly accurate, but still, its already good enough as rather than not understanding what it is at all, it helps me to understand certain part. I guess, the problem with such translator is because they translate word for word and we cant translate word for word as certain things in Chinese does not mean that in English.
Moving on, is the tools that Mr Choy introduced- Google Earth.
I feel it is absolutely phenomenal considering the fact that we can from places to places in just seconds to minutes. Although we cant be physically there, being able to see those places within seconds is already more than satisfying. I mean, its like clicking Singapore to United States, in just seconds to minutes. It is definitely useful to explore these places that can help us increase our general knowledge.
I haven't used before picasa but i have visited a friend's photos that is uploaded in picasa. Personally, i feel that it is rather laggy, but it could be due to the fact that my friend has submitted quite a number of album. When i meant laggy, it is during the time when we want to enlarge a particular photo, but for the web to load the photo, the speed is rather average.
To sum up, i feel the advantages that the google tools have gave us is incredible. But i believe all the problems associated with the google tools that i stated earlier would be resolved, as if i am not wrong, most of the tools are still in BETA. So i believe, in time to come, google will be everywhere in our computer!
~me~ at 8:58 PM This week, we learnt alot on the Bloom's Taxonomy namely Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor. My entry will talk more on E-learning aspect, which i think is the future learning method, although personally i prefer the traditional learning method.
E-learning, is defined as " a type of Technology supported education/learning (TSL) where the medium of instruction is computer technology, particularly involving digital technologies". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_learning
Well personally, in my poly days, i have used e-learning before for some modules. At that point of time, i feel the pro of this program is the time saving i can save from travelling to school. But as times goes by, i realized the cons are more as, it is all learning by ourselves, and there wasnt much participation in the discussion board, and it makes me feel that i didnt learn much in those e-learning modules.
Now, even in SIM, i have already taken a module online- NTR 109. But this time round, i feel the system is a lot better. The lectuerer would tell us to discuss an article in the discussion board-graded, and personally i think because of US students, it added alot of life to the general discussion board and in the end of the module, i feel i have learnt alot and feel it doesnt make any difference even if i were to take it in class.
As i have done a research paper in the aspect of Internet in the area of e-learning, i will share some points that was written in my research paper.
Pros
- group of practitioners believed that asynchronous conferencing can encourage shy students
-psychologist have discovered that certain people who have difficulties communicating in the real world, manage to find their true self in the virtual well and express themselves with their real character
-increase in creative response, reflective thinking and awareness of multiple perspectives, by the works student submitted
-provided people with disabilities advantage as they could be learning from home that saves them from a lot of trouble
Cons
-students with limited skills for the usage of computer would take more time to do their work as they would have to explore around to figure out the use of internet and the e-learning webpage as it was noted that some of the e-learning interface was rather “complex and not user-friendly”
-at times when datelines are due for assignments, the server of the web may be down which would frustrate the students
-inaccessibility of computers for students who are poor and thus the inability to afford one would hinder their learning process as they are unable to learn through e-learning
-some students prefer to look and read at what others had contributed with their posting rather than exposing their thoughts publicly
Well, as we can see, there are advantages and disadvantages in the use of e-learning, but personally, i feel the future of learning is in e-learning, as a couple of schools have provided diploma/degree purely online. We could well see how successful e-learning would evolve in years to come.
~me~ at 7:24 PM