How to help make emerging technologies valuable to others, while maintaining gender, cultural, and socioeconomic sensitivity
The rapid development and use of information and communication technologies is having a direct and dramatic impact on all aspects of life. The traditional distinctions among media, publishing, telecommunications, and computing and information services are becoming blurred, and new paradigms for creation, dissemination and exploitation of knowledge are evolving. In this transformation from an industrial to an information society, the developed and rich nations have a unique intellectual and ethical mandate to make these new technologies work for social, cultural and economic development, in the interest of democracy and peace.
In my humble opinion, and as a member of the so called developing nation, I think that networked technologies are the key to achieving this noble and equitable objective. The most important rationale for using networked technologies in rural and underdeveloped parts of the world is that these new resources can compensate for the absence of other forms of infrastructure. If online work, trade, or payment were to become available for members of a village community, the poor quality of roads to and from that village becomes less of an obstacle to earnings and employment. I am sure Dr Thornburg will attest to this assumption from his experiences in Brazil and other developing nations he has visited and or lived in. Each information center along a rural network can allow new knowledge, services, and monies to flow in and out of the village across long distances, thus alleviating the disparities between urban and rural environments. In future, information networks will also prove to be essential infrastructure for new networked centers of manufacturing and other commercial activities. Once money begins to flow into the village economy through such businesses, the capital to finance basic infrastructure, like roads, will be far more readily available.
In some very selected villages in Africa, information centers are already substituting for a range of virtual institutions, such as a community center, a bank, a medical center, a government information center, a matrimonial office, a public telephone booth, a public library and educational resource center, all at a fraction of the cost of corresponding traditional institutions. At present, the village information center may itself only represent a transient phase in the growth of ICTs in rural areas. This is a means through which the development of technological infrastructure can enable the on-going development of social infrastructure.
The challenge for developing countries will be to develop cheap, simple and robust technologies using flexible, modular, and scalable network designs for coping with increasing users and traffic. Standards are important to the creation of systems within which future networks and services can evolve. Ideally, such systems should be based on standards that are not restricted to proprietary specifications. The adoption of a set of flexible standards that are conducive to the conditions in developing countries will be essential for certain cost-efficiencies to be gained in these countries. Standards should also reflect the financial realities of developing countries, which have limited budgets and as a result much longer product purchasing cycles than their counterparts in the industrialized world.
Training will be required at many different levels by many different users to avoid their becoming only passive recipients. Training programs should be developed to make decision makers in developing countries aware of the opportunities that ICTs offer as well as of their potential pitfalls. They should explore how existing and emerging technologies can be applied to development goals. The ministries of education must be made aware of different technologies in order to consider how these can be applied in their education systems.
Developing countries should also ensure the education and training of specialists needed to develop networks and ICT based applications. Both university-level education and practical continuing education are required. Training should cover both technical and management concerns and take full account of both the latest international developments and the national socio-economic and cultural context. As a complement and component of education on ICTs, developing countries should support research on innovations in their use by different populations and on their effects on society and development. I do however believe that these steps can also be applied to enhance the assimilation of poor neighborhoods in developed countries too. Even very highly developed countries like the United States, a visit to some areas will remind one of a typical third world nation and so an application of these technologies will improve the lives of those people too.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Increasing Returns and Red Queens
Igbokwe, Module 6 Assignment EDUC 8846 Increasing Returns and Red Queens - Blog Posting
According to McLuhan, every technology does the following four things:
• Extends some human trait or experience
• Obsolesces an established way of doing things
• Retrieves a long-lost method or experience
• Reverses into its opposite, if pushed far enough
When I decided to obtain a DVD for my science fiction assignment in Module 4, I went to Block Busters to rent the movies. I think that the competition between DVDs and video on demand is an excellent example of Red Queens. I already find DVDs very convenient, easy to use and the introduction of video on demand is an attempt to provide an additional convenience for movie viewer so that they do not have to leave home to get what they need. Obviously movie on demand is cutting greatly and rapidly into the market of movie distributors. Now, producers of movies can easily cut off the middle man (the distributors) and deal directly with consumers.
When this trend is considered with McLuhan’s tetrad, one can easily conclude that DVD is heading towards obsolesce while the technology of “movie on demand” is emerging to replace DVDs. One can state that movie on demand serves as if one is simply tuning the TV which in away retrieves the system we are most used to.
References:
Thornburg, D. (2008c). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.
Joel Pearce's laws for DVD reviews http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/mcluhanswake.php
According to McLuhan, every technology does the following four things:
• Extends some human trait or experience
• Obsolesces an established way of doing things
• Retrieves a long-lost method or experience
• Reverses into its opposite, if pushed far enough
When I decided to obtain a DVD for my science fiction assignment in Module 4, I went to Block Busters to rent the movies. I think that the competition between DVDs and video on demand is an excellent example of Red Queens. I already find DVDs very convenient, easy to use and the introduction of video on demand is an attempt to provide an additional convenience for movie viewer so that they do not have to leave home to get what they need. Obviously movie on demand is cutting greatly and rapidly into the market of movie distributors. Now, producers of movies can easily cut off the middle man (the distributors) and deal directly with consumers.
When this trend is considered with McLuhan’s tetrad, one can easily conclude that DVD is heading towards obsolesce while the technology of “movie on demand” is emerging to replace DVDs. One can state that movie on demand serves as if one is simply tuning the TV which in away retrieves the system we are most used to.
References:
Thornburg, D. (2008c). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.
Joel Pearce's laws for DVD reviews http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/mcluhanswake.php
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Second Life
Second Life Igbokwe, O Module 4 Blog Posting
What is Second Life?
Second Life is a virtual world that was developed and launched by Linden Lab in 2003. It is accessible through the internet and a free program called second life viewer allows the users called the residents to interact with one another through the avatars. Participants (residents) can through this media explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities. They can create, trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the virtual world, which residents refer to as the grid. Second Life is divided into two major groups. One is for people aged 18 and over, while Teen Second Life is for people aged 13 to 17.
Why is it called disruptive technology?
Second life is a disruptive technology because it is new, has performance problems while generally appealing to a limited audience and does not have proven practical application like Twitter for many. However, it has the potential to drastically, radically, and overwhelmingly change the way people learn. It provides us alternative ways of doing things like why read about how to build a widget, when you can walk (as an avatar) through the inner workings of a widget and see not only how to build it, but why it's important to build it the way it is built? It provides us the world (though virtual) to experience some of the things we dream about’ for example, why sit in a classroom and listen to someone talk about leadership theories and how they apply to a team climbing Mt. Everest, when you can take a team and actually climb the mountain yourself?. This you can achieve by using the skills in an immersive virtual space.
What are the social benefits of Second Life, and what might be the social implications of virtual worlds in your industry?
Many schools and universities are building structures in Second Life, and they build them to look like a regular classroom with walls, desks and chairs. If you can create a classroom floating in the sky or in a park, then there will be no need for buildings for schools. If students can work on a project together, learning from each other, and only need a coach to guide the team, then academic activities will be conducted virtually and that will have a great impact on the manner we conduct education, social interaction and business transactions. Obviously, Second Life is a disruptive technology.
Second Life's usefulness as a platform for pre-K–12 education is limited due to the age restrictions on the main grid and the difficulties of collaborating among various educational projects on the teen grid. New approaches to fostering collaboration on the teen grid, such as the Virtual World Campus, offer some hope of overcoming some of these obstacles. For now, however, the primary utility of Second Life for pre-K–12 education is in the education and professional development of teachers and school librarians. Still, K–12 educators use Second Life to meet each other and to create objects and structures that help them develop curriculum, as EnergyTeachers.org does with its Sustainability Energy Science Lab
The influx of evolving technologies and a new generation of wired consumers has created the speculation about how people will consume and produce media. The worldwide phenomenon of Second Life, an online digital game, allows its ‘residents’ to live out an entirely alternate reality. Residents can socialize, dance, work, play and buy virtual real estate. Second Life has a fully developed economy and goods, services and property are bought with Linden dollars, which can be exchanged for US dollars. There are a reported 5 million residents in Second Life, and they can shop at digital stores like Adidas and American Apparel. It is difficult to predict the survivability of neither Second Life nor the technology that may displace or obsolete it. It must however continue to evolve in order to remain relevant to the ever changing technologies that are disrupted frequently.
References:
Carmody, L. E. (2009). [Review of the book Disrupting class: How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns, by C. M. Christensen, M. B. Horn, & C. W. Johnson] Educational Technology Research and Development, 57(2), 267−269.
Retrieved from the Academic Search Premier database (Accession Number: 36778565).
Christensen, C. (2002). The innovation economy: How technology is transforming existing industries and creating new ones [Video]. Retrieved from http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/108
Rosedale, P. (2008). Second Life [Video] Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html
What is Second Life: www.secondlife.com/whatis
Second Life-What is the Hype: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/second-life-what-is-the-hype/
Computer Weekly: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/11/24/233528/a-second-life-for-virtual-worlds.htm
What is Second Life?
Second Life is a virtual world that was developed and launched by Linden Lab in 2003. It is accessible through the internet and a free program called second life viewer allows the users called the residents to interact with one another through the avatars. Participants (residents) can through this media explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities. They can create, trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the virtual world, which residents refer to as the grid. Second Life is divided into two major groups. One is for people aged 18 and over, while Teen Second Life is for people aged 13 to 17.
Why is it called disruptive technology?
Second life is a disruptive technology because it is new, has performance problems while generally appealing to a limited audience and does not have proven practical application like Twitter for many. However, it has the potential to drastically, radically, and overwhelmingly change the way people learn. It provides us alternative ways of doing things like why read about how to build a widget, when you can walk (as an avatar) through the inner workings of a widget and see not only how to build it, but why it's important to build it the way it is built? It provides us the world (though virtual) to experience some of the things we dream about’ for example, why sit in a classroom and listen to someone talk about leadership theories and how they apply to a team climbing Mt. Everest, when you can take a team and actually climb the mountain yourself?. This you can achieve by using the skills in an immersive virtual space.
What are the social benefits of Second Life, and what might be the social implications of virtual worlds in your industry?
Many schools and universities are building structures in Second Life, and they build them to look like a regular classroom with walls, desks and chairs. If you can create a classroom floating in the sky or in a park, then there will be no need for buildings for schools. If students can work on a project together, learning from each other, and only need a coach to guide the team, then academic activities will be conducted virtually and that will have a great impact on the manner we conduct education, social interaction and business transactions. Obviously, Second Life is a disruptive technology.
Second Life's usefulness as a platform for pre-K–12 education is limited due to the age restrictions on the main grid and the difficulties of collaborating among various educational projects on the teen grid. New approaches to fostering collaboration on the teen grid, such as the Virtual World Campus, offer some hope of overcoming some of these obstacles. For now, however, the primary utility of Second Life for pre-K–12 education is in the education and professional development of teachers and school librarians. Still, K–12 educators use Second Life to meet each other and to create objects and structures that help them develop curriculum, as EnergyTeachers.org does with its Sustainability Energy Science Lab
The influx of evolving technologies and a new generation of wired consumers has created the speculation about how people will consume and produce media. The worldwide phenomenon of Second Life, an online digital game, allows its ‘residents’ to live out an entirely alternate reality. Residents can socialize, dance, work, play and buy virtual real estate. Second Life has a fully developed economy and goods, services and property are bought with Linden dollars, which can be exchanged for US dollars. There are a reported 5 million residents in Second Life, and they can shop at digital stores like Adidas and American Apparel. It is difficult to predict the survivability of neither Second Life nor the technology that may displace or obsolete it. It must however continue to evolve in order to remain relevant to the ever changing technologies that are disrupted frequently.
References:
Carmody, L. E. (2009). [Review of the book Disrupting class: How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns, by C. M. Christensen, M. B. Horn, & C. W. Johnson] Educational Technology Research and Development, 57(2), 267−269.
Retrieved from the Academic Search Premier database (Accession Number: 36778565).
Christensen, C. (2002). The innovation economy: How technology is transforming existing industries and creating new ones [Video]. Retrieved from http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/108
Rosedale, P. (2008). Second Life [Video] Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html
What is Second Life: www.secondlife.com/whatis
Second Life-What is the Hype: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/second-life-what-is-the-hype/
Computer Weekly: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/11/24/233528/a-second-life-for-virtual-worlds.htm
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