Is Virtual Reality the New Classroom?

Virtual Reality technology has provided an environment in which students can see, and experience a specific event in history, see architecture that no longer exists, and learn about artifacts, music, and culture of a specific time. By simply wearing 3-D glasses and standing in a cube with images projected on the walls, floor, and ceiling a student can almost transcend through time to a different location. Luckily, Purdue has been blessed with the Virtual Reality technology. You are able to see, touch, and hear your surroundings while participating in the Virtual Reality simulation.

Purdue has a visible past simulation in which you can witness events and see places from our history. Virtual Reality could become a very interactive way for students to learn about our past and other parts of the world. This provides a new opportunity for experiencing our history and interacting with people that were living in that time. Of course, it is all simulated but you can still hear conversations of individuals in the simulation.

Check out the article from the Hypergrid Business website featuring Purdue University professors and their experience with virtual reality teaching. A student, Katherine Tanski says that virtual reality allows them “ to have interactive class meetings, and it familiarizes students with software that is being used in professional contexts.” Virtual Reality could easily become a valid and recommended teaching tool for certain subjects in the future. Expanding our horizon with technology in the classroom will enable students and professors to learn more than ever possible, even if it is in a virtual world.

Robotics and Their Effect on Unemployment

So after listening to lecture this past Wednesday got me to thinking about how Robotics could be increasing our unemployment rate. For example in all manufacturing plants there are machines that accomplish a task that previously a human being would be fulfilling. And this was just the beginning, now there are remote control robotics that can be sent into a dangerous area to check out a situation that is unsafe for humans. Yes in this respect a robotic is good because it could be saving many human lives but what about in the manufacturing business where our friends and family could have been working?

In an article written by Marshall Brain entitled Robotic Nation he discusses the possibility of how robots will increase our unemployment. Take a look for more information about this topic on Marshall Brains website. Marshall talks about when he took his kids to McDonalds they ordered through a kiosk instead of ordering to a McDonald’s employee. The kiosk even went as far as accepting money from Marshall and his family. Marshall then describes many other occurrences that day in which he used an automated system and didn’t have interaction with another human. He mentions that while these kiosks are very convenient it is still taking one more job away from someone who needs and deserves it. Some of the examples he mentioned were; getting money from an ATM, buying gas at an automated pump, and using a self service check out line at the grocery.

Again we all love stuff that is convenient, it makes our lives easier but think of that Dad down the street that just lost his job, or that single mom who has to support her kids on her own. Is convenience worth taking jobs away from those who really need it? I guess it is up to our new technology world to decide…

Privacy: On the Endangered Information List

You always hear of people questioning their privacy online and wondering just how much information is out there about them. Well thanks to data mining, surveillance, and social networking I can almost bet you there is more information online about you than you even realize. We know that the government has the ability to tap into our activities if they see fit, well what about those creepers out there who want our information for the wrong reasons?

Think about all of the types of privacy that an individual has; informational, bodily, decisional, relational, communication, and locational. But really, we have no privacy because of the following technologies; GPS, data mining, surveillance, social networks, wire taps, and information feeds. This brings me to my point of privacy being on the endangered information list. Because of the increase in technology in our society, privacy is almost non-existent in every aspect. Informational privacy doesn’t exist because of data mining and companies pay other companies for my information. Bodily privacy doesn’t exist because of technology such as Google Earth anyone can see where I am at even physically, as well as with locational devices. Decisional, relational, and communication privacy has gone out the window with the social networking trend growing tremendously. People can now see what I say on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog and determine the relationships that I have with the individuals that I keep in contact with. Along with this they can also see the decisions that I make by what pictures I post, what I say, what my interests are, what I’m doing for the upcoming weekend, and the list could go on and on.

I feel like the following picture of the keyboard with a padlock on it describes the privacy well. My feelings are that if you want privacy I would suggest not being a part of social networks, don’t order items online, don’t fill out online forms, or to sum it up, don’t use the internet as much if not at all. It would be very difficult for one to use the internet now a days and not share information with companies or with others about ourselves. Therefore, privacy should be added to the endangered information list.

Is the Internet ruining the idea of a culture?

The Deborah Wheeler article from 2001 entitled,New Technologies; Old Culture:
A look at Women, Gender, and the Internet in Kuwait created an interesting
perspective on the Internet based on the culture in Kuwait. A personal
testimony of Layla discussed that she does not think that women in Kuwait will
use the Internet for their own educational benefit such as for serious research.
When considering the children in Kuwait Layla thinks that the Internet will turn children away from reading books, which will end up inhibiting their education. The
Internet provides more freedom for women in Kuwait by increasing employment
opportunities, allowing them to participate in a chatroom, and talk with those
from the opposite sex.

A concern that Layla also had about children and using the Internet is that she thought that it would persuade them to adopt the Western lifestyle and not value the Kuwait culture. Deborah Wheeler also wrote another article entitledThe Internet and Youth Subculture in Kuwaitwhich also addresses concerns of the Internet ruining social ties between individuals, and it also reduces participation in social rituals in Kuwait because people want to surf the web instead.

It is interesting to me that these thoughts never crossed my mind when I think about the Internet in the Western culture. We use it for social media, we use it to communicate with friends and family, we use it for school a lot also. It just goes to show that what works for one culture technology wise may not be the best for all cultures, and if society pushes all new technology on various types of cultures they may end up ruining what actually makes a culture a culture. Our education values the internet and we typically have to depend on technology to get assignments completed, but that is not the case in Kuwait. Their education is not centered around the use of technology .We need to be sensitive to how technology, such as the Internet could alter a culture for the worst.

For more information please check out the rest of the article at the following link.
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol8/issue2/wheeler.html

Geocaching: Does it make it easier or more difficult to communicate?

After experiencing Geocaching for the first time I am quite intrigued. It amazes me that we can use so many types of technology and yet still have a difficult time deciphering messages. For example, I was the reporter for my group and I was tweeting while we were searching around campus for the cache. Even though I was tweeting in what I thought was great detail, the central station could not understand the context of my messages. This played an important part especially when it came to interpreting the clues that individuals were tweeting. The clues were fairly simple but not being able to communicate face to face made it difficult to solve the puzzle. I never knew that something like geocaching existed, but it was a lot of fun and definitely a learning experience. I had never really participated in a game that depended on using technology to communicate with others in order to win. You would think that as advanced as technology is it would make it easier to communicate, but maybe it is still up to us to clearly express our ideas.

The Experience of the Emerging Technology Poster Session

Going into every project during college you have certain expectations on how you think it is going to go, what might go wrong, how easy or difficult it may be, but then sometimes you are wrong. I am not technology savvy so when the assignment of emerging technology poster session came up, you could say I was not thrilled. Needless to say, I found the Skiff Reader, an emerging technology that was very interesting to me.

The Skiff Reader is similar to the Ipad but it is flexible, more durable, personalized, and could have a huge effect on educational institutions and students. Right now the Skiff Reader allows the user to download their favorite magazines, newspapers, periodicals, etc. and eventually could lead to downloading textbooks as well. What's so great about this technology is that it may have the capability to download all of your textbooks on the Skiff Reader and only carry 1 lb. around campus instead of a 25 lb. book bag.

Also it is giving society exactly what we ask for! We want personalization, we want ubiquity of access, we want to always be connected to society and know what's going on. The Skiff Reader provides us with that capability. It satifies the "always on" feeling that society has when it comes to technology. Also with our crazy college lives there is always something unusual that happens and luckily the Skiff Reader is extremely durable, scratch proof, crack proof, and can be dropped and not break!

The experience of explaining my technology to other students during the poster session was very helpful for a few different reasons. First off, it helped me learn our lecture material because I had to teach them about my technology and how it connected to class. Also it was fun! I never thought I would say it, but it was, I was knowledgable on something that never would interest me at a passing glance. But most of all I felt accomplished when it was all said and done, my poster was efficeint in attracting "tweeters" and getting the information across clearly. Thank you for providing me with this experience.

How the Media is no longer sitting on the front porch

Back in the day our parents used to play in the front yard, while their parents socialized with the neighbors on the side walk or on the front porch. When is the last time you saw that happen? Well it’s probably been a while because times are changing, life is more fast paced, kids are playing Wii inside, parents are working long hours or prefer to relax and watch Food Network inside rather than socializing with the neighbors. This was exactly what lecture addressed when concerning a main issue related to media and community. The issue I would like to address is that the media is recreating our communities through the media that is available to us today.

Through new social medias we are able to get rid of inequalities of many sorts including race, gender, age, socio economic status, because online you can have your privacy settings to where no one is able to access this information. Media is also improving education, for example when we set up a Wiki in class to help everyone study for the Midterm. Before this class I had no idea what a Wiki was, but thanks to social media we are now able to collaborate our knowledge and ideas to better our education. More people than ever are participating in social media because it does provide a sense of community when you have a hectic schedule and don’t get to see your friends. By all of us using all of these media tools we are helping the e-commerce each time we use a media tool.

So the thought I would like to bring to point is that the media is reshaping what we now know as community. A community now consists of individuals that follow your weblog, students that contribute to your Wiki, people that follow your Tweets. Will we ever return to the front porch scenario? Probably not, but are we just as connected as before in our social media community? Couldn’t my tweet feeds be my front porch?