Blogscapes

These past two days have been spent at the new Republic Poly campus attending the ICET 2007. This year’s themes is “Rethinking Pedagogies: Creating Possibilities Through Digital, Interactive and Media” and the focus was on how ”innovations in ICT like gaming and interactive digital media have created a new environment for teaching and learning in the new century.”

Indeed, the keynote addresses as well as the many speakers there spoke on new methods of teaching and learning such as those using game-based learning as well as Web 2.0 technologies. 

Going by the vendors there, SMART classrooms seem the way to go! Don’t think I have seen that many different types of interactive whiteboards in the same place!

Just some quick thoughts on some of the areas discussed at the Conference:

-there was quite an interesting video shown which was a video by Microsoft, a kind of “devil wears Prada” parody

-virtual worlds like Second Life and gaming such as World of Warcraft can have interesting and myriad educational benefits (hm.. while I do agree that there are some benefits in gaming, I wonder how much of the learning can be transferred to real life contexts. I mean, sure, a gamer can exhibit good leadership skills being the Guild leader and directing a raid, but can he or she also exhibit the same leadership skills in real life? I mean, how many gamers, techies, etc out there are good communicators? and gaming is supposed to cultivate communication skills…

- learning needs to be fun and engaging….hm.. but won;t it be a bore if everything is all fun and games? Also, real life is not all fun and games. If students fed on a diet of highly stimulating environments go out into the world, will they be disappointed? Worse, will they be able to cope with the mundane everyday world, where work can be gasp, actually tiresome and tedious?! 

- there’s an increasing closing gap between virtual and real worlds. Much has been done to recreate the real world in a virtual setting..with that, where is the room for one’s imagination?

- gaming addiction - incidentally, I was just watching Tab TV and the topic tonight was on cyber addiction.

Clearly, while educators explore the use of IDM in teaching and learning, let’s hope people don;t just all get carried away by the technology. As shown at the Conference too, technology can sometime let you down too. I can’t quite keep count of the number of times the Internet connection went off, or Ppt slides were not loaded properly, or files not saved properly.

But it’s good to know that questions have been raised and educators will continue to see what ways can best be used to help people learn and enjoy learning.

With so much said and done about social networking sites, there’s bound to be uses and abuses of them.

Indeed, the use of social networking in the workplace is regarded as being controversial, with many having their say and questions about it. You can read some of the views at: Kit Kai’s Tech Blog; Web 2.0 and its impact on 21st Century; Scaling the Social Web, and more.

Young people tend to use social networking sites to keep in touch with their friends and enlarge their social circles. Some use it as a way to suss out potential mates, check out the competition, entertain their friends, and themselves, etc.

While there’s nothing wrong with that, what’s making employers and companies fret is that many of the employees are spending too much time working on their Facebook profiles, checking out how many people have invited them to be friends, or throwing sheep at each other!

According to a Straits Times article entitled “We’re (net)working”, $390 million is lost a day due to loss of productivity caused by cyber-loafing. You say network, I say notwork? While employees may be tapping away at their keyboards, they may not be engaging in any productive office work. They say that employees are getting distracted by MSN messages and pop-ups, etc.

This has actually led to some companies banning and blocking the use of such social networking sites.

Not only are companies concerned about the loss of productivity, they are also concerned that certain company trade secrets and practices may be knowingly or unknowingly revealed to outsiders. This is pretty much like the concern with employees blogging about work.

But is this the way to go? Perhaps companies need to know that they are dealing with a new breed of digital natives and going online to blog and network is part and parcel of their lives. And I have a new term for the new generation of digital natives. It’s “Duo Core generation” with duo core brains which seem to allow digital natives to process separate tasks independently.

Perhaps instead of trying to beat them, some companies have tried to join them. One example is IBM.  IBM warms to social networking and has started using IBM’s Lotus Connections which allows the whole company to engage and network. IBM staff write blogs and keep wikis and make use of social networking software to keep in the loop, thus creating a sense of one giant community.

Some other uses for Web 2.0 technologies in the workplace could be corporate wikis where the collective information and intelligence of staff could be stored and referenced, as well as company blogs that could clue newcomers in on company FAQs and the company culture and the like. Project blogs and wikis could be another collaborative space for working on team projects. It depends on the creativity of the company as well. Perhaps staff could suggest more ways that companies could use such Web 2.0 technologies more effectively in the workplace.

If you wish to read up on more ideas and/or contribute your ideas, there’s a useful site that let’s you do just that: http://www.blog4biz.sg/index.htm. Of course, you care also most welcome to comment on Blogscapes!

There’s no doubt that gaming has captured the hearts and imagination not only of  children, but adults as well.  

In an interesting article entitled Gaming? It’s no child’s play, we are told the virtues of gaming. Very much like what Marc Prensky (the guy who popularised the terms digital natives and digital immigrants) has said in his book, “Don’t bother me, Ma. I’m learning”, gaming has come a long way in shedding its image of schoolboys hanging around LAN clubs and playing games, to becoming an activity that is seen to have educational and lifeskills training!

There are currently an estimated 100 million gamers worldwide, according to Mr Eric Lesser, associate partner, IBM Institute for Business Value. And according to two studies conducted by IBM, MIT, Stanford University and Seriosity (a software start-up), “online games can help tomorrow’s workers become better corporate leaders as the workspace becomes more distributed, collaborative and virtual in nature.”

It seems that playing massive multi-player online role playing games can actually help you to pick up interactive and communication as well as leadership skills as you interact, collaborate and compete with thousands of other gamers, on a global basis!

And with things being played out in real time, players need to make snap decisions and adapt to the ever changing environment. And such skills honed in the virtual game worlds can have real benefits and it’s suggested that employers of the future look out for people who have played games as they have picked up those requisite skills.

Hm..so it’s no longer taboo to put gaming or playing games as one of your interests in your resume!

But of course, the consequences of  ‘game over’ in the virtual and real worlds have vastly different consequences and that’s something players need to be made aware of.  “Leaders in the future will need to be able to tolerate and manage informed risk to be successful in an increasingly fast and complex environment,” said Mr Lesser. 

In another interesting article, Avatars without borders, we learn that the creator of Second Life and IBM have joined forces to enable people’s animated online personae, aka avatars to rmove freely from one virtual world to another.

Currently, avatars are stuck in the world they inhabit, so an avatar in Second Life has to stick around Second Life worlds. Given that people spend so much time and money customising their avatars, getting new wardrobes, hairstyles, gestures, etc, they don’t really want to repeating the processes in multiple virtual worlds. This creates an obstacle to the full potential of the online universe to allow for avatars to socialise, advertise, do business and make money. 

“We don’t think the future of virtual worlds is going to involve a lot of ’siloed’ experiences competing against each other. The future is going to involve going from one world to another, ” says, Mr Yoon of Linden Lab. According to Gartner research firm, 80 per cent of the people using the Internet will have alter egos in virtual worlds by 2011. IBM also has its vision of a “3D Internet” that includes companies using virtual worlds for tasks such as recruiting, meetings and employee training. Hm..imagine your avatar going for an interview online in your future virtual company! Better start practising your online interview skills! And make sure your avatar can fly straight!

So, once again, the gaming and virtual worlds are having more and more impact on the real world we inhabit. It’s no wonder some are beginning to not know where to draw the lines.

The relationship between politics and the Internet is not a new one. When the Internet first became big, people talked about the new wave of democratization it would bring with it, and it’s true. To a great extent, information has become borderless, giving people knowledge and power to make informed decisions. Online polls have become the rage, not just in politics but just in about everything else.

But what’s been happening lately in the US Presidential elections fight-out, is that new media in the form of MySpace and Youtube have been roped in as presidential election aids, and they have helped to make politics sexy and hip! It’s a win-win situation for both the political candidates and the Internet portals. Youtube has launched its You Choose ‘08 voters outreach for the 2008 presidential election, and not to be outdone is MySpace that is introducing an Impact Channel that will contain blog links to the MySpace pages of the presidential candidates. 

These new media channels would be a good way to engage the users of these portals, who may usually form the ‘apathetic youth demographic’, according to a NY Times article. I’m including links to some of the key contenders here. You will be able to see

Hilary Clinton talking about her wish to start conversations with the American public. She mentions that with the help of technology, she would be interacting with the public through live online chats. Rudy Giuliani talks about his proven record in improving the lives of Americans, while Barack Obama shares his vision for the future.

It looks like the US Presidential elections will be exciting not just because of the interesting range of candidates (perhaps a first woman president, or African-American president for the US!!), not just because of the cyberwars that will be played out between portals such as Youtube and MySpace, but the cyberwars that will take place between the candidates and their supporters as well! It will be one exciting fight to watch.

I’d bet all politicians are watching and learning as well.  Who knows, Singapore politics may also go online, and I don’t just mean BG George Yeo’s shared blog. It’s likely that Singaporean youths would be more engaged that way. Who knows, maybe we will have a political arena in Second Life for the next General Elections and the avatars of candidates will be teleporting themselves to the various constituencies to canvass support! Whatever it is, it’s sure to beat watching our MPs doing hip hop during Chingay, or whenever, for that matter. 

Anyway, I’ll now leave you with Bush doing stand-up comedy! Enjoy!

It’s been a dizzying first hour living my Second Life. After all that hype about it, I thought I should pop in and take a look. Downloading Second Life was easy enough, but thinking of a name was tough! First, all ‘normal’ first names were taken. Anyway, you are reminded that it’s your second life so you should choose something unique. That name would stay with you all of your second life! Then, you will need to choose a surname from a given list of pretty European-sounding surnames. It makes everyone sound like the Man from Russia or Yugoslavia! Then, you need to select your avatar. Frankly, there are not many to choose from, and they do look kinda weird, but then again, you are supposed to customise your look later on. Then, you need to get yourself oriented with four short tutorials, and just when you thought you could enter the Mainland, you are told to get further oriented in Help Land. You are told that once you leave Help Land, there’s no turning back!! Gulp! That makes the Main Land sound like a scary mess of places and people! I’m reluctant to leave Helpland for now. Still need to get used to manouvering my avatar around without spinning in circles.

I’ve met some pretty strange- sounding avatars …Ferrari Beygnal… (well, like I’m one to talk!) as well as some strange-looking ones … harajuku girl..(again, I’m not one to talk!) who have been speaking to me in strange languages, which goes to show how cosmopolitan the Second Life world is.

So far, I’ve managed to change my appearance a little so that I don’t look so lost all the time. Also, my skinny legs needed some muscles! I’ve also been given one Linden dollar to buy myself a shirt (Yes, one Linden dollar can still go that far, but then again, it’s a strange-looking shirt). I’ve come across other avatars looking pretty lost too. As much as I wish to venture to the MAINLAND, I’m reluctant to leave the peace and quiet of Help Land.

Anyway, I’ve yet to master the art of flying! Maybe tomorrow, I’ll fly to the MAINLAND!