Week 5

Overview

Information communication technology is a highly debatable concept that encompasses all areas of our life, from economic to politic and social. It is interesting to see the transition in our lives and back then where computers and communication tools were not invented, where people communicate via snail mail and life was slow. Think back to the times when Singapore was hit by the Sars pandemic. Life would have stopped if there were no forms of ICT but since we do have it, everything continues, even for assignments and teachings.

Today’s lesson was filled with videos, from cloud computing to the Natal project( Milo guy). Cloud computing was a concept that I was unaware of which fascinates me. I never really thought about how facebook functions and how it is so convenient to use. It just never occurs to me that I did not need to install any applications to use facebook which is cool stuff. As for the milo guy, I was just awed at how technology could do what I thought was impossible. I mean the sensoring and replies from Milo was fascinating enough but I was blown away when the girl drew the diagram and pass it on to Milo and he receives it and even comment on it. Think about it, this may just be the new way of us uploading assignments!! No more uploading it on smuvista!! =D

Interesting observation

The presentations were all good as I get to learn a lot from them, be it in the technical aspects such as user interface which seeks to recognise face and gesture. It reminded me of the video that I saw on Shahi’s facebook page. The one where the table itself was a touch screen and it auto connects to the microwave. So you click on what you want via the drop down list and the item will be cooked. It is interesting to imagine myself surrounded by such technology but it also scares me as I feel overwhelmed by the technologies. The burning question in my head is that will technology eventually make the average human beings dumb and lazy? I mean we no longer need to think as the technologies do the thinking which is seen as convenience for us. Will we end up like the fat human beings with short hands in the Wall-E movie?

Another issue of interest was the thought of using wireless internet to link us to the developing countries as illustrated by Xiong Wei. This links me to reading 2 where it talks about how technology must match with needs in order for it to be used massively and create change. It focused on the change from human-to-human communications to machine-to-machine communications and that linking everyone up will create change. Yes, I agree that by linking up with the developing countries, there is a chance to closing the digital divide but it requires heavy fundings and there may be issues like how the powerful people will maintain power and so refuse to empower the powerless. So until these powerful nations are able to be more benevolent and think of helping the developing countries without other motives, it is difficult to achieve the vision of interconnectedness between all nations.

Lastly, would be the issue of ICT and interpersonal communication which was pretty interesting to think about too. The question on whether the absence of ICT would reduce the number of couples is something that I would agree on. Someone said that 1 in 8 of the married couples met online and that is a huge number. So I can say that ICT is actually continuing the human race/population. Without it, Singapore’s birth rate would have been lesser than 2.1 and Lee Kuan Yew would have relaxed the citizenship regulations. After all, I believe that ICT is the tool that holds distance relationships and pulling people from the west and east together.

Key Takeaways

· ICT, one that is beyond our imagination, will be the next big thing especially in the gaming arena.

· There is no way to escape from ICT as we unknowingly embrace it and move on with the flow, just like how we first embrace handphone and later on iphone etc at a faster rate. Thus, I believe that humans will embrace technologies once they are exposed to it and the rate will double each time.

Issues for further discussion

I guess we could go about more on how we could link developing world with the developed world via the use of ICT. I mean the idea of using technology via speech recognition would decrease the need for educating the less educated ones. The ease in using such technology will be way more sustainable.

Rating

10/10. I learnt lot from this lesson especially after listening to the presentations.