The semantic web

The semantic web is known as an extension of the world wide web. The Web can do many things, like searching and purchasing etc but these tasks can only be performed with human direction as they were built originally by humans however the difference with the semantic web is that the information is understandable by computers. For example, it says on wiki 'The semantic web is a vision of information that is understandable by computers, so that they can perform more of the tedious work involved in finding, sharing, and combining information on the web'. The semantic web is supposed to make the services more defined and satisfy the needs of both humans and machines to use the web, however the data is not part of the web. In simple terms it can be described as a web of data.

If Education is taliored

I think that if education was tailored to meet everyone’s cultural and personal preferences then potential problems could arise. First of all education is meant to be challenging and as stated in the previous blogs it is there to stretch people so if it is altered to meet ones personal needs then could this just lead to 'lazy' tendencies and making the system too easy. I understand that it helps some, for example online learning in China which has increased the amount of people who attend Uni and graduate however for education to change everywhere completing for everyone’s cultural and personal problems it cause conflict. If their are different 'rules' and ways of teaching for everyone it could provoke feelings of jealousy or anger towards another who might be seen to having it 'more easy' or 'not being taught properly'. Also grading work could become very difficult and many opinions would arise on this and how it is done fairly and equally.
Like i have said online learning worked in China and some other countries but if this was the system for everyone, would this cause problems? Would it be too much to handle?
I think education meeting some peoples cultural and personal preferences is a good idea in some cases, for example disabled and less mobile people who would perhaps not attend education otherwise, and people who live to far away and cants afford to travel. However, to meet everyone’s needs and change for a lot of people would cause conflict and disagreements. Furthermore i think education is there to teach/stretch you in a serious and helpful way, not to accommodate all your comforts and make it really easy to do. There would be no point in education if it was 'easy'.

Wenger and Prensky

Wengers notions on practice communities were that everyone within this community shared the same interests, what mattered to them and was all about participation. This links to Prensky’s views on education, the digital native and the digital immigrant as they shared the same principle of different 'categories' for different groups of people. For example like stated Wenger explained how groups/cofp formed through what mattered to them and participation and this is similar to Prensky as he also 'grouped' digital natives and digital immigrants. Furthermore the digital natives supposedly shared the same 'interests' in that they we able with technology and had their own language. This is similar for the digital immigrants who are also supposed to be in one group of people who not as up to date with technology and struggle to enter and understand the zone of a digital immigrant.
Obviously their theories are completely different however the notions of them share similarities in that they are both based upon ‘grouping’ and the relationships, language and participating within these groups.

Week 9, Technophile

What will a technophile be like and what will they love in 2020... i had never really thought about what the world would be like in 2020. I suppose i assumed it would just stay the same, which is silly as the world has changed so much from 'the olden days', therefore isn't it likely to keep changing? With technology being the centre of a lot of things today and as i said in previous blogs it being such an important part of uni, i can only assume people will be working to improve it and come up with new inventions. Who knows what a mobile will do in so many years! or will we even still have mobiles? will some new gadget replace it. I think i technophile will have a great experience in 2020, lectures and seminars could mostly become online, social networking could go to new extremes, laptops will have so many more functions and probably end up being handheld. Mind you isn’t a hand held laptop at the moment just a mobile phone.
I think because i am still shocked at some of the things technology and phones especially can do i can't imagine the future! On the other hand…. What if everyone got so bored of technology and it became unreliable and faulty all the time, could time just stand still and there be no improvements by 2020. Could we even go back to old ways? I’m not sure.

Week 9, Neo- Luddite

A neo-luddite being someone ‘‘who distrusts or fears the inevitable changes brought about by new technology” and believes that the “technical systems have evolved to control us rather than to serve us” (http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/luddite.html) would fins it very hard to ‘get by’ in a university today. It would be frustrating as a lot of the university life both socially and academically is revolved around new technology especially the internet. For example to access most things to do with this course you have to look on the MCC homepage.. on the internet. Furthermore a lot of contact with tutors is via email, and timetable changes and notifications of changed are displayed in the internet to. The person would struggle to start the course if they couldn’t access the internet for timetable and other notifications about room changes etc. Furthermore they would then find the rest of course frustrating as a fair bit of it requires the internet for research and e-journals to actually pass the unit. In addition to this a lot of our group work is arranged over facebook or msn or by mobile phone. Infact the more I describe it the more I think about how much technology is vital for our course and Uni in general. Its not just the academic side that might be frustrating as well. For example when I came to Uni I didn’t have facebook or anything I thought it was just something silly but felt I had to get it at Uni to be involved properly. This was because my new flats mates would write in each others walls, and comment on each others photos from funny nights out together and I wasn’t able to join in on this ‘bonding’.
I suppose if it didn’t exist at all (new technology) we wouldn’t need it and would have other ways of teaching and having research, but it is here and we use it so much that it must be very hard for a neo-luddite to enjoy and get through Uni.

Week 9, threatens the notion of native/immigrant in digital culture

I think because of the way Prensky has categorised people, more people threaten his notion then assumed. His notion is mainly based upon age and that if you are 'younger' and born into the digital world then you are a native however if you are older and were born before this then you are an immigrant. Although it to some extent makes sense that if you were born into it you are native and if not then you are immigrant, however i don't feel its true for our society today. There are 'older' people who generally know a lot more than some natives for example my dad who i have already mentioned. Furthermore there are so many 'older' people (than us) who work in the technology industry, designing new gadgets all the time, software for computers, computers themselves, developing the internet. There is so much being done which is not necessarily by natives. Therefore i think someone who is threatening these notions are my dad perhaps and other peoples parents who have taught themselves how to uses 'new' technology and are even teaching others and furthermore any 'older' person who is working within the technology industry and for major i.t/new media firms.

Week 9, The youngest immigrant

This is a tricky one! Everyone around our age that i can think of are all digital natives. I had never really thought how important technology was until now when i realised that i can’t think of someone our age that isn't a native. I suppose it could be aunty in her 40's, who is trying to learn how to use the internet and texting etc, but she is learning very quickly. I often get facebook messages from her where she has used some of 'our native language' and she doesn't have too much problem texting either. Then there is my mum who i do need to help a lot with the internet and computers! I had to teach her how to text as well and still have to fix her phone problems, however when she texts she uses more 'native language - slang, code' then i do! Is she still a digital immigrant?

Week 9, The oldest native

The oldest digital native I know is my Dad. It might help that he did teach I.T but he knows so much more about computers and the internet then me, I always go to him to fix my computer, or ring him up when I have put yet another virus on it. I would say I am a digital native, but just because he s older doesn’t suggest that he is an immigrant, like Prensky suggested when he stated that Today’s adolescent is a native in a digital world to which adults can only hope to immigrate (2001). I don’t think my dad is immigrating, he was there before me and is still teaching me. He also has facebook! I know many of our parents are now getting it. Also it’s not just the internet which he is ‘up-to-date’ with, although he doesn’t like to admit it and makes up that his ‘new’ phones are for ‘practical’ reasons they always manage to be the newest one out at the time.

Week 9, Education

Education should stretch a person, in the sense that it pushes people to learn more and reach the next level academically. If education doesn’t stretch somebody then are they really learning anything? To just ‘float’ through something rather than ‘stretch’ could propose that the person isn’t learning anything just ‘ticking the boxes to pass’. I personally need education to stretch me otherwise I become bored, lazy, tired and wonder what I am doing here? I know people who don’t attend lectures or ‘stretch’ to do work and just think why am I at Uni and what is the point.
I was thinking if education does ‘stretch’ and it is a good thing, then does new media go against this slightly. As you could argue it is there to make things easier, and I am now blogging in the ‘comfort of my own home’, whenever I like, instead of being ‘stretched’ to attend a seminar in less perhaps comforting surroundings. However on the other hand, there is so much work set and so much to find out that perhaps it balances the ‘comfort’ and we are being stretched.
For me to be stretched needs some recognition, as in how do I know I’m being stretched and have done well if someone isn’t telling me my answers are correct. I right these blogs and wonder if I have just missed the point completely however in lessons you can get the answers straight away. A lot to think about. Do you guys think this course stretches, or encourages lazy traits?

Absract Journal 5

The article is based upon the computer ‘game’ Second Life. It discusses what it is about and peoples experiences/’success’ on it. It proposes that the power of this virtual world could become greater than that of emails and instant messaging.