Reflections

I will be very honest.

At the very beginning I thought, "Introduction to the Internet? I took a Business IT diploma in Polytechnic, this module can't get too difficult can it?"

And gradually over the weeks I realized my folly.

It CAN be difficult beyond my initial imaginations, simply because there are so many more aspects to the Internet than one can grasp offhand.

Through the weeks, we have learnt of the Internet's prevalence in different aspects of our lives.

Youngsters have come to be highly reliant on social media to maintain their interpersonal relationships, we have seen how this can be beneficial yet detrimental to them at the same time. Through social media such as second life, we caught a glimpse of the future, when virtual worlds will likely rise in importance parallel to the real world.

In the working world, e-commerce have already carved a niche for itself by proving to be effective in bringing success to companies. Similarly, e-learning is proving itself a valuable asset to the education sector as students now learn through various other mediums that do not require them to be in a physical classroom setting.

We have learnt to create our own movies with Windows Movie Maker and come to appreciate the numerous tools of Google. Tools such as Google trends and Google scholar will serve us well as we continue our journey as students. We learnt about Bloom's Taxonomy and fixed and growth mindset, knowledge that would inspire us to keep ourselves geared towards the geared mindset so as to ensure constant mental growth.

We have been instructed on the various threats our poor computers face on a daily basis, and taught to arm and protect ourselves against these threats, a knowledge that will benefit us in the future years to come as reliance and dependence on the Internet grows.

Multimedia applications that we have been using often but taking for granted were highlighted to us as we witness how much multimedia can aid us in various aspects, in work, education and entertainment.

Finally, an apathetic me was introduced to the impacts Internet has on politics and journalism. I learned how traditional ways and methods were being overturned as the Internet proved itself more valuable in reaching out to the masses.

The future of the Internet is definitely something to look forward to, as intricate wonders made possible by this evolution in technology fills our minds and imaginations. However, it is worrying to see this growing dependence and reliance on the Internet as it brings to mind the inevitable question, "What if something should happen some day in the future that would cut humans off from the Internet and its likes totally?"

The course has been made enjoyable by the influx of videos shown in class and the various stories told to us by Mr Abel Choy. It was only as I struggled with the blog posts, as I tried to make sense of the complicated Bloom's Taxonomy definitions, as I read about the mind boggling ways Internet has influenced politics and journalism, that I realized I have learnt alot. =)