Classrooms (Real and Imagined)

Sometime last week, my little sister happily announced over dinner that her class had an extra free period during Maths that day.

Me: Free period? Maths? Orhhh.. Teacher absent is it?

Sis: Nope. The internet connection in the computer lab was down. =)

Me: o.o?!?!

It turned out that her Maths lessons now consists of having each pupil sit in front of a computer in the computer lab, navigating themselves around learning websites which has interesting programs teaching and allowing students to practise their mathematics skills through engaging games. The teacher then walks around facilitating students' usage of the computer.

About a decade ago, the age whereby I myself was in Pri 4, classrooms looked something like that...



Teachers still used chalkboards and each student relied mainly on their textbooks and exercise books.

In my secondary school, classrooms started to look like this.



Chalkboards were substituted with whiteboards. Teachers started to rely more on overhead projectors and a little bit of computers. Once in a blue moon,
we were taken to the computer labs for certain lessons. A rare treat!

At that time, our imagined classrooms of the future would probably be what we have now.

Currently, for certain schools or subjects, some classrooms already look like this...



Where each student sits in front of a computer and interacts more with the computer than the teacher. 'Blackboard' now refers to a provider of products that enable universities, schools, and corporations to host their classes on the World Wide Web.


At first I naively thought such technological advances in the classroom came with age. I'm growing up and progressing up the educatinal ladder and thus with each advancement, classrooms are more well-equipped! Until I realized that children in Primary schools or even pre-school have classrooms that are very well-equipped technological-wise. *Cue the awe and disappointment.*

Before long, we can expect to see...



And nope, this is not the farthest we could go with integrating digital wonder into the classrooms.

Imagine a future where the desks and seats have been substituted by workstations such as the RM Delta (click to read more about it, it's pretty interesting), specially designed for future classrooms.



The high utility of technology in classrooms may or may not be beneficial to the essential act of teaching and learning, as can be seen in this article questioning the wiseness of schools that have spent too much money digitalising the classroom with gadgets and technology, but the thought of a tech-savvy classroom filled with jawdropping gadgets that people of the older generation could only dream of is still an ideal that people are working towards.

At the rate we are going down the path of technological advancements, the future digital classroom is indeed something worth beholding. As far as imaginations go, a good guideline would be the government's vision for 2015.



Every student will own a slim tablet of their own, containing everything they need to succeed in the classroom.

Or perhaps there wouldn't even be future digital classrooms. With technology, learning is becoming very much an individualised process, so what's to stop it from being such that students of the future can all learn at home using their own computers and laptops and tablets and whatnots?

Classes will be taught through interactive web programs, e-learning where virtual lecturers provide students with information needed and best of all, these lectures can be repeated as and when needed (e.g. when studying for exams!) Assignments can be submitted online, students' usage of 'class hours' can be monitored online, etc.

Seems like in future, instead of teachers, we'll be needing more IT experts to ensure that all these technology function properly, cuz by then, the malfunction of the computer or an Internet downtime wouldn't mean just a free period, it'll mean a whole free day void of learning.

E(volved)-Marketing

With technology, everything around us is evolving.

The Internet has led to evolved models of e-business, e-commerce, so on and so forth. Most (if not all) aspects of setting up and maintaining a business are being shifted online. Marketing joined in along with the shift and now, online marketing is an essential ingredient that no company should lack in the recipe to being successful.

The evolution in marketing has resulted in Internet Marketing—The End of Traditional Marketing as We Know It. Building on to WEB 2.0, it's also called Marketing 2.0.

So what determines the success of E-Marketing?

The most important key to any form of successful marketing is personalisation. There are little details to take note of to remind your customers (or potential customers) that you acknowledge them as individuals and are reaching out to them not as part of a nameless group of strangers but as unique people with a possible interest in what you have to offer. It is to your benefit that you build and maintain relationships with clients through the Internet.

- If possible, include names on all e-mails sent to current and potential clients. It would definitely be a lot more personal than a mass sent email addressed to 'whomever it may concern.'

- Make sure your e-marketing content (newsletters, etc) makes sense. Sending out ill-thought of materials merely annoys clients. Ensure that the tone of your materials is warm and perhaps even appropriately humorous. Make these materials something that your clients look forward to receiving.

- Make clients feel welcomed at your website. To the virtual visitor, your website is your office. It must be friendly and easy to navigate. Make clients feel at home.

- Focus on getting customers to come back. Never be tempted to trick customers into dealing with you by using unorthodox methods like misleading offers or coercion. You could earn a few dollars that way, but in the long term, never forget that on the Internet, it is so much easier for dissatisfied customers to spread complaints and ruin the name of your company.

- Clearly identify the actions you would like the visitors to take. For a primary goal of selling a product, your call to action would probably be 'Buy this product now...' or something similar.

This evolved form of marketing could possibly make or break a company so it would be wise to pay attention to the little intricate details and not bank on old methods that worked fine with traditional marketing.

Never be too awed by an evolution not to work it for the best. =)

Resources:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Simple-Ways-to-Ensure-eMarketing-Success&id=1909268
http://www.phoneplusmag.com/articles/241echannel2.html
http://www.thewisemarketer.com/features/read.asp?id=19

Life...Second to None...

*I know it's a long post. So if you have no patience with the intro, click here to jump straight to the main part.*


*Flashback to somewhere in 2006*

On the large projected image on the wall, my avatar flew around idly, drawing gasps of surprise from the batch of Secondary School students who had just stepped through the door. My partner took the chance to gather them around us and begin our well-memorized presentation.

We were midway through the second day of Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Open House. To promote our course, my partner and I were in charge of demonstrating Second Life on some of the many laptops hooked up to the projector, explaining how such programs could serve to benefit businesses.

I had done my homework (sort of). I had...

1) browsed around the Second Life website.

2) got myself an account with a not too cheesy username.

3) tried downloading Second Life on my own laptop (and giving up because it made my computer lag very badly).

4) spent a fair bit of time exploring Second Life on the school computers.

5) created my avatar.

6) attempted to make it look as much like me as possible, (long and tedious process, so I decided to be contented with the default avatar).

7) been wowed by the teleporting and flying abilities.


On the lecturer's orders, I had also...


1) familiarized myself with Anshe Chung (the lady from China who became a millionaire selling virtual property on Second Life).

2) navigated my way around Dell island (pretty interesting concept, not so much the virtual PCs part but the part where you get to test out their products in the virtual world and purchase one to be delivered to you in the real world.)

3) visited IBM island (apparently IBM holds employee meetings there, and there's their virtual health island).

4) generally acquainted myself with Second Life's world, creations and most interestingly the marketplace.

I was good to go, all prepared to seriously impress the students. Except...

That particular day, the teleportation function was down and I was stuck at landing area. To maximize my demonstrations, I started a conversation with a friendly female character in the area whom I dubbed Green (due to her striking bright green ponytail).

Before long,, a young man with long spiky hair (thus unoriginally dubbed Spiky) walked over to Green. In the bottom left corner, where chat messages usually appeared, rows after rows of words started appearing. I squinted a little at the words, unsure as to what I was seeing...and then it hit me.

Spiky was actively engaging Green in...virtual sex?

My partner was blissfully oblivious, his back to the screen, animatedly explaining Anshe Chung's unique business to the group, and in my shocked state, I spotted a few students turning their heads around to look at the screen...

I hurriedly directed my avatar into the air and away from the engrossed pair, tried and failed (again) to teleport myself away, attempted to call up different windows, and then the whole program seemed to hang when I tried to log out...yet the rows of detailed descriptions kept appearing.

In desperation, I held the power button down.

The laptop went out with a noisy whirl that ceased abruptly, and that, combined with the sudden lack of image projected on the wall, drew all attention to me. My partner gave me a bewildered look and the students began nudging and whispering to each other.

"Tech...technical glitch..." I mumbled, red-faced as someone, somewhere, burst out laughing.

*End of Flashback*


I never ventured into Second Life again after that fateful Open House.

I had no reason to.

The idea of virtual reality sounds awesome enough. If you imagine yourself literally in another world, with abilities one can only dream of, meeting people from all walks of life, living an alternate lifestyle in contrast to what might be a dreary real life, virtual reality ought to blow your mind away.

Yet, at the risk of sounding like a brainless buffoon, at that time, Second Life seemed very much to me (the average layman stripped of coding skills and business inclinations) like a highly glamorized chatroom doused with gimmicks. The thrill and excitement of having an avatar flying and teleporting around wore off after awhile and certain aspects of it just seemed kinda dumb.

What really killed the excitement for me, apart from that virtual sex incident, was when my avatar flew past this brightly colored patch on the beach and landing on it suddenly equipped me with 'dancing' abilities. As I watched my avatar twisting and gyrating away to the music, I wondered what joy I was supposed to derive from that. In the chat area, the other dancing characters were going on and on about how, "This is so fun!" and "Your dance moves are amazing!" and I'm like "RIGHT~!"

Presuming the other people were like myself, sitting down somewhere in front of a computer screen and directing avatars using keyboard and mouse, I don't get the thrill of watching an animated character dance when the only part of my body I could claim to be dancing at the same time were my fingers.

Social media such as Second Life and Skype have brought us so much convenience: work and project meetings conducted beyond space and time IN a different world altogether; the ability to meet new people and keep in contact with old friends all within the comfort of your home; the wonders of acquired abilities that we'll never have in a lifetime; the miracle of financing yourself through jobs in the virtual world, etc.

But what of real life?

In class we heard about how there are embassies being set up for Second Life and how people sue or get sued over Second Life. The thought running through my mind was: are humans so far removed in their search for better, ideal lives where they are in control of everything that they would much rather live a second life staring after an animated representation of themselves?

Social Media is all good and amazing, I don't deny my reliance on and enjoyment of the various forms of social media. But when it gets in the way of real life, when you begin to think its something you can't live or function properly without, (think addiction), then its high time to hold down the power button like I did that day and shut it all down manually.

And at least I know that in real life, no real people are ever gonna walk by when I'm talking to a bunch of students and attempt to educate them in certain matters beyond their school curriculum. I'll gladly be inconvenienced to keep things that way.

First Words (the coughing post below doesn't count as one)

A few minutes ago, I went to Google and searched for images for the word 'web', expecting to find pictures of spiderwebs. Albeit unrealistic in present day and time, for me, the word 'web' brings to mind this:



Instead, I got pages after pages of pictures depicting the Internet and its various technicalities, such as this:



I suppose it's easy to see the resemblance between the two, but whilst one is an intricate wonder of nature, the other is a man-made phenomenon that has seeped so thoroughly into each and every one of our lives that we dare not imagine life without it.

I won't pretend to understand the technical terms wikipedia and various other websites are throwing at me now, just like I can't pretend I've retained a lot of information from my poly days. *rolls up my Business IT Diploma and locks it away regretfully* So I'm going to look at this from my own layman point of view.

With the Internet, information, entertainment, contact, obligations and work all comes at the click of the mouse (and yes perhaps some clicking on the keyboard but let's keep things simple for now and leave it at the mouse, Douglas Engelbart didn't invent something so marvelous for it to be overlooked).

At this insane hour when normal human beings are supposed to be sound asleep but I'm unfortunately quite awake, I'm heartened to be able to :

1) turn on my computer
2) connect to the Internet through wireless RIGHT AWAY
3) go on MSN to chat with other nocturnal creatures (but no I'm not one)
4) google up information about the Internet and the likes
5) login to blogger to attempt to do my weekly blog assignment
6) check up on words that I'm unsure of on the dictionary
7) entertain myself with music from haoting and imeem

All of the above, and perhaps many more unmentioned, are things that you and I do in our everyday lives. We've gotten so used to it that it all comes without thinking. Our generation have grown up WITH the Internet, and the next generation will grow up knowing next to nothing before the web 2.0 we've all embraced and grown reliant on.

The reason for the significance of the Internet? Humanity's needs for immediacy, convenience and contact. We no longer have the patience to slowly wait out the obligatory processes of everyday life, we want results and gratification at the snap of our fingers, and above it all, we need to be in constant contact with the outside world at all times if only to convince ourselves that we are not alone.

And yes the Internet does ensure that we are not alone. What with blogs and social networking sites and MSN and Skype providing their services to ensure that everyone stays connected (and get connected to even more people), with geographical boundaries and limitations of time overcomed, the Internet is therefore very much a huge gigantic virtual spiderweb spanning the surface of Earth and beyond, with every point a bookmark linking everyone and everything together.

Just in case you were wondering, I finally found one picture of a spiderweb on page 7 of the Google Image search results for the word 'web'.

Humanity is not totally lost to nature...yet.

=)

Ahem ahem..