Today's quote of the day was from someone I have never heard of before and his quote was introduced in the previous lesson. After spending the last week doing the finishing touches on my group's blog however, I realised the power of his statement and it rang through as we were preparing for our presentation which we had this week. Through our research, we were learning, we were acquiring knowledge, we were piling up facts but then we had to decide what was the most important things that we thought people should learn based on what we had found out. We had to think about what we were learning and draw insight from what we read and project implications from what we knew and we had to put that in a webpage that was accessible and visually attractive to people and that was when I felt we acquired wisdom in simplifying what we knew for other people to understand, for other people to learn from.
There were 5 group presentations today as the last presentation from the previous week was brought forward to this week.
The groups presented on the topics of
- Mind controlled prosthetics
- Transhumanism
- Genetically Modified food
- Advertising and sex
- Virtual Reality
Mind Controlled Prosthetics
Presentation
I found their presentation to be rather interesting as they interjected the presentation with rather quirky hand signs that helped us to visualise what they were saying with more clarity. This included crushing a water bottle to show the proposed strength of such mind controlled prosthetics that could not be controlled. I found their website to be very neatly organised as well.
Content
I found their content to be rather informative and I especially liked their inspiration section where they showed what inspired their idea for their project which I thought was quite good as they were sharing their inspiration with others which drew people to be more passionate about their ideas. I think that in the future, mind-controlled prosthetics will definitely become a part of the lives of the disabled because it will give them more jurisdiction over their own actions and it will help them fell more normal again and integrate more smoothly into society. However for thees mind-controlled to be fully effective there may need to be surgery done to incorporate these equipment into the people's heads which could have very harmful side effects on health and there needs to be more refining of such procedures before it can be successfully implemented on a wide scale.
Presentation
I found their presentation to be rather interesting as they interjected the presentation with rather quirky hand signs that helped us to visualise what they were saying with more clarity. This included crushing a water bottle to show the proposed strength of such mind controlled prosthetics that could not be controlled. I found their website to be very neatly organised as well.
Content
I found their content to be rather informative and I especially liked their inspiration section where they showed what inspired their idea for their project which I thought was quite good as they were sharing their inspiration with others which drew people to be more passionate about their ideas. I think that in the future, mind-controlled prosthetics will definitely become a part of the lives of the disabled because it will give them more jurisdiction over their own actions and it will help them fell more normal again and integrate more smoothly into society. However for thees mind-controlled to be fully effective there may need to be surgery done to incorporate these equipment into the people's heads which could have very harmful side effects on health and there needs to be more refining of such procedures before it can be successfully implemented on a wide scale.
Transhumanism
Presentation
I quite liked their presentation of their website as it had clear headers and well-organised sections with the rather metallic feel which I felt suited their theme on transhumanism.
Content
I found their content to be rather wide-ranging but there was one idea that I felt could be better addressed which was the possible effects in having transhumanism on its overall impact on society. As we know such technology would be expensive and it is likely that only the rich will be able to afford such high level technology. As such, due to the difficulty of the poorer people in obtaining the necessary technology to improve themselves, they will become sub-standard humans and this will be like the creation of another race completely. This could be very damaging as it would be divisive in society and will continually oppress these people without the transhuman characteristics as even if they were to revolt, they could be easily subdued with the people with their transhuman characteristics due to their transhumanism. This is a problem that is not easy to solve should we go the way of transhumanism and should be a pointer that the group seeks to provide some solutions to.
Presentation
I quite liked their presentation of their website as it had clear headers and well-organised sections with the rather metallic feel which I felt suited their theme on transhumanism.
Content
I found their content to be rather wide-ranging but there was one idea that I felt could be better addressed which was the possible effects in having transhumanism on its overall impact on society. As we know such technology would be expensive and it is likely that only the rich will be able to afford such high level technology. As such, due to the difficulty of the poorer people in obtaining the necessary technology to improve themselves, they will become sub-standard humans and this will be like the creation of another race completely. This could be very damaging as it would be divisive in society and will continually oppress these people without the transhuman characteristics as even if they were to revolt, they could be easily subdued with the people with their transhuman characteristics due to their transhumanism. This is a problem that is not easy to solve should we go the way of transhumanism and should be a pointer that the group seeks to provide some solutions to.
Genetically Modified Food
Presentation
This was the group who's website i found the most visually eye catching very neatly defined sections with beautiful pictures and rather nice buttons. I also liked the effort they made in doing a short skit at the start to show the difference between a farmer who had access to genetically modified food and those who did not.
Content
Their content was rather clear and quite detailed going into the three aspects of biotechnology, agriculture and food preservation and the implications of each. One problem that I think that they could have expanded more on though was the idea of the socio-economic divide that exists. I understand that they were trying to show how the technology developed in relation to improving food quality and distribution was beneficial in help spreading the food more accessible to the masses. That said, I felt that they could have explained more about how these technology would be made more affordable such that less developed countries could leverage on this technology to reap its benefits. Personally, I feel that microfinancing is one of the possible answers to this problem as these will provide the loans to people who do not have the collateral to borrow the requisite funds to purchase these technology that will increase their yield. Although I admit this is not the be all and end all solution, it will definitely go a long way in helping them to break out of the poverty cycle.
Presentation
This was the group who's website i found the most visually eye catching very neatly defined sections with beautiful pictures and rather nice buttons. I also liked the effort they made in doing a short skit at the start to show the difference between a farmer who had access to genetically modified food and those who did not.
Content
Their content was rather clear and quite detailed going into the three aspects of biotechnology, agriculture and food preservation and the implications of each. One problem that I think that they could have expanded more on though was the idea of the socio-economic divide that exists. I understand that they were trying to show how the technology developed in relation to improving food quality and distribution was beneficial in help spreading the food more accessible to the masses. That said, I felt that they could have explained more about how these technology would be made more affordable such that less developed countries could leverage on this technology to reap its benefits. Personally, I feel that microfinancing is one of the possible answers to this problem as these will provide the loans to people who do not have the collateral to borrow the requisite funds to purchase these technology that will increase their yield. Although I admit this is not the be all and end all solution, it will definitely go a long way in helping them to break out of the poverty cycle.
Advertising and Sex
Presentation
I found that the theme that they applied to their website really brought out the idea that they were trying to bring out and the pictures that they selected were judicious in emphasising each of the points that they made.
Content
I looked briefly at their website before they presented and initially I could not think of a possible connection between their topic and technology. This all came to light when they presented and explained how technology was as defined as Professor Shahi the knowlege that we acquire and how we use it. Here they were trying to draw a link between understanding the technology of advertising. They were exploring how sex was a tool of advertising used to further this technology which I felt was a rather novel and unique way of looking at the topic.
It was centred on the fundamental idea of what technology was and despite us being quite amazed by the various new gadgetry that was introduced throughout the whole module, it was a timely reminder that no matter how much we think technology is about the amazing new developments in devices, there is always the basic principle of technology being that of knowledge and how we apply the knowledge that we have and that will remain the basis of how we will move forward with technology in the future.
Presentation
I found that the theme that they applied to their website really brought out the idea that they were trying to bring out and the pictures that they selected were judicious in emphasising each of the points that they made.
Content
I looked briefly at their website before they presented and initially I could not think of a possible connection between their topic and technology. This all came to light when they presented and explained how technology was as defined as Professor Shahi the knowlege that we acquire and how we use it. Here they were trying to draw a link between understanding the technology of advertising. They were exploring how sex was a tool of advertising used to further this technology which I felt was a rather novel and unique way of looking at the topic.
It was centred on the fundamental idea of what technology was and despite us being quite amazed by the various new gadgetry that was introduced throughout the whole module, it was a timely reminder that no matter how much we think technology is about the amazing new developments in devices, there is always the basic principle of technology being that of knowledge and how we apply the knowledge that we have and that will remain the basis of how we will move forward with technology in the future.
Virtual Reality
My group was the last to present. We really enjoyed making the video that represented virtual reality with one of my groupmates leaving the classroom and then appearing in the video as well as passing a piece of paper by scanning it through the screen such that it would be replicated in the virtual world. I personally find the virtual world a very exciting topic and one that can be said to be at the cutting edge of technology especially with its current developments with the IKEA application that can replicate their furniture into your home, saving you the trouble of going down to IKEA yourself each time you want a new piece of furniture as well as the application called LAYAR that allows you to read information on a poster that can only be seen when holding your device with the application over the image on the screen. It was a technology which holds several exciting possibilities especially in the area of education and increasing safety in the use of other technologies and I was proud to have the opportunity to share our findings with the class.
This marked the end of our TWC journey which I will be reviewing in the next post.
Cheers,
Amanda Tan
This marked the end of our TWC journey which I will be reviewing in the next post.
Cheers,
Amanda Tan
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