WEEK 5--INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY(ICT) & World Change

       This week we focus mainly on information and communication technology which comprise of wireless network, mass media, internet and many other interactive telecommunication. This topic is very interesting because it has now been all around us affecting us in one way or another. Firstly, the Mass media has changed from their traditional way of only providing news and thoughts to readers to the modern way of interaction which allows readers to be part of the reading by commenting on the issues online. Secondly, internet is now moving towards web 3.0 which is believe to be a continous from web 2.0 with more and more appliances connected to the internet and social networking. Allowing us to know our current location and even recommending the best food place around, we can see that the world is changing to allow the technology reach us even closer. Despite many points being mentioned, Prof Shahi believed that gaming is currently the one of the most influencial area of technology which is affected many other fields such as medical and the military. Take for example the using of joystick has been adopted by both fields to use to aim targets with great precision and accuracy.

         In addition to those points, one of the reading was reviewing on cloud computing which enthralled me because the technology has advanced to the extend where we are moving away from stalling our information mainly in the desktop to stalling them online. All these informations can be retrieved and used anytime we need them while on demand. This is a new scope that has been tried out and experimented as mentioned in the article, using the case study that had been done on Europe where several small to medium range enterprises exists. The result shows that adopting the cloud computing allows companies to cut cost and also to increase the employment rates. Furthermore, it also suggests that in time of another global crisis, cloud computing could play an important role to promoting recovery and fostering growth. The commonly used of cloud technology would be stuff like google doc., spreadsheet, usage of facebook, linkedin,twitter to store informations. However, this also means that people can be able to gain access to them also such as hackers thus the question i wanted to ask is if it is considered save? Storing private informations online i would not deny that it brings us alot of convenience but it also has some risks in the invasion of our privacy by others.

                 Prof also shows us three quotes including one that he wrote on the whiteboard: ‘ Any Sufficiently Advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’by  Arthur C Clarke,‘The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21^st century will not occur because of technology but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human’ by John Naisbitt and prof shahi, 'ICT is the catalyst that facilitates the knowledge revolution' All these actually related to ICT about how technology is able to create things that are extraordinary which we will find it fasinating as this are stuffs that we thought can never happen such as the invention of robots that are able to react and talk with emotion to human being. The ability to communicate beyond boundaries such as using skype and get through to anyone around the world, would have been seen by the ancient times as dream or fantasy but now everything has come true.Moreover, ICT provides a platform for us to move ahead to the next stage of human development, changing the way we read , write and interact with people around us. It allows us to be more innovative and believing that anything can happen.

         Thoughts were flashing through my mind when i watched the YouTube video on Virtual boy, Milo interacting with Claire and reading through the article. I astonished after watching the video as this could well be the next 5G technology that is hitting the world or market. Currently, with the concept of 3G being planted in many televisions sets and movies, we are able to experience the characters being close to us and making us more involved in the show. Nevertheless, with that kind of amazing technology advancement it can contribute to a major change in human life as mention in the article too. Benefiting people of all ages and walks of lives such as children would be taken care of, working personnel can use it as personal assistant and they can be a companion to the elderly. I anticipate that every households will have this technology and impacting the life of each and individual person in the world. However, there are always pros and cons to every issues and topics thus will this lead to social decay where children would be too obsess with this virtual portray of humans and forget that they are still living in a world where they still have to leave their house to mix around expanding their social cycles. Adults would be relying heavily on them to deal with matters and settle administrative things that make them even lazier thus if any breakdowns happen the consequences will be quite devastating. The main purpose of having technology is to allow humans to ease their workload and allocate their time efficiently on other areas and also to allow better accessibility to places, knowledge all around the world and better communication. Therefore, i hope that this advancement would allow people to rip off the benefits and not a bane to us.

                 I would rate this lesson 8/10 because there were several constructive ideas that were put across and topics being raise were worth thinking through. I learnt alot from this lesson and do look forward to the next one just like any other weeks.