Tuesday 15 April 2008

Week 10 - task 6 - Web 3.0

Web 3.0 is said to be a term describing the future of the world wide web. It is an extension of Web 2.0 which is the form of web that we are currently experiencing.
In terms of how it differs from semantic web, I don't really think it does as such because they are both ways in how the web is evolving and becoming better. I think that they are going to work alongside one another and work together to become something that is an even better version of the web that we experience today.

I don't really know what else to say about Web 3.0 so if anybody would like to expand on my ideas the feel free to do so :)

Week 10 - task 5 - What is the semantic web?

What is the semantic web? From what I understand from what I've read, the semantic web is an extension of the world wide web. It was thought up by Tim Berners-Lee in 2001. It can be described as a big web of data which makes it easier for computers to get hold of, and understand the information that it is being given. For example, when we're searching for something specific, because of semantic web, it means that the computer can understand this and can narrow down our search a little so that we aren't searching through pages and pages for hours and hours.

I found a link which will help explain it more because I think that it is a quite complex thing to try and explain:
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

Week 10-task 4- Is there a potential problem being stored up for people if 'education' is tailored to fit into their cultural and personal preference

I think there is definitely a potential problem being stored up if education is tailored to fit the cultural and personal preferences of a person. Not everybody is interested in or believes in the same things and their are now so many different interests and cultures about. If education was tailored to fit every single persons cultural and personal preferences then there would be so many different styles of teaching going on and the classes would end up with like 2 or 3 or even 1 person in each class. Which would also mean that the classes would become a lot shorter, or a teachers and child's school day would become a lot longer because they'd be trying to fit everyone in. I just personally think it'd be stupid to try and cater for every bodies individual tastes and preferences.

When you're younger and you attend classes such as religious studies, you get to learn about other people's cultures and beliefs and cultural practices and it can be quite interesting to learn and you are taught to accept more people even if they do have a different culture to your own. If this wasn't the case, and education was tailored just to fit into your culture then you wouldn't be as accepting of different people to yourself and different cultures and issues like racism ad bullying would be a lot worse than they are today.

Week 10 - task 2 - part b - What difference to all this might the digital divide make to global access issues across countries and regions?

With living in a developed country like ours, the UK, the majority of us will have access to the Internet or have the Internet ourselves in our homes. But, this isn't the case for all countries across the world. A lot of under developed countries won't have access to the Internet like we do. Even if they did have a place near them that had the Internet, numerous people living in third world countries won't even be able to afford to go and use the Internet. This is a major problem which is definitely creating an increase in the digital divide.

If Prensky's notion of distance learning was to become the known for education, then so many people in under developed countries would be deprived of this kind of education and possibly education in general if it was to become such a well used thing that schools are no longer needed - it is all online. There are a few places in countries in Africa that have only just got access to schools and normal, non online education. So it'd be these countries that would suffer.

I terms of regions, even some regions suffer from having no access to the Internet because they live in the middle of nowhere so the Internet signals would be weak and means that they can't use the Internet at a high speed like many of us lot do. So this could influence them to not use the Internet at all because it could take ages for an Internet page to load up, let alone connect properly. - This is again adding to the gap in the digital divide and it is a problem which might not be able to be helped.

Week 10 - task 2 - part a - What difference to all this might the 'digital divide' make to socioeconomically related access issues within a society?

Some people can't afford to keep up to date with all the latest technologies coming out. There are some people who don't even have a computer at home. This is always going to be the case and I don't think it will ever change. I do feel though that this is a factor that is helping create a digital divide.

I remember one of my friends in school didn't have access to the Internet at home and it used to cause big problems sometimes with homework that you needed the Internet for and also she'd sometimes miss out on conversations that we'd all be having on msn and chatting about it in school the next day and she'd feel a bit left out. She could go round to her uncles sometimes and use their Internet but that meant a 30min bus ride so it wasn't always convenient. And yeah..she could use schools Internet to get her work done but that either meant staying behind after school and missing her bus home, or using up her dinner time and that meant missing out on even more stuff going on in our group.

It's situations like that which create a digital divide.

Another thing that causes a digital divide is that there are always new, better versions of laptops, mobile phones and other technologies. And because they are so expensive when they first come out, people wait until they are cheaper and then buy them but then a newer, better and more advanced technology laptop comes out and you're again missing out on something that other people have. - This creates a digital divide too because people will always be behind with all the latest technologies.

Week 10 - task 1 - Wenger vs Prensky

When looking at both of the notions by Wenger and Prensky, you can see that the two do connect quite well. Prensky believes that distance learning will eventually be very popular and places all over the world will have the option of doing distance learning courses. As, like with all courses, people will pick a subject that interests them. And because part of distance learning would usually involve a forum where the online lectures and seminars can be discussed, this would make the forum as CofP because as discussed in my earlier blogs I believe that our forum is a CofP. Therefore, Prensky's idea of distance learning becoming more popular would fit into Wenger's notion of Communities of Practice (CofP).

This unit that we're doing is a type of distance learning unit because our seminars take place online in the forums and on each others blogs. And I would definitely say, and have already said, that our forum and our blogs are a type of CofP because we are all heading for the same goal and the language we used on our blogs is a shared repertoire that only we'd understand where as somebody not doing out course might not understand what we're discussing in our blogs.

Fictional technophile student in 2020..

Amber is woken up by the sound of her digital, wireless alarm clock telling her today's date and time "It is 8am on the 22nd May 2020..wake up". As much as she loves this alarm clock it can be a right pain as the next thing that happens is it starts beeping really loudly and moving all round the room on it's little wheels so that she can't hit the snooze button without getting out of bed. At least it works though with getting her up!

She goes into the living room and has her breakfast whilst watching the plasma TV and bluetoothing her housemate via the TV who's still upstairs in bed and also needs to get up to connect to today's online lecture. Once she's had her breakfast she turns on her laptop and makes sure the built in web cam is working. She then signs in to her university portal site and connects to today's lecture. As she does this she notices her other classmates signing in too waving at each other on the web cam links. Next to sign in is her lecturer and the online lecture begins. Throughout the lecture her classmates and herself post their thoughts and answers on the lecture in their forum for the unit.

After the lecture, Amber signs off the portal and signs into msn messenger to chat to her mates back home. Her and her best friend Tori start playing a game of tennis with their new web cam virtual reality game. Amber wins the game and is extremely happy as it's usually Tori who beats her every time! Once the game has ended, Tori and Amber arrange a time to meet up later for a coffee and Amber goes to get ready.