Red Queens

When reviewing a movie for my science fiction assignment I viewed it digitally on my computer. The ease of using movies online is one that I happen to like. I purchase movies from the Google Play store. There is much competition in the market for viewing movies. The use of actual DVD’s is one that I stopped using about two years ago. For some time I used free services such as Hulu, however that is no longer a free service so I do not use it. The competition is an example of Red Queens in that both digital and DVD movies are sharing the same market and eventually one will win out over the other.

DVD’s are soon to be the thing of the past and will fall on McLuhans tetrad under obsolete technologies. Video on demand services will be under the enhance section of the tetrad by making videos available to a wider audience that may not otherwise be able to obtain DVD’s. 

Second Life as a Disruptive Technology

The phrase disruptive technology comes from Clayton Christensen and refers to a technology that “the process by which a product of service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves ‘up market’, eventuall displacing established competitors” (Christensen, 2009). The technology that is new usually is more efficient, cheaper, and offers some market advantage for users to purchase it in place of the technology it is replacing (Laureate, 2009). The impact on disruptive technologies can be very dramatic. A technology that is currently being disruptive to everyday life is Second Life, or 3D virtual worlds.

Second Life is created and made up of everyday people that use avatars to interact with each other. The reason it is disruptive is that in some cases it actually can be used to replace face to face social interaction. In some cased people choose to forego the real world in favor of the virtual world. This technology has been featured on National Geographic and depicted a man who had a whole virtual family with a wife and children. The real world family knew about the virtual one and were somewhat excepting of this.

Second Life has been around since 2003 and I do not see it being obsolete for some time. I actually do not see it as fully emerged because it is something I have only seen on TV or in the news. I personally do not know anyone using it. Some benefits and implications are that it may one day replace traditional learning institutions. One popular location in Second Life is the International Spaceport that allows users to view exhibits from anywhere online. There are even classes at Harvard being taught in Second Life completely (National Geographic, 2013). One day all my student may meet in a virtual setting and not in a local classroom or building.  

Carmody, L. E. (2009). [Review of the book Disrupting class: How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns, by C. M. Christensen, M. B. Horn, & C. W. Johnson]. Educational Technology Research and Development, 57(2), 267−269. Retrieved from the Academic Search Complete database.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Disruptive Technologies. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Rosedale, P. (2008). Philip Rosedale on Second Life [Video]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ted.com/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html.

"Second Life," Other Virtual Worlds Reshaping Human Interaction. (n.d.). Daily Nature and Science News and Headlines | National Geographic News . Retrieved April 24, 2013, from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061017-second-life.html

Rhymes of History

Dr. Thornburg’s video discusses new technologies that bring back memories from the past (Laureate, 2009). One example of a rhyme of history is the emergence of the tablet computer. Secretaries from the past used paper notebooks to scribe or short hand notes and memos. The new tablet computers such as the Ipad make it easy and convenient to type them into a memo application or use a short hand keyboard to take dictation.

Once the dictation is taken they can then transfer it into a word file or whatever means of communications they may need to send it to the recipient. This also brings to mind the typewriter and how they would take the memo notes from a notebook of paper and then type them out. Email and electronic communications now allow this to happen very fast and over great distances.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Rhymes of History  [Video]. In Emerging and future technology [DVD] Baltimore, MD: Author. 

Cell Phone Tetrad

Emergence of Flash Drives

Flash drives have become popular in the last few years because of their small size and low cost. The flash drives of today offer portable storage that is safe and secure in the hands of the owner. Some problems with flash drives are connectivity and that they are easily lost. The size of the flash drives makes it easy to slip it into a pocket but it also allows it to be easily lost. This is often remedied by putting them on a key chain or in a case. Connectivity can be an issue when the flash drives become corrupted or encounter connection errors and are not recognized by the computer.

The need that a flash drive meets is one of storing work for employees, students, and anyone else that needs to easily take files with them on the go. A flash drive is beneficial when only needing to carry some files along on a trip versus having to take an external hard drive or multiple compact discs. One thing that would make this technology even better would be to make them easier to track or harder to loose. Anyone can lose a flash drive and have it picked up and the information deleted by another person.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/405700/your-world-on-a-flash-drive/

Thornburg, D. D. (2009a). Current trends in educational technology. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.

Learning in a digital world

One thing that is critical in teaching is to gain student interest and motivated them to learn on their own. I firmly believe that being a guide is one of the best things teachers can do for students. We are in an age of ever changing knowledge and new information is at everyone’s fingertips. As a teacher we need to teach our students how to navigate this new digital world and find the knowledge they need. Connectivism supports this way of teaching and learning and provides a foundation for navigating the networks we are creating.

One non-negotiable thing is the ability to provide technology to my students. They have smart phones and computers at home. Being able to use technology and media in the classroom brings their interests and skills with networks into their learning experiences. By letting them bring this technology into the classroom we are letting them have freedom from just textbook learning. As a teacher my goal is to provide a technologically advanced classroom for students to expand their knowledge with. 

New Technologies

One new technology we had problems with in the workplace was Pinnacle Grade. The staff at the school was against having a second grade book for standards based grading and did not see the need for it to be purchased. Using the ARCS model we created a grading team that used the grade book for a year. We helped it gain attention, showed that it could be relevant with the additional student reports it printed, and proved we were confident in using it (Driscoll, 2005). The problem arose the second year we were using it when more teachers came on board the pilot standards based grading program.

The grade book was miscalculating grades and we as a district determined using a trend calculation for a grade was not better than an average of standard linked grades with possible retakes. This led to many teachers being dissatisfied with the product and we switched back to points and percentages from the four point scale we had started the year using. This change at semester break has shown us that the initial reaction to the grade book was not accurate and as more users started using it the confidence and relevance turned the attention into a negative perspective. Currently we are investigating using the SIS grade book, our original one, with the standards attached to the assignments. Our teachers are comfortable with that grade book as we have had the software for years and have been satisfied with the product.

Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.).Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing knowledge.