Masterplan 2015

After viewing the video on iN2015 and visiting the Classroom Of The Future (COTF), I would very much look forward to the future. I think that the technologies featured in both examples are very possible and can make the lives of people alot easier. Moreover, the experience with Second Life has future cemented my view that we don't have to be physically at a place of interest to experience it. Second Life provides a virtual environment for us to see places and experience the feelings of people in different situations. My next point is that I feel that we will be "plugged in" to our technologies in the future.

What is this "plugged in" I'm talking about? Simply means that we can go online anytime we want anywhere. Its like the environment in the film "The Matrix", just that we have control over when we want to go online and its not a completely virtual environment.

The advantages here are:

• browsing catalogues of products when we are shopping;
• contacting friends who are online wherever we are;
• accessing the knowledge on the world wide web anytime and anywhere;
• efficiently using all the online resources at our disposal;
  
• constant ability to learn new things;

What about the disadvantages?

• We are so "plugged in" and immersed in the environment that we forget the real world around us;
• we can lose our human touch in most things we do;
• in the worst case, we lose our identity when we are too "plugged in";
• we can lose our identity when hackers take all our personal information that is online;

Its the new world on the way, we have to be prepared for it. Somehow, the governance of cyberspace still needs some more improvement before the masses can put our lives online. I can't imagine anyone who is not connected to the internet. They are either don't want to known or simply out of touch with the world.

The course in NIE helps teachers prepare for this new digital world. We know that there is a very high possibility of students being more connected to the internet then we are, so we have to update our infocomm skills to catch up with them or stay ahead of them. I believe that learning will be a breeze in the future with all the information available at our finger tips and all anyone has to do is to simply have the mind to learn. Being up-to-date with news and lastest developments are instantaneous. Somehow, the hardcopy of newspapers may be a thing of the past.

The classroom of the future is literally ANYWHERE, as long as there is some form of connection to the internet. Our jobs as teachers will therefore change to include the cyber needs of students and engaging them online or in a virtual environment like Second Life.

2nd Life or not??

This week's session is another interesting one, we have an experience using Second Life. Its a virtual world where people can live in, doing things; being somebody different from the real world. There are not limitations of the real world here, people can fly and teleport to different places. Love that bit.

The educational aspects of Second Life can be better explained in this video:

All I can say about this video is that it tackles the many possibilities to use Second Life as an Educational platform. The new generation of students are increasingly tired of the current or traditional methods of knowledge delivery. Second Life provides a possible way of immersing and engaging this new generation. The possibilities are limited to the boundaries of our imagination.

So to Second Life or not to Second Life?? For us as educators, can we risk not using Second Life as an educational platform and possibly lose engaging the students? Do we encourage the students to Second Life while we are not in it? Hmmm...