COURSERA: Based on your experience as a learner, what do you think you will be able to get out of this course? And what ideas do you already have about the future of education?

As a learner and a lecturer, I certainly feel the urge to learn can be influenced by the interest. By having an strong interest in learning, it helps to improve my learning need to find out more about this course, 'Future Education'. It will definitely allow me to analyse my teaching skills with more informed theory and through learning from other fellow educators in the world with their teaching experiences. The purpose of me wanting to be a better educator/teacher for my students is also influenced by the strong urge to help my students learn more and benefit from my teaching.

Having said that, I hope to translate this urge and the 'hunger' to learn to my students in return. With the knowledge to teach better, I also hope to cultivate a deeper knowledge in engaging my students in the future lessons that I would conduct. 

With the week 1 lessons and lectures shared by Dr Eleanore Hargreaves and Dr Fiona Roger, I managed to grasp certain concepts about meta-learning, constructivitism in learning by Jean Piaget and many more insightful knowledge about learning.

I am especially interested in the example shared by Dr Eleanore about how Delors from UNESCO has phrased in in 1989 - the Four Main Purposes to Learning: Learning to Know, Learning to Do, Learning to Live Together and, Learning to Be.

This concept in the four purposes of learning has prompted me to think about how robotic some of our learners have become accustomed to a blinked and dependent way of learning without thinking deeper about the knowledge they'd gain and how it can influence their community, and the world around them. Through the consideration of Delors, I reckon this is a sensible thing to ponder over. Some of the questions which raised my concern could be - are we teaching our students with the ability to link them to the relevance of life and the professional world out there? Are we robotic (and too didactic) in the way we teach our students too? Have the digital age change the way learners acquire knowledge and many other questions to consider...

I reckon it is something which I feel we could share with fellow lecturers and teachers around us to help make our teaching to our students more meaningful. This could cultivate a deeper meaning in what we do as teachers, to inspire our students to be more sensible for their future in life and in the society. Looking back at what I have learnt in week 1, I believe the rest of the other weeks ahead would fuel me up for more informative knowledge to learn as a passionate educator.

Blogging Vs Microblogging

From blogging comes microblogging. 

A trade off between the relative depth of blogs versus the immediacy of microblogging. Don't think there is a yes or no answer to which will prevail or whether a comfortable equilibrium will be found.

If one does come out on top I think it will be down to changes in the social blogging environment and the what suits the needs of the information being transmitted. I don't think we'll see a blogging revolution, in that Blogger and Wordpress are going to go out of business overnight, the beauty of the web as it is that software can evolve and mould itself to whatever shape is needed.

Right from tomorrow onwards, it might be Milliblogging where you can only post only things like "LOL" or "^_^" ...That's all you'll get! How about blogs where you only get to put up 3 seconds of a song or 2 seconds of a video? Maybe one where you can only see a few of the pixels of a photo? I would prefer you picked up the phone and called me and we spoke about your day - or even better stop by and visit and I can hear all about your life. Got to go Twitter now and perhaps you can read something like - "Beyonce just drove past me!! Woohoo!"

Joining the world of microblogging like twitter, here comes pownce and rakawa. At first, I did not quite get what these microblogging stand for. Only 140 characters allow, small size of file uploading.... It's getting shorter and faster in a some way. I totally agreed your point. Someday, someone will create Millibolgging that only allows us to say "hi" ,"bye", or "WTF"

I am just wondering if these microblogging really work for social networking? Do they really making people get involved?

Microblogging will defeat the hard work of blogging. It's faster, easier, less time consuming, and has immediate rewards. 1 out of 3 bloggers would prefer twitter over their blogs if they could only have one of these services. Lifestreaming is the new protocol, perfect mix of blogging and chat.

So, which one would you prefer if you could only have one?

Resource reading on Blogging Vs Microblogging:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Blogging-Vs-MicroBlogging

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/39216
http://www.toputop.com/blog/microblogging-vs-blogging/


Image source:
Twitter.com
Pownce.com
Rakawa.com

Can computer games really help youngsters to be more social?

We heard so much about computer games and their impact on the kids today. Just how positive or negative effect does computer games have on the kids today? This post takes a look at a positive side to computer gaming in American teenagers. 

According to PEW Internet Research, majority of youngsters who play computer games played with family members or friends rather than alone. With this style of engagement, the research team deems that an activity like such encourages teenagers to be more social. With such interest established for gaming, they also found that the kind of games which most teenagers played allowed them to find out more about world issues and politics. 

Just how true it is and we shall look at another point of view directed at this issue.

A Michigan State University researcher and his colleagues have found out that playing games that are violent leads to brain activity that cultivate aggressive thoughts. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study research test, they found out that 11 participants out of a group of 13 male participants experienced a certain aggression impact in their brain. 

The picture on the left shows brain activity during video game play in the characteristic regions of interest (Image courtesy of Michigan State University).

FMRI is a technique for determining which parts of the brain are activated by different types of physical sensation or activity, such as sight, sound or the movement of a subject’s fingers. This “brain mapping” is achieved by setting up an advanced MRI scanner in a special way so that the increased blood flow to the activated areas of the brain shows up on functional MRI scans.

It is essential to understand how violence is interpretated by players and how certain player can be psychologically affected by the games they played. 

Hence, though there are probably more positive effects of playing all types of video games and rather than violent video games. Socialising with peers or improving cognitive and physical abilities is a good way to allow youngster to interact with the world outside. With the right parental guidance and mental values established since young, gaming definitely helps youngsters to be more socially and hopefully, less violent.

Image Source: infoniac.com ; Michigan State University

Article 1 source : Computer Games Help Youngsters Be More Social

Article 2 source: Violent Video Games Lead To Brain Activity Characteristic Of Aggression

Online Vs Print

As internet becomes more and more dynamic, more and more companies shifted their marketing strategy onto the world wide web.

Using various tools in applications like facebook, youtube, flickr, twitter, etc. Such applications allows companies to reach out to their consumers faster and easier. Other forms of marketing such as multimedia productions (television commercials and radio promotions) are more expensive to implement partly because the possible high cost in production—but also because their effectiveness is also higher—televised and radio commercials have the benefit of being one-dimensional in presentation: in order to see/hear the next thing, you have to wait through the commercial. For a generally lazy population like us today, waiting through the commercial a consumer is fed information that may very well influence his/her perspective even if unconsciously.

On the other hand, printed advertising is, ironically, multi-dimensional in format because it exists “frozen” in time. To skip over an ad, one must not zone out for a length of time and wait for a page to turn. One simply turns the page. Consumers can even learn to filter advertising out, so that one may read content on a page without even taking notice of the ads.

It turns out that printed advertising, while essential for some markets, is becoming less effective as the consumer public learns to ignore ads. It’s no wonder that companies are seeking ways to maximize exposure while minimizing costs.

Consider the fact that, it is almost free to promote your business, products, services and/or ideas on the web with all the existing applications. There are always cost involved, especially if you want to use third-party promotional systems and services… but really it doesn’t cost much of anything to produce material that anyone around the world can see. Furthermore, you can control the target of your traffic by promoting yourself in the right direction. With server log analysis, it’s a simple task to track the effectiveness of all your efforts—you can see in real time if your efforts are paying off or flopping.

We all cannot predict how long newspapers will remain. But somehow all of us do suspect that the internet will continue to demolish the printed world. And with the advent of new technologies, creating multimedia advertisements inside web pages will make online marketing closer to the highly effective television and radio market strategy. Flash and JavaScript have added visual interactivity—and scripted database functions fill the web with more possibilities than even TV and radio.

In the end, to succeed in an effective marketing, it will have to come down more and more to passion and honesty. As the web becomes more entrenched in the lives of humanity, the democratic nature of the web will force businesses to create newer and better products (and informational content) so as to please the fickle nature of online browsers.

Creating quality content is the key to successful online marketing. Otherwise there is no incentive for anyone to stay on your site or pay any notice to your services, products, ideas or sponsors. That counts for any medium of promotion, actually. Even cool new things will succumb to the reality of survival—if it’s no good, it won’t last.

Some Reading Resources

History & Criticism of Newspapers
http://www.historicpages.com/nprhist.htm
http://projectcensored.org/newsflash/C2006_chap6.pdf
http://www.newspaper-industry.org/owners.html

Print Vs Online
http://www.sric-bi.com/DF/oldMFsummaries/PrintToC.shtml

Advertising
http://www.keyfindings.com/advertising/default.htm
http://www.asiaxpat.com/mediakit/advertisers.shtm
http://googleadsense.shawnolson.net

How has blogging affected us.

Blogging has changed the way in which people acquire knowledge and justify their beliefs. But are these changes good or bad? Do we know more and do we know differently as a result of blogging? And is it all beneficial for democracy? 

Some philosophers have their doubts, but some other thinks that blogging is good news.

As some philosophers put it, the way people is acquiring knowledge is 'epistemically better off' as a result of blogging. That's to say, does blogging give us a better or more reliable knowledge? Or, is the blogosphere's emergence as an alternative to the conventional media, bad news for the epistemic prospects of the voting public?

Undeniably, the blogosphere and many aspects of the internet unquestionably have an enormous impact on us now, and I imagine that going back even three decades, one would have a hard time imagining how much of an impact it would have.

The main worry that we might have now would be the impact of the internet including the blogosphere, on what is becoming or spoken of. Perspectively as the demise of the conventional media, and the questions are we better off or worse off. The interesting question is suppose we only had the blogosphere and didn't have the conventional, how well would life be today if compared to an earlier era where we had the conventional media?

The conventional media, newspapers and the like, are for economic reasons on the way out. The blogosphere could really take over the job of the conventional media. Although filtering of information from internet may help, it is still a very slim attempt to refrain netizens from acquiring and forming their own belief from the information they get from internet.

As we looked back at the past, these arguments look extraordinarily quaint from our perspective, and not to say ridiculous, and I think people will look back on this era and these kinds of arguments against the blogosphere in another similar life.

Reading materials:
- All in the mind

- www.whydotpharma.com
- www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/

- www.mediawatchuk.org.uk/

Image source:

www,gettyimages.com 

Case of a real bad AD...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Photoshop hazards online or in press

Very often, designers try to 'beautify' or make an editorial image look aesthetic. In doing so, they have forgotten about the ethics of Digital manipulation. Sometimes, they are so occupied with the process of adjusting images until accuracy is compromised. This is a case of a lady's picture that was featured in Maxim magazine. To enhanced her torso, her body has been digitally enhanced to bring out the curve in her figure. For a reader who does not have the eye for details, they may not be able to notice this. For others who tends to more sensitive to details, they would definitely spot such errors. 

The issue faced at a professional environment is that - Is it a designer responsibilities or the chief editor's fault for not checking for error? And how appropriate is the digital imaging done to this? Is it applicable? Personally, I feel that the image can be edited as this is a magazine catering to a group of audience who love looking at physically fit and beautiful figure but for the D-I artist who did the photoshop, I must say s/he is not meticulous enough in the quality of her/his DI services. 

For more interesting read on the Ethics of Digital Manipulation, read The Ethics of Digital Manipulation.

Image Source: www.artofthesteal.com

Buenos Aires Zoo - Nice commercial entitled "TOGETHER"

Nice commercial for a ZOO in buenos aires.
I hope Singapore ZOO can do something like this SOMEDAY!

Being there - Facebook update

"college student explained he preferred Facebook to MySpace because MySpace (in his view) was for emo kids who liked Death Cab for Cutie and Facebook was for clever kids who liked words.."

Read the full story.
(Source: The New York Times)

Wordle of Barack Obama’s Congressional Speech

Economy is bigger than health which is bigger than education which is bigger than deficit which is bigger than power which is bigger than prosperity which is bigger than Iraq. The word terrorism did not make the Wordle at all and the world was only used once in the entire speech last night.

Read the complete transcript here.

*Applause*...*Applause...

(SOURCE: thomashawk.com/tag/obama)

Obama Appears on Nintendo's Wii

Barack Obama gets around. His Mii, a digital avatar created for the Wii video game console, is currently one of the most popular user-submitted Mii caricatures in all of America. Obama is next to Batman in popularity and stands tall right behind Indiana Jones.

Click here to find out more. 

COOL WEBSITE for Avatar creation- Face Your Manga

Face Your Manga allows you to create a cool looking, free Avatar for yourself or your friends. You can use it with the most common Instant Messaging programmes, such as LiveMessenger, Skype, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, MySpaceIM, and many more. 

An avatar (from the Sanskrit word for "a form of self", commonly used in many Indian languages) is a computer user's representation of himself/herself or alter ego, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games, a two-dimensional icon used on Internet forums and other communities,or a text construct found on early systems such as MUDs. It is an “object” representing the embodiment of the user. The term "avatar" can also refer to the personality connected with the screen name, or handle, of an Internet user.

But on the flip side, are people afraid to show what they look like?

I wonder sometimes the very attractive avatar of some people are just a disguise for their true ugliness or something? I guess some people just don't use their true identity or picture because you never know whose on the computer. It can be unsafe. Some members are very young and exposing oneself to the world invites any possibilities of people being followed or stalked by strangers online. Creating the unnecessary anguish one might get.

So this is when Avatar comes in handy!

Using cartoon characters that are an image to represent us, they help to resemble ourselves in a way we deem fit. Could be a form of misrepresentation I guess, but it could be one we could associate with. Some people may identify in some way with another race, who knows? I would not choose to represent myself with an avatar that was that much different than myself because I am comfortable with who I am.

If I could age my avatar by 30 years, I'd do that, too. Create one today!

Save the Widows and Orphans! Issue in typography.

Do you leave readers dangling? Words left hanging in line leave readers in the dark. In desktop publishing, 'Widows' and 'orphans' are those words or short phrases at the end or beginning of paragraphs that are left to sit alone at the top or bottom of a column — separated from the rest of the paragraph. 

A common mnemonic is that "an orphan has no past; a widow has no future". Another way is to think of orphans as generally being younger than widows; thus, orphaned lines happen first, at the start of paragraphs (affecting and stranding the first line), and widowed lines happen last, at the end of paragraphs (affecting and stranding the last line). Orphaned lines appear at the "birth" (start) of paragraphs; widowed lines appear at the "death" (end) of paragraphs. Writing guides, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, generally suggest that a manuscript should have no widows and orphans even when avoiding them results in additional space at the bottom of a page or column.

Most full-featured word processors and page layout applications include a paragraph setting (or option) to automatically prevent widows and orphans. When the option is turned on, an orphan is forced to the top of the next page or column; and the line preceding a widow is forced to the next page or column with the last line. This automatic adjustment to a page's layout can be a source of frustration for someone who is unaware of why text is shifted from one page to the next.

On a personal note, I reckon it is also a designer's job to make sure that widow or orphan text do not appear frequently on a publishing layout. Though this is just one of the issue in design in layout and DTP, it still warrants as a 'good to know' for everyone out there in the design industry. Allowing everyone in the field to have a knowledge depth in what they do. 

Article source: Widow and Orphan text

Image source : Getty Images

What impact does magazine typography have on today's magazine consumer?

Why do controversial T-shirt sells?

 

 The beauty of T-shirt design is the love at first sight nature of the idea/buyer relationship, from the coolest, funkiest graphic to the most profound philosophy. Since about 1990 the shape of the tee shirt has evolved to outsize, unisex baggy clothing as well as tight and skimpy t-shirts. Amusingly, a new trend in Japan has random English words on T-shirts which usually don't actually make any sense but sell well in Asia. But it's tough in tshirt land as one proud American owner of a t-shirt bought in Japan with some rather nice Japanese writing on it later discovered that it in fact said "stupid American tourist".

Everyone has a favourite t-shirt because the tee remains, literally, a cool thing to wear.The t-shirt is inexpensive, always in fashion and is a great way to make a statement with a slogan, logo or picture.

A T-shirt is much more than a cheap article of clothing, the t shirt is a portable advert with it's wearer declaring their political, musical or social affiliations for everyone to see. T-shirts will never go out of fashion because they are cheap, cool and comfortable. As a walking billboard provocative tee shirts and funny t-shirts inspire reaction, be it shocking, controversial or humorous images or graphics that offend or amuse or simply make a statement. The t shirt started off as a piece of underwear and thanks to teen idols like Marlon Brando and James Dean the tee has become standard wear for the young and the graphics, slogans and logo's have all had their part to play in maintaining this status. Cool t-shirts were in.

Wearing a t shirt is the simplest, cheapest and easiest way to make a statement about your state of mind". Just as Brando, in black leather and a plain white cool T-shirt, and the chain-smoking, T-shirt wearing James Dean had both played their part in making it essential wear for a cool, rebellious youth, punk sealed the t-shirts status as acceptable clothing for the new generation of rebels.
 

Read more about the following: 

• T-Shirt History
• T-shirt description and how they are made
• T-shirt Trends
• T-shirt Messages
• T-shirt Types
• T-shirt Marketing

 
Reference
www.itiswhatitis.co.uk/t-shirt-trends.php
www.threadless.com

The use of holograms in fashion show

The Brand Gap - Why anyone should read this book!

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

The Brand Gap

View more documents from coolstuff.

Photoshop GONE WRONG - VERY WRONG

Think again, if these are your potential dates and you happened to see them in their digitally enhanced picture, would you still believe anymore pictures posted by others over internet.

Beware... be very afraid.

No.1 ZOLOGIC

And so it goes,
Ms Jenny Webber holding her checked flag at the other part of the world where kangeroos hop and Nicole Kidman says hello to Hugh Jackman...

Waiting to flag in all our blog completion after a span of 8 weeks or so.
Everybody - it's time to Blog! blog! blog!

We, a bunch of killer bloggers, slamming on the keyboard with all our thoughts and reflections.
Blogging to the effect of how designs and arts have affected us in our daily life, observing any kind of issues affecting blogging, electronic publishing and design considerations have on publishing online.

Thanks to Blogger.com, wordpress.com and livejournal.com. Without these online free blog sites,  the world of blogging will never be what it is today. While my visitor count probably still sits at zero, I will endeavour to enrich my knowledge and get connected with current issues in the media & design world. The lack of visitor activity isn't disheartening. The blog world definitely opened up an outlet of opportunities for people all over the world to express their creativity. Without a doubt, it's free, fast, and easy for anybody, everybody who believes in such avenue of expression.

Behold, my very 1st blog about designs issue!
I would endeavours to make it juicy, interesting and easy to read.

Good arvo Jenny.
Enjoy and have a good time reading!

Yanzo