Did you participate in the 'Cyber Monday' craze?

As many of us know, or might even have experienced the infamous Black Friday this year, stores are reducing prices left and right. Many individuals did online shopping Thursday night into early Friday morning. More and more places were offering deals starting at midnight on Friday. Since technology has been on the rise in the past year and has commanded a larger crowd, there was an increase in online shopping for the holiday.

On cnn.com there are plenty of articles about all of the new electronic prices and how the Apple iPad price had even gone down to below $500 for Thanksgiving weekend shoppers. However, today, has been dubbed the name of "Cyber Monday." Personally, I don't think I've ever heard of it, but since I've become more invovled in the online world, I came across this article this afternoon.
(link to article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/11/29/cyber.monday.hoax/index.html)

CNN writer, John Sutter shares in his brief article how Cyber Monday is mostly a myth. Experts shared that in actuality Cyber Monday is no different than an average online shopping day. It is actually December 13th that is estimated (for this year) to be one of the biggest online shopping days of 2010. As stated in the article, "Some high-end retailers do hold Cyber Monday sales, he said, but some already started on Friday or Sunday and others won't begin until the second or third week in December."

The article goes on to say that the Cyber Monday term was coined as a marketing idea originially. Therefore, holding no true value to the discounts some individuals expect on the Monday after Thanksgiving. "Shop.org, which coined the term "Cyber Monday" and operates a retail website called CyberMonday.com, says nine in 10 online retailers are offering Cyber Monday deals this year." However, this was based off of 51 respondents. Many people were disappointed with the outcome of this year's Cyber Monday, holding higher expectations for better deals due to the nature of the title for this day.

The article also states that many people thought that Cyber Monday was big in the past because people were doing these purchases at work where they had access to internet. However, now that internet can be found almost anywhere - home or office computer, phone, iTouch, etc., this theory has been thrown out the window!

Lastly, I think the most interesting thing about this article is that regardless of whether it is the Monday after Thanksgiving or just a regular Monday, it is one of the biggest days for online shopping for retailers. The reasoning behind this conclusion, made by consumer electronics experts, people like to shop online while at work.

What are your thoughts? Do you partake in this Monday online shopping? Do you look for things in particular online during this time of the holiday?

What is your view on this idea of 'Cyber Monday?'

Did most of you do your online Christmas discount shopping or did you take the plunge ino the 4am shopping at Target?

Please share your experiences!

Is Facebook Pointless?...

Aside from the endless updates, friend connections and game playing on the social networking site with a massive user base, some people are now wondering what the real social and humanitarian worth of this site is. Now wait a minute and think about it. Consider: for what do you actually use Facebook? It’s a good question about how we spend our time and what we’ll do with the tools we use. Keep in mind that the argument is not that Facebook is useless, in fact, it’s being used for countless purposes from all kinds of people. However, with such a powerful user base around the globe of connectivity, is this program being used for the benefit of humanity? Should it be? Is it more than just providing a status update about what we just ate for lunch?

Consider the following article from Malcolm Gladwell, in the NY Times. "Small Change" (it is lengthy but a worthwhile read; especially if you use Facebook) One of the arguments of this article is that social networks consist of "weak ties" to each other rather than strong interpersonal relationships that can provoke and promote real change.

Also, this article from Techcrunch gives a brief account of two sides of the debate.

Do you see there being real, life-changing uses for Facebook, Twitter and other social networking tools?

What do you think the ‘real’ and true value is that Facebook holds? Have we tapped into the true power of being ‘connected’ with each other yet?

Automatic Target Recognition in Airports?

In the CBS News article, "Airport Body Scanners: Less Invasive Technology is Out There," a scanning technology called "automatic target recognition" is introduced.  Instead of using the full-body digital x-ray machines, which expose the body to radiation and produce detailed body images, automatic target recognition minimizes radiation exposure and produces only a stick figure body image.

Many people today are concerned with exposing their bodies to unnecessary radiation, and even more are concerned about their lack of privacy during the current method of x-ray imaging.  There have been countless debates, and even a plan for "National Opt-Out Day," (warning: link contains body image sample), which will be held on November 24, which encourages people traveling on that day to exercise their right to "opt-out" of going through a full-body machine and receiving an "enhanced pat-down" instead.

Last April, three Senators wrote a letter to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) requesting automatic target recognition; however, the software is currently being tested before any changes can be made.  The TSA explains that although automatic target recognition does not meet the TSA detection standards at this time, it may be used in the future.

Where do you think the TSA is headed with body imaging?  Do you think a more private and safe technology like automatic target recognition will ever be introduced, or will the TSA continue on the path of invading privacy to maintain security?

The Child-Driven Education; Education seen as a self organizing system.

Will children teach themselves?...

Watch this video

Sugata Mitra, an education specialist, faced one of the most pressing problems in education today. Teachers will not go where they are needed most. Mitra wanted to test a new radical notion, will children teach themselves? The results Mitra obtained were astonishing.

The Hypotheses:

1. Set up a computer with high speed internet access in the slums. Will children be able to & how long would it take if they did, to figure out how to use the internet and promote self-education.
2. Will children be able to understand and teach themselves more advanced topics with no supervision?
3. Wil the "granny role" promote more self-education?

The Results:

What Mitra found was that "groups of children can learn to use the computer and internet on their own, irrespective of who and where they were." He followed the advice given to him by Arthur C. Clarke "if children have interest, then education will happen." He used this advice to continue these experiments and see what the limits were. Mitrad continued by doing more and more complex things, as expected learning decreased with the higher complexity. He then introduced what he called the "granny role" which was an adult figure who didn't explicitly teach the children what he wanted them to learn, rather they provided positive reinforcement to hopefully promote self educating. This granny role is what lead Mitra to discover a 76% pass rate for students who self educated and made him decide on developing what he called a SOLE. In understanding that groups of children working together with the addition of "granny role" supervision, he was able to introduce the Self Organized Learning Environment. The video can better illustrate, but basically these were dedicated areas where groups of students can come together. They have access to a computer with high speed internet access and via online communication devices (skype) acces to what he called the "granny cloud."

Mitra proposes that education is a self organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon. A self organizing system is composed of two things:

1. Structure: appears without explicit intervention from the outside
2. Emergence- system does things that it was not designed for (i.e. you didn't design it that way because it looked impossible)

"A question of attitude, not technology," is Mitra's main theme through the development of SOLEs. I think it's extremely interesting to see how through the use of technology that self education is highly promoted.

What do you think?

Second Life - Big change for education.

Linden Labs has made a couple of really big announcements that have the potential to make a large impact on its use in education. The first being the closing of the Teen Second Life grid, an area set aside for users ages 13-17. This area had the potential to bring SL into the secondary classroom and boost the use of virtual worlds in teaching. With the closing of this area the safety concerns over using SL in the age group becomes a greater hurdle and creates a harder "sell" for the innovative teacher looking to use this tool.

The second announcement Linden Labs made is the ending of the educational discount on regions of the grid used by non-profit/educational institutions. Many universities have set up virtual campuses in these regions and the increase in cost may outweigh the benefits of using SecondLife. Linden Labs has offered a renewal option, allowing these organizations the ability to renew for up to 2 years at the current rate. Although this may only slow the exodus from SL.

While both announcement are disappointed it may open up market for other virtual worlds to take hold in education. With options like Open-Sim and OpenCobalt already available will we begin to see a growth in their use? Is the potential for more education specific virtual worlds going to bring new players to the field? While it is too soon to see what exactly will unfold from these announcements I hope that the education world continues to explore the avenue of virtual worlds at all levels of education.

http://www.opencobalt.org/

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page

The Journal - Article on Linden Labs Announcements

Twitter in the Classroom

Many people have been warned of the possible harmful effects of using technology in the classroom. Will students become dependent on technology to learn? 

Well, Twitter is one of the most recent innovations to social media and networking. For those of you who are not sure what Twitter is or how it is used here is a brief description. Twitter is owned and operated by Twitter Inc., which offers a social networking and I would say mini-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts and are displayed on the user's profile page. Tweets are visible to the public as default, but senders can make their tweets private in which only those following them can see them. Users may subscribe to other’s tweets, in which this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers.

Twitter in the classroom has seemed to be a new phenomenon for classroom activity. I have personally had a professor use twitter regularly in her course; from events in the news to class updates, assignment reminders and so much more. I found that this was pretty interesting and kind of made me feel that the professor was trying to reach her students in innovative ways. I also feel I benefited from this sort technology being used for academic purposes.

In some cases that I have recently read about teachers and professors are finding new ways to engage and retain their students’ attention through the use of Twitter. They are introducing it in their classrooms and having it be a part of their lecture segments, which I find even more fascinating. In addition some are even replacing previously used technologies with Twitter.

Here are a few links from those who have used Twitter in their classrooms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OxIz_3o3O0

http://tametheweb.com/2009/02/24/twitter-in-the-classroom-2/

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/professor-encourages-students-to-pass-notes-during-class-via-twitter/4619

What do you think about twitter being used for academic purposes? Do you feel it can be effective? Do you feel students will become dependent upon this type of social media?  Share your thoughts. 

Technology in Sports

Technology in Sports

Many professional sports have used instant replays for years. In American football, coaches are able to challenge plays they think referees may have gotten wrong, while in basketball referees are able to use technology to confirm a player has released a shot before the time expires. Baseball uses a technology system that shows how accurate Umpires ball and strike calls are. One sport that has hesitated in implementing technology in their sport is football, or soccer. During the world cup in South Africa this past summer, it was evident that referees are vulnerable to making the wrong calls and at times miss calls altogether.

So should Soccer adopt instant replay?

It seems that it would be a no-brainer. However, there is a deep sense of tradition in soccer that makes it the most popular game in the world. Introducing technology could drastically change the nature of the game.

The decision comes down to what is more important to the game of soccer: getting the call right and creating a fair playing field, or sticking with tradition and history.

Jamie Trecker is a journalist for Fox Sports and believes that it is time for soccer to adopt new technology into their sport. His article can be found at this URL.

http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/worldcup/story/World-Cup-referee-blunders-prove-instant-replay-needed-in-soccer

Journalist Dan Levy, offers that introducing technology in the game would have a negative effect. His article is found here:

http://www.sbnation.com/2010/6/22/1647329/why-replay-would-not-work-in-world

So what do you think? Is it more important to stick with tradition or evolve with technology? Do you think that technology and tradition can co-exist together?