The Futuristic Classroom

Some of the ways in which web 3.0 shapes future education are:

1.  Visit different places of world virtually and get more information about those places in a safe and economical way.
2. Increase student collaborative activities by scheduling meeting of them virtually through social networking sites and forums.
3. Assess student activities and learning through online projects and online learning courses
4. Create 3D based scenarios and simulations with the help of High quality graphics 3D internet applications imparted by web3.0.

                                    Source:TechBytes.com

Web 3.0 is more than a group of new technologies and services. Web 3.0 technologies provide a collection of services to create a true online classroom. Here are some of the Web 3.0 tools and services which are helpful in the education and research:

1. Learning with 3D-Wikis / Virtual 3D Encyclopaedia:

Wiki is used mainly to maintain and construct a repository of information and material. Students and researchers are able to work collaboratively and post big items. User-friendliness of the wiki software creates easy handling of the matter for an editor for deleting, reverting and modifying the information. With the development of 3D web, researchers & technocrats have been creating and modifying new projects to give a new aspect to the world of Wikis & encyclopedia.

2. Learning with 3D - Virtual Worlds & Avatars, Virtual Labs etc:

3D Virtual worlds & Avatars has a great role in e-learning, through role playing, 3-D models, simulations and engaging students through stimulating creativity. 3D rich graphic based user interfaces provide a more powerful platform for students for participating and performing collaborative actions and to receive & exchange information.

3. Intelligent Search Engines/ Collaborative Intelligent Filtering:

These search engines offer the effective source of information by offering the useful information on the click of a button. Now, one can even search with the help of images, audio and videos, in addition to text. Imagine having your phone camera pointing to a building and your phone will automatically filter similar buildings and will give you all the relevant information. 

I believe that the future of education in web 3.0 will lay in the hands of the teachers whose role will change from teaching to orchestrating and filtering the tools avaliable to them to allow students to reach their potential, sky will become the limit.... Imagine a techer walking into class and having her students relive parts of the civil war through virtual 3-D? or learn more about the marine life by having a virtual class underwater?

Facebook: The Social Disenfranchisement Network?

Jaron Lanier's You Are Not a Gadget is a common topic of debate among our blog contributors. Here's my take! While Lanier’s book may seem like an elaborate rant, it isn’t without merit. Being devoid of neutrality, his bias is fascinating. Reading through Not a Gadget is akin to watching a typical I-just-woke-up-out-of-cryo scene from of a sci-fi thriller. He frustratingly sputters vexations, displaying little control of his motor functions. But in the course of reading this book, it becomes evident that Lanier has real merit. Kind of like how that de-cryo’d guy from the sci-fi movie who in an earlier scene seemed helplessly frustrated, is then shown as intriguingly pacific wrapped in a blanket in a modified thinker pose staring off into the distance and recounting the lost world he knew before going into cryo; a genteel savant recounting the lost and somehow purer ideology of old. 

Okay fine not genteel,

Jaron Lanier

but you get the point.

This effect becomes apparent in his comparison of Facebook with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, specifically its contemporary reauthorization,  “No Child Left Behind.” He argues that “what computerized analysis of all the country’s school tests has done to education is exactly what Facebook has done to friendships,” asserting that Facebook has turned life into a database the same way current education legislation has resulted in standardized testing that turns learning into a database. 

Regarding Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. etc., I must admit that I’ve always had a nagging feeling of “do I really need this stuff?” Not having a Facebook account is almost taboo in my community, even more so regarding LinkedIn. While reading Lanier’s Not a Gadget, I felt a little like the dynamic character in the sci-fi movie who, while not swayed by the de-cryo’d guy protagonist, senses the accuracy of that nagging “something’s wrong here.” Not a Gadget isn’t right or wrong; it’s thought provoking. Highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3935WHS8O28XG/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Failure of the Web 2.0

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine shared with me a book written by Jaron Lanier. At first I just wondered who is Mr. Lanier and why he criticizes Web 2.0 so harshly. Well, after a couple hours of research I found out that this well-respected computer science expert makes some intriguing assertions that I believe are worth sharing.

In his book, he widely discusses the role of humans in the Internet and digital technologies, and how it impacts negatively. For that, he develop his thesis, based on the following three points:

• Individuality: His argument relies on the way the Internet is being developed, with tons of information but produced and shared by copycats, putting aside original ideas, which is reflected for him in nonpersons–automatons or numb mobs. 

• Anonymity: He criticizes the fact that any worked done collectively, either through crowdsourcing or any other method may be manipulated by anonymous groups with no public visibility (acting behind the scene). 

• Capitalistic organization: For Lanier, the Web 2.0 and its big players, such as Facebook, Google, MySpace are the lords of the computing clouds and, therefore, they get all the monetary benefits at our expense, since they control the information we see and how we see it. 

For a better insight on his ideas, click on the video below. 

From my point of view, and probably not being a “Guru” like Mr. Lanier, it seems that he has gone a bit too far. With that, I am not saying that he is mistaken by highlighting the inequalities of the Internet or the mob behavior of the users, but I believe that the Web 2.0 gives us the opportunity to create original content, even if we are changing a little detail in an idea that is not ours, that change could impact in a way that it could lead to new creations.

On the other hand, the Internet is still evolving, so many corrections should and will be done in the next years, in order to keep the human being as the center of the system – at the end, the internet and digital technologies in general are here to do what we order them to do, and not the other way around. Anyways, this is a very controversial discussion and I this is just my humble opinion, so to build yours, I invite you to read: “You are not a Gadget”.