week 5 - Internet Tools

i just realized that i'm soooo behind time.

whooops! been so caught up with com 326 presentations.... (haha.)

anyways. internet tools.

i'm tired of talking and talking, cause nobody seems to be reading anyways, so i shall just post a video. (damn. i just realized i didn't save this video i did for a friends birthday and another one i did for my invitation to my party.. so i shall do a new one next week and hopefully it'll be good. (: ) using the iMovie is a lot more difficult than Windows movie maker.. movie maker is like idiot proof. but i shall support my mac family. look out for my video! i shall use final cut pro.

week 4 - Digital Learning

Let's look at the pros and cons of digital learning..

well, i think it has plenty of benefits, like if you're sick and your class is available as live feed online. that would be perfect! cause sometimes learning from the notes, or copying other's notes is not the same as listening to the lecturer cause what you pick up, or the way you can remember is different than others summarizing it. so yes, but unfortunately, none of my schools have that technology or availability so far. i think its good also when language learning can be done online. like my sisters when they were studying in Nanyang Poly, and they took up French. it was pretty funny and a lil annoying when they were practising and learning their "oui"s and "bonjours" in front of the computer while listening to the correct pronunciation. but i thought it was quite a good way to teach - online, instead of wasting valuable time and effort on the teacher to repeat himself or herself 2000 times over.

E-learning however done during E-learning break I think is totally useless. Especially in poly or some Uni.. unless its a research paper or experiment like our NTRs.. but other than that. eg. in poly during E learning week, we will have some online quizzes, some papers to hand in, some short answer questions online as well.. the best thing is that the questions are limited.. so we wait for a few people to do it, ask for the questions, and viola! a perfect score. the best quizzes (or i would say the worst since we dont learn much) is those that we can take as many times as we like. so we just keep trying for fun til we score full marks... ah. those were the days mann.

I just searched on the future on E-learning and i came across this research paper (http://www.gse.uci.edu/person/warschauer_m/docs/paradox.pdf). what's interesting is that it checks out some of the paradoxes of digital learning, and one of it was about how these learning are quite autonomous, anyone can really learn from anywhere (in a broad online sense) and that these out of school learning may lead to the downfall in formal education.. but i quote "The paradox here is that, at the same time that new opportunities increase for powerful out-of-school learning, formal education is actually rising rather than falling in its impact on people’s lives"and they went on with examples and support and all that. but yeah, that's pretty cool. that maybe digital learning is actually PUSHING people to want to study further or get further formal education.

I think in the future, we would probably be able to get a degree/masters/doctorate from a well known overseas Uni.. (lets say oxford just for the fun of it) while still in hot sunny sweaty singapore, in the comfort of my own aircon room (although i dont have aircon) and all done online! maybe everyday there's a 2-3 hours lecture.. or for the week the lecture is put up and you can enter it virtually.. maybe all the students are IMing online, and the lecturer is also online with us at a certain time so we can discuss any questions we have! that'd be pretty cool in terms of social networking as well! i know some degrees ARE available online now, but i dont believe those are really educational. i think that's just for those who want the cert. but yes. this online way of going to the school might allow those that cannot afford to enrol or fly over there to enter. (maybe they can cap a certain amount of seats for them etc..)

fun ah! maybe few years down the road with web 3.0 i'll get my doctorate this way. FWAHHAHA.

week 3 - E Commerce

E commerce is the boom these days mann. okay the past years.. some of my friends are into it, and some enjoy spamming my mail to advertise their blogshops, trying to get me to advertise them... life has been much easier since i've blocked those. seriously, i dont think mass emailing or spam messaging helps in advertising one's business site. i think what matters most is credibility and word of mouth. and of course, most imptly, an idiot proof, easy to use, no frills site that anyone can use!

as written by this guy from this blog

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/17-new-rules-for-successful-ecommerce-websites

he listed 17 'must-have' in an e-commerce site. and it's not anything dramatic or special of out of the world. but instead very simple, and allows skeptical anti-online-shopping people like me to feel comfortable and want to try! (actually the only reason i dont is not having a credit card... but yes..)

what i agree most is pictures. for e-commerce, the item on sale is not in reality. its just an image on the net. the less i can see of the product, the less i can decide whether i want it. of course a 3d thingy would be cool.. but! prob expensive if i can do it myself as the business person. so the more pictures the merrier.

i guess the reason ecommerce can succeed if it has credibility. whether the website is super cool, or there are many products or whatever. if it doesn't meet the IMMEDIATE needs of the people... that's byebye to the site. in the near future, it would be great also if the site could narrow down my 'likes' and 'dislikes' and actually promote through emails or such if there's a new product that i might like.

the reason ecommerce can fail is basically the survival of the fittest. with the millions of sites around, there's DEFINITELY a site that is already selling what you're selling or something of the same 'family' anyways. so yes. there's always that competition. which means if you're a new business person, you'll need to have a pretty attractive site to draw customers! however, for a site to be attractive enough, you must either be a web designer yourself, or hire one. and then comes the problem of spending before you start earning.. and from the site my lecturer Abel Choy sent us, i thought it was hilarious how this company started expanding and growing across several states (U.S.) before it even started earning much! that's like... straight road to bankruptcy please. but yes. i also thought it was funny when the pet shop offered delivery service for their cat litter and took a while to send it.. the poor cat must have pooped all over the house.

i think what's worse though is the security of an online shop. not just for the seller, but the consumer! a classmate from this class was telling me how her friend got cheated after transfering her money already.. and it got me thinking.. yeah.. for an e-business to launch. that's the hard part. because before you have your ratings, before you have credibility under your belt, there needs to be a start. but who's gonna give you the start if there are sites cheating them? hmmmm.

that's my thoughts on e-business. if i did have a credit card, i would def buy stuff online. but only from sites that are established.. (APPLE.) ahhaha. but yes. i dont think i'll have a small blogshop thing because i think its a drag.. getting the stock, trying to sell it, trying to attract customers. but when i do have my own business when i'm older, i'll def push my services/products online. nothing reaches out better than the internet.