Internet and Politics

The Internet is an amazingly powerful tool when it comes to information sharing.

Politicians worldwide (such as United States President Barack Obama, United States Presidential Republican Candidate Mitt Romney, and even local politicians Lee Hsien Loong) have decided to reach out to their supporters across the country/globe via social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

Using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is a really good way for politicians to reach out to the masses as their supporters worldwide will be able to receive real-time updates about their thoughts and feelings about major events. Their supporters will also be able to ‘share’ updates by these politicians, which can help to bolster other peoples’ respect in them.

Online campaigns help you reach anyone with Internet access. You don't need people's addresses or phone numbers to reach them. The Internet also exposes your campaign to more demographics, particularly young people who have traditionally been difficult to reach. There are many ways to reach people electronically, including through campaign websites, email newsletters, social networking websites and blogs. Online campaigns make it easier to reach out to people, for instance, below is a screen shot of Obama's Tumblr, which was constantly updated before and during his campaign, and he not only updated people he also interacted with users on Tumblr, and personally, I thought that was pretty awesome. 

One of the many ways that the election of Barack Obama as president is his use of a new medium that will forever change politics. For Mr. Kennedy, it was television. For Mr. Obama, it is the Internet. Mr. Obama used the Internet to organize his supporters in a way that would have in the past required an army of volunteers and paid organizers on the ground, “The tools changed between 2004 and 2008. Barack Obama won every single caucus state that matters, and he did it because of those tools, because he was able to move thousands of people to organize.”

Mr. Obama’s campaign also took advantage of YouTube for free advertising. Videos that were put on to his channel were much more effective than television ads because viewers chose to watch them or received them from a friend instead of having their television shows interrupted. “The campaign’s official stuff they created for YouTube was watched for 14.5 million hours, and to buy 14.5 million hours on broadcast TV is $47 million."

Honestly, I really am impressed with Obama's style of campaigning. It has foresight and vision to recognize the usefulness of the internet as a platform to reach out to a much wider audience. 

Augmented Reality

This week’s lessons were particularly interesting as they talked about Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR, AR). After Dr Abel showed us videos on Ikea’s AR catalogues and how customers hand to just scan the QR code on the catalogue and were able to actually view the actual furniture being placed in front of them via their mobile devices. He also showed us the AR app, Layar, which I found was extremely cool, but it cannot be used as much in Singapore, for not many things are registered with Layar. Hence, I decide to google more into AR and find out if there were other even more cooler products out there. I then came across the BMW’s AR glasses!

To tackle the fixing process of modern electronics in BMW vehicles, the Munich-based engineers designed a pair of augmented reality glasses that enable users and mechanics to obtain step-by-step instructions on how to fix an engine, simply by looking at it.

The best part is that the highly-advanced glasses can also help anyone, especially those with no previous mechanical experience.

Using augmented reality, the glasses display the guide and instructions to the user through a 3D color display that is laid over the top of the original engine view. Animations explain exactly how to dissemble car parts and to diagnose any trouble with the car itself.

The relevant engine part is highlighted and a written instruction is displayed in the top left-hand corner of the screen. The glasses come with headphones that also read the instructions out loud. In the bottom left-hand corner, the glasses will show a picture of the tool needed to carry out the job.The list of instructions can be recalled by pressing the data button.

When using the glasses, apart from the real environment,  the user can also see virtually animated components, tools to be used and hears instruction on each of the working steps through headphones integrated inside the goggles.

Honestly this is such a cool invention and the future of AR seems to have limitless possibilities.

Fishing or Phishing?

After this week’s lesson on Internet security, I was very interested in finding the whole concept behind phishing. Initially I had only heard about it but I had no idea what it was all about.

So what is phishing? Well phishing refers to any form of scams that attempt to trick someone into revealing personal information, such as bank account numbers, passwords, payment card numbers, or Social Security numbers. These scams can be done by phone, email, regular mail and even via text message. In addition to seeking bank information, phishers may also try to obtain your ATM PIN or any other bits of data that can help them build a more complete profile from which they can operate in your name and “steal” money from you. It is a very elaborate scheme that requires the victims to be caught off guard.

It is highly common for phishers to target unsuspecting users with fake Internet sites or email messages that seem legitimate. This is sometimes referred to as "spoofing." Scammers also may leverage social networking sites, where users are already accustomed to sharing information with others. The website might seem almost similar to your i-banking website, but you have to be vigilant to spot the fake one.

Phishing emails and websites typically use familiar logos and graphics to deceive consumers into thinking the sender or website owner is a government agency, bank, retailer or other company they know or do business with. Sophisticated phishers may include misleading details, such as using the company CEO's name in the email "from" field. Another common phishing tactic is to make a link in an email (and the fake website where it leads) appear legitimate by subtly misspelling URLs or changing the ".com" to ".biz" or another easily overlooked substitution.

Some phishing scams even lure victims by telling them that their information has already been jeopardized. For example, potential victims may receive an email that appears to come from a major bank warning that their account has recently been exposed to fraudulent activity. Users are asked to click a link within the message so they can "confirm" their bank account information. Instead of going to the bank's legitimate website, however, victims are taken to a clever lookalike, where their information actually is routed to the scammer.

If you receive any message asking you to confirm account information that has been "stolen" or "lost" or encouraging you to reveal personal information in order to receive a prize, it may be a form of phishing.

Therefore, I’ve actually become very wary of any emails I receive or websites I visit. I make it a point to be very cautious and not reveal my personal information easily.

Shoot, Shag, Still Must Edit!

This is a video that I shot last year. I’m actually quite proud of this cause I managed to shoot it and edit it with no past experience of doing so before. After reading up on the software online, I basically self-learnt the entire process of editing. Frankly, it is not that difficult.

Here's a sample of my video>>>>>>>>>https://vimeo.com/89086465 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<

We begin by planning out the shoot. In order to that, we need to draw up the storyboard of the entire shoot. The storyboard envisions the entire flow of the video and goes down to details by showing a zoom in on every scene. Every scene is represented by a box and every scene is depicted in boxes in the form of a rough sketch.

Next would be to plan out the props and equipment needed for each scene.

Once the logistics side is settled, next is the shoot itself. Be sure to plan out the length of the shoot and the type of lighting required. You have to plan the order of the scenes to shoot and they do not follow the order of the storyboard. The shooting order of the scenes might be different, according to availability of location and settings.

Be sure to have a proper camera and backup power supplies. Go all creative with angles and take multiple takes for a better variety to choose from during editing.

Then, comes the editing stage, which is the most hassle part until you are very familiar with the editing software that you are using. I used the Sony Vegas Pro 12. After you transfer all the recordings onto your desktop, you start to create tracks on the software. I edited the video by scenes. Hence, I dragged every recording relevant to a particular scene and then placed in on the event arena. Subsequently I edited the videos with transitions, special effects and overlaps.

Only after I have edited an entire scene, then do I progress to the next scene and I repeat the whole process again. Also, be very sure to save after every scene that you edit! 

Learning Without The Whiteboard & Markers

In the face of rapid technology advancement, educators in this age of digital information and technology not only have to be proficiently knowledgeable in the field(s) that they are teaching, but must also be skilled in the technologies that are being used to convey the educational content.

As a result, in the educational arena today, there is an emerging breed of technologically proficient educators who are using the information and communication technology to create a better teaching and learning environment. The marriage of content and technology not only provides the teacher with a more effective way to transfer knowledge and information to students, but also enables them to learn in a more productive way. It is fast gaining popularity as a powerful instructional tool for disseminating knowledge and information to the learners.

In the traditional education realm, the role of the teacher is to provide content and information to students. This can be done in the form of many instructional media, such as notes, diagrams, overhead transparencies, models and more. The information or content that is presented is based on the teacher's curriculum and other relevant information for the class. With technology, especially with multimedia authoring technology, the very same content can be converted into the electronic form and presented on the PC. The multimedia technologies used will transform the traditional materials into an interactive multimedia courseware.

When you think of e-learning, you probably might envision students using computers to take online classes. But online learning can be much more than simply studying on a laptop in a dorm room. Today's e-earning tools go beyond computers to include MP3 players, podcasts, blogs and more.

Net generation students are well versed in technology, often arriving on campus adept at communicating by text message, e-mail and message board and armed with laptops, MP3 players, smartphones and PDAs. Many have years of experience with online social networks, blogging and downloading music and video. They're looking to apply their technology and skills to learning, and schools are finding ways to meet those needs with online courses and hybrids that bring new technology to traditional teaching.

These students can take online classes on their personal computers, but they also can download podcasts of course lectures and professors' audio study notes to their laptops or smartphones to review wherever and whenever they want to. Also, they can check and copy information from the professor's daily or weekly blog, including the course syllabus, assignment changes, study notes and other important information.

E-mail or text message friends to set up study sessions and get answers to each other's questions about the material they're studying. They can even send instant messages to professors with quick questions or to set up a time to talk more extensively by phone.

The list is in exhaustive and here are a few more

·         - Log in to an online forum or visit a private chat room to discuss the topics being studied with the professor and other students in the class.

·        -  Take notes, photos or video with an iPod or smartphone during lab experiments or in the field to use later as part of papers, presentations or test preparation.

·        -  Bring work home from campus, share information for a collaborative project or submit a project to a professor with a USB flash drive.

·        -  Buy and use educational software available for PDAs to review the subject they're studying.

·         - Complete written, video or presentation assignments and hand them in via e-mail to the professor.

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With this transformation, multimedia is changing the way we communicate with each other. The way we send and receive messages is more effectively done and better comprehended. The inclusion of media elements reinforces the message and the delivery, which leads to a better learning and teaching environment. The power of multimedia lies in the fact that it is multi-sensory, stimulating the many senses of the audience, which consequently leads to better attention and retention rates.

 As such, many are turning to multimedia as a means to better communicate their message and to foster better feedback on the information exchanged. For many years, multimedia and multimedia developers were housed in selected industries such as advertising, entertainment and edutainment, games and corporate computer-based training (CBT) systems. However, multimedia is now penetrating the education field and changing the way teachers teach and students learn. With the advent of multimedia and technology in the classrooms, teachers can equip themselves with these technological skills and become better communicators of their content materials, and thus enabling the students to learn in a more productive way.