8848 Final Project

A Shift From Hands-on Hardware to Virtual Simulation Labs

Note to Dr. Thornburg Concerning Module 5 Blog

Dr. Thornburg,

Please note that I have responded to the following team members for Module 5 Blog Post:

Michael Hiett’s Blog: http://sportz75.wordpress.com/

Brandy Hiett’s Blog: http://emergingandfuturetechnology.wordpress.com/

Shelly Vohra’s Blog: http://techdiva29.wordpress.com/

Curtiss Vavra’s  Blog: http://cvavra.wordpress.com/

EDUC - 8848 Module 5 Blog Post

Red Queens and Increasing Returns

I own a copy of Philip K. Dick’s book, Total Recall on my Kindle and rented Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Recall (1990) film from Red Box a few years ago. I have also watched Schwarzenegger’s version multiple times on cable TV. Interestingly, Dick (2012) stated that the Total Recall story was originally published under the title “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” during 1966. I see this movie as a classic, and now that streaming videos are currently popular, I thought the film must be available on all streaming video services.

Movie Hunt: Rent or purchase DVD versus viewing digitally

Therefore, during Module 4 where students in this course were required to find a movie based on a Philip K. Dick book, I immediately opened up Netflix and performed a search. To my horror, Total Recall was not available! I tried my paid-for-Hulu service and received the same results, not available. However, when I tried Google Play, I saw that the new version of Total Recall was available. I was tempted to purchase the new version, not only because the movie was intriguing, but also because I would be able to immediately view it from any of my digital devices. Moreover, I will not be using up my storage space in that the movie would be safely stored on Google’s cloud. I ended up viewing Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Recall (1990) film in parts on YouTube during module 4.

Thornburg explained that Red Queens are two technologies that are in fierce competition with each other in order to gain an advantage over their competition by meeting new needs and becoming better (Thornburg, 2008c).  According to the Red Queens’ concept, to gain advantage over their competitors, technological designers, must let their innovations go at least twice as fast as their counterparts.

I agree with Thornburg (2008c) that users are the beneficiaries of Red Queens events as seen with Netscape and Microsoft for the web browser wars.  Users ended up receiving web browsers for free. I recall during the past when the use of Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTNs) were expensive. Speaking across neighboring towns with a different area code would be very expensive, until Voice over IP (VoIP) emerged and created a fierce battle of Red Queens between both technologies.  Currently, most of our phone services are Internet based and allow users to call nationwide at an inexpensive flat rate.

Example of Red Queens

Reflecting on my own experiences concerning the need to have videos/films delivered immediately, I would say that video-on-demand is now a worthy opponent to DVDs which can be seen as an example of Red Queens. One clear indication that this is an example of Red Queens is the idea that users are now able to view many videos for free, for example, there is a free version of Hulu which allows endless streaming. Also, YouTube is a well known free streaming service which allows users to stream videos both upstream and downstream. Furthermore, DVDs are now sold for very low prices, for example, at my local supermarket movies, DVDs are being sold for as low as three movies for five dollars. I own hundreds of DVDs, however, most of them can be found on my streaming services such as my Netflix and Hulu accounts. In fact, video-on-demand/streaming service owners are most likely gaining advantage over DVDs suppliers.

Users are seeking immediacy and convenience. Personally speaking, most of the times whenever I need to view a video, I need to view it immediately and not to wait for it to come in the mail or to trek to a store to rent or purchase it. Moreover, I like the idea of not having to store my movies on a physical shelf; I prefer to have them stored on a streaming service cloud where I can have access to all my items anytime, anyplace and on any device.

In Light of the Four Criteria of McLuhan’s Tetrad

In order to effectively evaluate the battle of the Red Queens – DVDs and video-on-demand, I will make an assessment using the four criteria of McLuhan’s tetrad. Based on my own experience (as well as the experience of the people around me and online), video-on-demand/streaming services seems to be an emerging innovation which brought about Red Queens battle with DVD technologies. Some of these streaming services are slightly different from each other, for example, Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime; however they work together as clusters to obsolete DVD technologies.

Interestingly, DVDs had replaced VHSs in the past and now it seems to be in the process of being replaced by cloud-based video-on-demand/streaming services. Similarly, video-on-demand/streaming services might be replaced by holographic video streaming in the future. The usefulness of video-on-demand/streaming services is helping their designers to gain advantage over their competitors. The main usefulness of video-on-demand is that it improves speed of access to video/movies.  This is very important, especially in education, where learners today are used to having access to all forms of information immediately. See Figure 1 for an image of the four criteria of McLuhan’s tetrad in relationship to DVDs and video-on-demand competing as Red Queens in the video/movie industry.

Figure 1

Emerging Technology Tetrad: video-on-demand

Enhances: video-on-demand improves speed of access to videos/movies.	Reverses: holographic video streaming might replace video-on-demand in the future.
Retrieve/Rekindles: Video-on-demand brings back spontaneous story telling of the past.	Obsoletes: video-on-demand might lead to the abandonment of DVDs.

References

Dick, P. K. (2012). Total Recall (Kindle Locations 12-13). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

Thornburg, D. (2008c). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.

Note to Dr. Thornburg Concerning Module 4 Blog

Dr. Thornburg,

Please note that I have responded to the following team members for Module 4 Blog Post:

Michael Hiett’s Blog: http://sportz75.wordpress.com/

Brandy Hiett’s Blog: http://emergingandfuturetechnology.wordpress.com/

I have also responded to peers on my own blog : http://ena-spoonfulofsugar.blogspot.com/

EDUC - 8848 Module 4 Blog Post

The Disruptive Power of Second Life

Second Life – A Disruptive Technology  

Six useful forces that drive emerging technologies on a path of change are: evolutionary technologies, rhymes of history, disruptive technologies, science fiction, increasing returns, and Red Queens (Laureate Education, 2009). Disruptive technologies, as one of these forces of change, have become almost common language within the educational field. However, the term disruptive innovation was coined by Clayton Christensen, which describes a process by which a product or service start out at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up and displace established competitors (Clayton Christensen, 2014).  Dr. Christensen explained in his media segment that disruptive innovation transforms a product that was so historically expensive and complicated that only a few people with a large amount of money and skill had access to it. A disruptive innovation makes the technology much more affordable and accessible that a larger population than before has access to it.  Second Life can be seen as an emerging disruptive technology that disrupts expensive virtual world technologies and will most likely move up to the top of the virtual communication market.

Technology or Innovation that Second Life Displaces

Second Life might have emerged from social networking sites, and their accompanying social trends such as group chats and multiplayer gaming.  As an emerging technology, second life not only disrupts virtual meeting technologies such as telepresence, but also online discussion boards. Businesses from various industries are now capitalizing on second life innovations, using them to eliminate travel cost because they are able to connect live and direct via avatars within second life environments. 

Also, I think that cloud computing has opened the door for the expansion of second life particularly where processing power is concerned. This is because processing can now be carried out by numerous servers on server farms. In other words, anyone connected to the internet these days can enter second life environments with almost any type of device (computer, tablet, smart phones or smart TVs).

Another emerging Technology Possibly during the Next 10 Years

In terms of possible future impact, I would say that second life technology will most likely bring about both negative and positive impacts to society.  For example, maybe in the future, online education will run live in second life environments. Maybe face-to-face learning might dwindle because of the richness of second life in the future, especially if second life evolves to the extent where the entire environment becomes holographic and include digital senses technology such as smell and touch.  One negative consequence to having an enhanced version of second life is that people might spend too much time in their “second life” and not in the real world. Persons with obsessive personalities may become addicted to the technology and end up losing their sense of how to communicate in the real world.

References

Christensen, C. (2002). The innovation economy: How technology is transforming existing industries and creating new ones [Video]. Retrieved from http://video.mit.edu/watch/the-innovation-economy-how-technology-is-transforming-existing-industries-and-creating-new-ones-9844/.

Clayton Christensen. (2014).Disruptive Innovation. Retrieved from http://www.claytonchristensen.com/key-concepts/#sthash.3nG7JD7E.dpuf.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Emerging and future technology: Six forces that drive emerging technologies. Baltimore, MD: Author.

EDUC - 8848 Module 3 Blog Post

Rhymes of History – Google Glasses

Six useful forces that drive emerging technologies on a path of change are: evolutionary technologies, rhymes of history, disruptive technologies, science fiction, increasing returns, and Red Queens (Laureate Education, 2009). Kevin Kelly in his video spoke about the Internet as only 5,000 days old, yet it has had a profound impact on the world, bearing elements such as satellite images of the Earth, laptops, wireless devices, making all that seemed impossible, possible (Kelly, 2007).  I actually recalled life without the Internet when I was a child living in Jamaica. The world seemed gigantic and mysterious. Also, information was hard to come by. During those days, it seemed as though only a few people knew how the world works, until the Internet came into being and leveled the playing field where humanity has access to endless information.

Yes indeed the future will be like the past, but with more interesting technological gadgets (Laureate Education, 2009).  A fine example, of this is the use of walkie talkies in the past which were “cool” but not as interesting as smart phones in this era. Smart phones themselves are on an evolutionary path. Thus, an example of the technology which represents a rhyme in history is Google’s glasses. Google’s glasses can be described as hands-free smart phones. See the following video for Google glasses’ features: 

Rhyme of History

            The Google glasses rekindle the 1960s psychedelic and surrealism art movements. Users walk around in a virtual world, going beyond what ordinary humans see. See the following link for more information on Google glasses based on users’ experiences: https://www.google.com/glass/start/explorer-stories/

Kelly pondered on what the next 5,000 days will be like and concluded that there will be embodiment, restructuring and codependency on the Internet. All these elements are reflected in Google glasses. Also, the single global machine that Kelly spoke about can be seen as Siri in the future. He also spoke about different kinds of dimensions which reminds me of the Google glasses and how users seem to enter a new dimension once they put them on. Many of us are already heavily depended on the Internet. I know I am, and being able to carry around your smart phone entirely hands free sounds like a technology that might very well stay with us for a while (until it evolves into something more powerful).  My reliance on the Internet and my smart phone might eventually influence me into purchasing a pair of Google glasses. This is how depended I am on the Internets. I went away on vacation and ended up renting a personal hotspot for the entire time that I was gone.

References

Kelly, K. (2007). Kevin Kelly on the next 5,000 days of the Web [Speech]. Speech delivered at the EG 2007 Conference, Los Angeles. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html

Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Emerging and future technology: Six forces that drive emerging technologies. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Note to Dr. Thornburg Concerning Module 2 Blog Post

Dr. Thornburg,

Please note that thus far I have responded to the following team members for Module 2 Blog Post:

Michael Hiett’s Blog: http://sportz75.wordpress.com/

Brandy Hiett’s Blog: http://emergingandfuturetechnology.wordpress.com/

Module 2 Blog Post RSCH - 8350

Emerging Technologies Tetrad

Dr. Soloway explained that hardware is not as expansive as software and their associated services, while Dr. Thornburg described an emerging technology as one that is new to the world and if a community is not aware of the innovation (and its benefits), then it is to their detriment (Laureate Education, 2009).  Furthermore, as one technology is replaced by another on a regular basis and often simultaneously, such changes will call for leaders and managers to make crucial decisions about which technologies to invest in.  These changes that occur simultaneously were examined by McLuhan and McLuhan (1988) where the authors concluded that four variations affect all media and human artifacts. An example of the McLuhan’s Laws of Media can be seen at present with the emergence of Smartboards. See the following video for a demonstration of Smartboards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U05WeXPGlk

 Judging from what I have observed on the Internet, Smartboards seem to be an emerging technology that further enhances media in education.  Smartboards seem to be replacing existing whiteboards and as well as those that are software-based, for example, iconnect’s whiteboard.  Smartboards can be used in all learning environments because it is digital, and thus, can go beyond face-to-face and be shared across networked classrooms. This technology retrieves one room schoolhouse learning environments where teachers can assemble a wide array of students from different locations through virtual terminal sharing.

Interestingly, when pushed to its limit of potential, the emerging device will run in reverse – going in the opposite direction to its original form (Laureate Education, 2009).  Hence, gestures, pinch, touch, and holographic technologies might very well be a chain of emerging innovations. These emerging innovations might lead to the invention of holographic chalkboards which may replace smartboards in the future!

References

McLuhan, M., & McLuhan, E. (1988). Laws of media: The new science. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

Miercom. (2009). Lab testing summary report: Aggregation services routers – power efficient. Retrieved from. http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/routers/asr-1000-series-aggregation-services-routers/asr1000_series_green.pdf

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.

Thornburg, D. D. (2009a). Current trends in educational technology. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.

Note to Dr. Thornburg Concerning Module 1 Blog Post

Dr. Thornburg,

Please note that I have responded to the following team members for Module 1 Blog Post:

Michael Hiett’s Blog: http://sportz75.wordpress.com/

Brandy Hiett’s Blog: http://emergingandfuturetechnology.wordpress.com/

Shelly Vohra’s Blog: http://techdiva29.wordpress.com/

Curtiss Vavra’s  Blog: http://cvavra.wordpress.com/

I have also responded to peers on my own blog : http://ena-spoonfulofsugar.blogspot.com/

MD1 Blog Post: RSCH - 8350D -1 Advanced Qualitative Reasoning and Analysis

Shifting From Hands-on Hardware Labs to Simulated Labs

           Dr. Thornburg spoke about the change in the use personal computing to the use of low-powered netbooks as educators aim to go “green” (Thornburg, 2009a).  Similarly, educators in higher education have been slowly phasing out the use of hardware in hands-on lab environments to the use of software simulation.  For example, at the college where I am currently teaching as a visiting professor, students no longer physically open up PCs to perform troubleshooting labs. Instead, students are now conducting hands-on activities via LabSim software simulation tool. See the following video for a LabSim demonstration.

           Software that allow learners to perform simulated labs go beyond simple PC troubleshooting hands-on labs to complex networking activates, all done without physically working with hardware such as routers and switches. The college where I am currently teaching introduced networking students and professor Cisco’s packet tracer virtual environment a few years ago. Learners were given a choice between using hardware devices (that is, routers and switches) and the packet tracer simulation software.  My observation was that older (more traditional) students and professors were not in favor of the implementation of this emerging technology.  So, of course they opted for using the “real” equipment.  As time goes by the number of students and professors who choose to employ the simulated environment has grown. See the following video for a demonstration of the packet tracer simulator.

Challenges Associated With Simulated Labs

              The main challenge associated with using computer simulated labs in higher education is that traditional learners and professors are not comfortable with the idea of not physically working with hardware devices in the learning environments. Based on personal experience, this can cause a rift between students and professors where those who opt to use the “real” equipment will be esteemed as more knowledgeable than those who choose to work in virtual environments. Another challenge is that employers with traditional mindsets might have a marginalized view of networking students who have never used actual routers and switches during their degree programs.

Societal Need and Benefits of Using Simulated Labs

           The use of simulated labs has tremendously lowered the power consumption in colleges. Even though some companies, for example Cisco, sells hardware devices that are considered to be “green” technologies, they still use a vast amount of wattage. For example, at initial system boot, many Cisco routers will consume 108W, and then the wattage will increase to 330W once all processors are connected (Miercom, 2009). This cost can be entirely eliminated or lowered whenever simulated networking labs are used in place of these hardware routers and switches.

Room for Improvement/Avoiding Pitfalls

           Although simulated environments are not new to the world, they are new to many schools. Thus, every college that offers computer networking courses will need a champion who throws his or her weight behind an innovation to overcome resistance that the new idea may provoke in the organization (Rogers, 2003). This will increase enthusiasm among students and professor who will most likely explore these virtual labs.  Having champions will also help to make the innovation become mainstream to the extent that employees will be more open to accepting learners who utilized virtual labs. Still, I would recommend that colleges require that learners use both environments –physical and virtual.  This way, everyone on either side of the rift will feel at ease. Moreover, schools will still benefit because using simulated devices along with hardware devices will consume less power than if only hardware devices are being used.

References

Miercom. (2009).  Lab testing summary report: Aggregation services routers – power efficient. Retrieved from. http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/routers/asr-1000-series-aggregation-services-routers/asr1000_series_green.pdf

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.

Thornburg, D. D. (2009a). Current trends in educational technology. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.