Successful Prediction

Weather predicting is known for being an unpredictable industry (Sherden, 1998, p. 16). Amazingly, National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists successfully predicted a horrible winter storm that affected the US east coast. The blizzard/storm is now known by many names such as the Storm of the Century and ’93 Superstorm (Wikipedia, 2008). As a former resident of the beautiful and relatively mild winter state of West Virginia, I’d have been devastated watching 44 inches of snow fall in a 1-2 day period of time. More recently, Hurricane Ike’s path and strength was successfully predicted by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) early September 2008 (Stormpulse, 2008). Though not all weather can be successfully predicted due to the number of variables involved, predictions have improved with the use of technology.

References

Sherden, W. A. (1998) The Fortune Sellers: The big business of buying and selling predictions. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: New York, New York.

Storm of the Century (1993). (October 2008). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved October 1, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_of_the_Century_(1993).

Stormpulse. (2008). Hurrican Ike 2008. Retrieved October 1, 2008, from http://www.stormpulse.com/hurricane-ike-2008.

Medical Thoughts - Final Project

Some ideas are running around in my mind for the class final project. I'm leaning towards a non-invasive diagnostic and treatment tool. I envision the tool to be along the lines of the security x-ray machines and the Star Trek medical tri-corder. Now to merge the concepts and address political, religious, social, cultural, and technical aspects to develop a prototype.

Social Networking at Work?

Should businesses allow employees to access social networking tools during work hours? I would agree with Boulton that organizations can successfully use these tools. Implementation of policies based on trust while informing employees about online community including negative and positive behaviors associated with community assist with productive use of the tools. Behavior guidelines can be developed and explained to employees to further improve the behavior in social networking environments.

Organizations and employees need to be aware of the impacts of these tools on the company’s network bandwidth, productivity, and company reputation. One prediction is that social networking tools will be necessary to maintain a competitive edge in business. I personally believe this is true after instructing and observing high school students recently.

Reference

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/Gartner-Analysts-Decry-Facebook-Twitter-Bans-at-Work/?kc=EWWHNEMNL081408STR1

More Web 2.0 Tools

Since the residency, I’ve worked with Second Life virtual world, blogging, online mind mapping, and Audacity for podcasting. My work requires me to use meeting software at least four times per month. I see the expanded tools SL offers over meeting software (e.g., Elluminate and Connect). From my experience learning new applications and teaching applications to other people, I can’t say the learning curve to effectively use functions in SL such as navigating and changing avatar appearance is worth the effort.

The blogging requirement on blogspot is giving me a reason to become comfortable with the tool. Posting comments like those in my blog for the world to read still makes me uncomfortable.

My first adventure with mind mapping occurred with Mindmeister. The application reminds me of other diagramming software. The sharing capability is beneficial and saves sending the file via email or using a document sharing portal. A sample image I created from Mindmeister is Student Portal that was original created with one account and revised as a shared image from another account.

Creating a podcast is new to me though I’ve known about the ability from peers. Audacity is the application I decided to try out for recording. I found the application easy to work with but am disappointed to have it generate errors and close periodically as I edited my audio file.

My adventure with Web 2.0 tools continues…

Failed Prediction

“Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.” — Mary Somerville, pioneer of radio educational broadcasts, 1948 (Top 30 Failed Technology Predictions) is one failed technology prediction. Television has involved from “a rotating-disc technology to transmit pictures over wire” (Television History – The History of TV) to displaying on plasma screens and web TV. Close captioning technology allows people with hearing problems to follow television shows by reading the text displayed on the screen. In February 2009, analog transmission of television signals will change to exclusive transmission by digital broadcast. My prediction is that television will continue evolving in the foreseeable future.

Week 3 - Web 2.0 Discoveries

This week I expanded my Web 2.0 knowledge of wikis by adding flash files, navigating and developing electronic portfolios, and visiting SPORE (www.spore.com) virtual world during a webinar on edutainment for academics. The tools have similar tools available when compared to other applications, but I need to spend more time in each tool to develop expertise beyond the basics techniques.

With so many tool sites, each needing usernames and passwords to access, I wonder what tools are available to consolidate the locations into one site with single sign in. Good research idea...

Assignment 1 - Video Review

Disclaimer: All comments are for class purposes only.

One of the education videos using technology differently than intended caught my interest. Education is known to have limited funds to maintain assets and teach students. Therefore, methods of enhancing classroom technology for the least cost are important to me. Interactive whiteboards allows Instructors to be facing students instead of remaining near the computer when talking. Commercially available smart whiteboards cost $2,000 - $3,000. Johnny Lee’s TED video demonstrates using a motion sensor capable Wii remote and homemade infrared pen with his free software application to create an inexpensive smart or interactive whiteboard. The functionality of Lee’s $50 smart whiteboard has about 80% when compared to commercial whiteboards though multitouch is a function of Lee’s whiteboard not found in the high end whiteboards. Lee’s device shows new technology grows from existing technology.

Reference

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/johnny_lee_demos_wii_remote_hacks.html