TWC Session 5: ICT & World Change

ICT stands for Information & Communications Technology and includes so many aspects of our lives from our Internet to our mobile phones. ICT is such an integral part of our life that i believe many of us would not be able to survive without it. There are various aspects of ICT, some are already widely used in our daily lives, some are still growing. Nonetheless, ICT has great potential to make our lives even more efficient, more desirable and thus should be embraced with open arms.

One major aspect of ICT is mass media. So how has the mass media changed the world? Mass media is basically any form of relaying of information to a large audience. Over the years, mass media has evolved from passive to more engaging forms. The earliest forms of mass media, such as smoke signals, are mostly uni directional. Means spreading information from one person to many others, and there is no avenue to provide feedback. However as technology advances with the creation of Internet, people are now able to share their views on the internet and this can be really beneficial as views from every individual can now be heard, and this can help companies to gather feedback much easily. 

However with every new piece of technology comes the cons. Due to the ease of disemmminating information using mass media, ideas and thoughs can be propagated easily to large amount of audience. The problem arises when people use these channels for the wrong agendas. Like how extremists and terrorist uses mass media to spread their believes to try and rope in more people for their cause. 

Another huge component of ICT is the World Wide Web. As we evolved form Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, and are now currently looking at possiblities of Web 3.0, there is great potential is this area. Web 3.0 basically focuses on "internet of things" & "internet of services". In the near future, all our devices will be linked to each other and have the ability to communicate with each other. It will become so inteliigent and so wide spread that it will be omnipresent in our lives. Computers that knows yourself better than you do. Computers that knows what you like and what you don't. I would say the first step has already been taken in many sectors, such as the aerospace sector as explained by my classmate Sam. In the automobile sector, i understand that there are few technologies in place that enables cars to "communicate" with one and another. For new models of Mercedes Benz cars, there is this technology called the Distronic Plus, which can sense the environment around it and helps to keep the car in lane. When it senses the car is too close to the car in front, it will automatically slow down. This is definitely a great start and perhaps in the near future we will have self driven cars.

Gaming technologies is one aspect that i did not know too well before this lesson. I learnt that such technologies are deployed to help train surgeons using simulations. This provides the surgeons with better training and definitely makes training more effective. Harnessing this technology is important in other aspects as well, such as in the military. Huge amounts of military expenses can be saved by using these tehcnologies. Soldiers can now practice shooting and other scenarios in a safe, controlled environment. Pilots can also save huge amounts of money by training in simulators instead of flying a real plane up into the sky, wasting much resources in the process.

However all forms of technologies are always double edged swords. With every benefit comes a detriment. The issue of privacy is one key consideration of the Internet dominated world of today. Online personal information can be easily stolen by hackers and put our privacy at stake. Cases of online banking fraud has also been on the rise in recent years. This are several issues that comes as a package together with greater connectivity, easier communications, and influx of information in our daily lives.

There are really very engaging and interesting videos in this lesson and i really enjoyed this lesson. The pace of the lesson was alot better, giving us more time for discussions. Thus i give this lesson a rating of 9/10

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