Firstly, i think that the activity was very enriching. Other than the things i knew, i learnt things like many other programmes by IDA other than programmes like the Silver Infocomm Initiative and the optical fibre programme.
Secondly, the lesson made me feel that research on certain topics will be very hard without the internet, because information on hard copy is actually quite limited.
Lastly, it's quite a fun challenge to find and compile so much information within a short time, but i don't think i want to repeat this again :D
This lesson I went exploring around the school's library. They have a lot of books, ensuring that there are many subjects covered, which is good. However, they have a lot of books, making specific books hard to find. In my opinion, I still prefer to use Google to search for information, compared to reading books at the library. Although I found it quite fun to take all the related books before the other team got to use them. =)
I just learned that IDA had been doing their best all these while to help Singaporeans access into the cyber world because it is essential in our daily needs in this generation. From dial-up connection to wireless and now fibre optics, Singapore is improving throughout the years.
The internet has no doubt been useful in obtaining information but there are too much of them. I learned how to pick out the key information for the powerpoint slides.
After searching high and low for the books my group needs for our research, i learned that books is really useful for us to do our research.By restricting us not to use the computers and laptops, i also found out that the internet is an important tool towards students and the society. I learned more about the iN 2015 that the IDA introduced such as Singapore's ambition to be the number 1 in IT and helping old folks to know and learn to use computers. I found out about the importance of closing the gap of the digital divide in Singapore and feel that the goals of the iN 2015 is realistic and can be achieve in Singapore by every citizens, no matter young or old,working together to be an IT society. All in all, i feel that it is a wonderful experience working in a team and working on the research of Singapore's digital divide in the library through books.This learning experience really enriches me by making me understand more about the IT segment in Singapore.And that's all!=)
In this lesson , i learnt that google is such a great website, that have a lot of information needed ! All you need is just type &press enter :D
*******
Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) have been doing a lot to enable everyone in Singapore to be IT literate. They have come out with such interesting devices to enable those with physical disability to use the computer. Also, Singapore being such a well developed country, there is still 14% of school going children family without a Computer at home. IDA also have training for elderly, so that they know how to use the computer.
In this lesson, I have learned that the Info-comm Development Authority have been making efforts to allow the whole of Singapore to be able to use high speed internet instead of the mindset i had long ago - they would not care about the poor or the elderly, profits are all they want. I really enjoy finding facts on this lesson, Google is no doubt your best friend but it is important to pick out appropriate points needed for the presentation instead of copying and pasting and be caught for plagiarism. In conclusion, this lesson not only taught me how to pick out points for the assignment but also increase a bit of my confidence in public speaking, therefore, i would encourage more of such activities.
In this lesson, I have discovered that IDA has prepared and implemented many programmes to help the elderly and less fortunate. I feel that Singaporeans are very lucky as they have such a government agency that is putting in a lot of effort and resouces to develop Singapore's IT capability and at the same time, taking care to bridge the digital divide.
For the activity, I felt that I was fortunate to be one of the teams to use computers to find information. With Google, searching for information is easy and quick. However, Google sometimes returns too much information, and hence i had to learn to identify and pick out points and information relevant to the topic at hand.
Through this lesson, I learnt that programmes by IDA of Singapore like Silver Infocomm Initiative and the NEU pc plus programme are conducted with the aim of getting each and every Singaporean to be able to own a personal computer and have the necessary digital lifestyle skills.
I also learnt that books from the library are absolutely true from Mr Andrew as they need to go through the publisher for content checking. However, the disadvantage of the library is that it is hard to find a specific book with the content you are looking for without technology like OPAC.
Personally, I prefer the to use the search engine like Google to search for information as it is a more convenient way compared to going to the library to search for relevant books.
After this lesson I have learn that technology plays a big part in our lives. Without technology, getting information will be time consuming and hard to find.As I was part of the group which was sent to the library to search for information, I have learnt that group work is important as the library was huge and we were looking for a few particular books that will hep us in our research.Not only that, I'm also able to experience how research were done when technology were not advance during the older days.
I have also learn that Singapore have help to improve the awareness of technology greatly in hand with IDA.
If this lesson was not held I would not have known about the projects that IDA have contributed to help the poor and needy to be able to have access to technology.
From this lesson, I learnt that the IDA have been doing their part to help the needy,the disabled and the elderly through various programmes(NEU PC plus,Training for all disability groups,etc)so that they will not be left out in the Digital Age.
However, I feel that more needs to be done in order for everyone to be part of the digital age because 14 per cent of households with school going children still have no computers at home. Furthermore, some of the elderly might find it troublesome for them to learn about computer stuffs at their age.
Other than that, I've also learnt that finding information might be easy using the various search engine but information found might not be totally true. On the other hand, information in books are true so it would be better to gather information from books even though it would be more tedious.
Lastly, I am glad that I attended the lesson as i learnt how much the IDA has done to ensure that most of us would be a part of the digital society in 2015.
The GREATEST IMPACT that the lesson left on me was that doing things (in this case research) was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT without the help of the internet.
Why do I say that? Because without the internet and technology, it is not easy to locate your required information, especially in the library where there is so much different informations everywhere.
However, in the library, when we have limited time and limited resources, we are forced to collect only the more important key points we need and to leave out the smaller unimportant points. Through this I've learnt about the approaches IDA and the government has to bridge the IT divide in Singapore.
I've also learnt that with the help of the internet the other half of the class managed to get more details due to the fact that the resources on the net is pretty much unlimited and searching time is very fast. This however may also be a disadvantage as there is so much information that one may go crazy trying to acquire the most accurate one. Nonetheless, searching on the internet is fast and more things can be done.
To conclude, I've not only learn more about the IDA's plans, I've learnt about the pros and cons about the internet and IT in general.
This lesson really taught me the importance of technology and computers in my life. Not being able to use technology to aid me in finding information was really a big challenge. It was very hard and slow. We had to physically look for books and articles, which took us at least an hour. The same information could be available to us in 5 mins using a computer.
Furthermore, the library had limited books that contained the information we needed, and since the other team had already acquired all the books, we felt extremely helpless as we then had no information to present, so we just had to resort to asking for a book that they did not want.
Thus, we learnt more about IN2015, which is an initiative by IDA, to bridge the digital divide, enabling people who are disabled, the poor and the elderly to also become it literate.
I learnt that the In2015 initiative ensures that there is a infocomm club/ society in all government school to make student interested in IT from a young age. There are also IA centres that are customized to train physically disable people, allows them to even have apprenticeship and employment opportunities to help them to integrate into the society better. Senior citizens are taught basic IT Knowledge to enable them to interact with their children or grandchildren. IDA also helps poor family which cannot afford computers by giving them subsidies and free internet access, and also by reducing the price of computers entirely. They help to make new technologies that enable the manufacturing industry to run more faster and efficiently, thus reducing the cost the companies incur to make the IT product enabling them to sell them at a lower price.
In conclusion I have learnt that despite the fact that Singapore is a advanced and developed country there are still some people that fall through the cracks, however the government does not neglect them but is working with IDA to enable these people to be able to integrate into society better, by providing them IT knowledge
I've learned that IDA is taking a lot of measures to introduce Info-comm Technology (ICT) to Singaporeans. IDA is targeting not only the wealthy people, but the disabled, less-fortunate and elderly as well. I think that the effort of targeting all or most of the population is important.
Through the short presentation during class, I've learned many things about IDA's purpose and goal in starting the iN2015. It basically equips Singapore with the state-of-the-art ICT. I've also learned the various means in which the government is trying to bridge the IT divide in Singapore.
The importance of IT was demonstrated to me in class. Our group was able to pick-up points via the internet. It was much more convenient than having to run all the way to the library and finding all the relevant books.
The lesson was pretty interesting. We were only given a short amount of time to prepare a short presentation, which I think everyone did a good job on it. Spontaneous assignments are always so fun! (No sarcasms intended)
To conclude, I've learned the importance for the need of ICT in our daily lives, and the fact that the government is working hard to improve ICT in Singapore. I look forward to more fun and interesting CIS classes in the future! Peace out!
Before this lesson I knew there was this problem existing, but this lesson taught me exactly how big is divide is in Singapore and the World (Extremly huge, I didn't expect not even half of the world have computers). I also learnt other reasons I don't know about that is causing the digital divide, such as some parts of China still using insanely slow and expensive dial-up (I thought it was wiped out already) or even how some areas of the world does not even have electricity.
I felt that one of the problem causing the digital divide which is software isn't really as big of a problem as people think. One major problem is the software cost, but this can be solved extremly easily by using free alternatives such as Linux (Specifically Ubuntu which is more user-friendly considering we are giving it to computer illiterate people) rather than pay hundreds for Windows. Microsoft Office can also be replaced with the free alternative LibreOffice that provides all the basic functionalities such as simple word processing, making spreadsheets, generating graphs or making presentations. Lately with all the cloud computing stuff, you don't even need a full office suite; just a browser that can access the internet. You can use Google Docs, the free service provided by google to do your work.
IDA is definetly doing its best at attempting to solve the great divide in Singapore. They have came up with many diffrent programmes to bring IT to students, elderly, disabled and the needy, and I felt some these programmes are quite successful, as students now (including me) must know how to search for information on the internet and put it in a presentation to present it to the class. We now rarely go to the library to find information we need and after being exposed to such a speed and ease in finding information on the internet, if we ever need to go back to the library to find information we will be at a loss (I did).
On the learning experience:
I was part of the group that had to go to the library. We were not allowed to use any computers or devices at all to find information. As such, it was extremely difficult for us to find even books as we could not know where the relevant books are without using the computers. We had to ask the librarian to help ask search for what we need (its like she helped us use the computer) and we took some time to find it, but by that time the relevant books were already taken by another group. This activity showed that without IT, searching information will take a lot of time, even information on where books are located. Other group's presentation showed a big diffrence between searching the internet and relying on library. The groups who used internet to research tend to have more information about the topic while those who relied on the library have less information, but points of those bits of information were explained more. Overall I felt it helped me learnt a lot about the Digital Divide than if it is just pure lectures since we do get to research on the subject. It also taught how much we are relying on IT to find information and we should not take this for granted.
By Luo Wenhan (The previous post was removed to add who wrote this aka me)
After the lesson, I had an increased awareness of the digital divide. I began to notice the old lady in on the MRT watching Channel 8 on her iPad. Today I spotted an old "Uncle" trying to teach his friend how to find the latest 4D results on his iPhone.
In practical terms the digital world has little bearing on one's survival, but every day more and more people are getting "plugged-in". To most youth, updating their Facebook status is as much a habit as brushing their teeth.
The main allure of IT is efficiency and convenience. We can receive up-to-the-minute updates of world shaping events or more mundane things like soccer results. IT allows many tasks to be completed in a fraction of the time required to do so manually.
Through the lesson, I discovered that the Government (IDA) has made a concerted effort to bridge the digital divide. Personally, I feel that it is only a matter of time before virtually (pun intended) every Singaporean has access to the digital world.
With the current trend of decreasing prices and major upgrades year after year, free market forces will inevitably overcome the digital divide. The main obstacle, in my humble opinion, is the lack of broad based vendor-neutral IT knowledge. Many families and companies pay thousands of dollars more than necessary due to a lack of knowledge.
For example, many people are convinced to buy expensive "multimedia" laptops when they simple require a cheap netbook for sufing the net and watching the occasional movie. Many parents buy their children a new version of Microsoft Office annually, when there are a pletora of freeware choices available.
It is my view that just as the iPhone slowly gained widespread acceptance due to its ease of use and functionality, freeware and cheap alternatives will eventually be as widespread as Windows is today, making it easier for millions to get connected.
I am not a fan of IT stuff, thus before this lesson, I never bothered about technology around me, and I never knew about plans such as iN2015, NEU PC Plus, Silver Infocomm Initiative, etc. I never had the interest to research on such topics.
This lesson "forced" me to research on these information and present them within a short period of time. From this, I learn that the internet is a GREAT tool. I can never imagine myself having to research for information within a short period of time, without the internet and google. With the internet, we can find answers just a click away!
In addition, I realised that these information needs to be accumulated over a period of time in order for us to know it well enough to present it in a clear manner. 15 minutes is not enough to absorb all these information and present it clearly. We are bound to forget some information.
Technology has advanced so quickly that we don't notice the changes that have been happening around us. One example given to us during the lesson is that primary 1 students are already communicating through facebook, a social-networking site. Thinking back in secondary school, as my school is a full school with primary school in a whole compund, I would see primary school students as young as primary 1 holding handphones and making phonecalls. When I was 7, I had to use phone cards to call my parents after school, much less using the internet when technology was less advanced then. However, I never thought of such great changes technology has brought to us then, everything seemed normal as I had a handphone too.
The poor in the society is being left behind, but we see our government lending a helping hand with schemes such as NEU PC Plus and Silver Infocomm Initiative. Despite all these efforts, 14% of families with children still do not own a computer at home. This tells us that although the government made efforts to help people, some still remain out of reach as there are limits.
From this, technology may seem to be advancing too quickly but with this fast-paced and competitive society, it is inevitible for technology to advance at such speed in order to keep up.
Succinctly put, the lesson on the digital divide has its distinct takeaways:
Books found in the library are less accessible due to their nature of storage and access, however they are reliable because they have been verified through their publishers and the library itself. This itself is an advantage which information found through the internet lacks.
Information gathered through the internet is undoubtedly fast, nearly instant. Also, the results in which one acquires from a simple search is enormous, hence there is no lack of information. However, much work is needed to verify the accuracy of the found articles as content on the internet can be inserted by anyone with ease. Regardless of the intention of the author, the content may not contain accurate. This issue decreases the effectiveness of using the internet to gather information. One may however circumvent this issue through gathering data from reputed journals.
Beyond this, we learn about the Singapore Government's attempts to bridge the digital divide. We have seen the iN2015 initiative, and learned about it's impact on Singapore's current state of IT. iN2015 is a huge initiative (will not go in depth), however, through the lessons in Week 2, i have gained awareness about this issue called the "digital divide" which I was not aware of prior to the lesson.
From the lesson, i have most importantly got to know what in2015 was all about as earlier i did not know anything about it. Firstly, the group which was left at class together with me were the more fortunate ones as we could easily get what we want by just searching in google as compared to the rest where they had to search for the specific books to get the specific infomation that they want.Also i have learn how to manage my time better as we had to come up with a presentation in such a short time. As for the Digital Divide, the IDA is doing a good job as their initiatives are looking promising as for example they are looking to get the elderly involved in the technology world by teaching them to use modern technology so as to keep them in touch with the modern world.
The lesson has taught me a lot on the actions taken by Singapore to bridge the digital divide especially by IDA. IDA aims to support the vision of An Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015), A Global City, powered by Infocomm. This is very important in my opinion as it helps us to not be left behind in the fast and advancing technology. My group stayed in class to do the research on the internet. We used Google and IDA websites to find our information. In my opinion, everything can easily be found in the net if we know how and where to look. There is a lot of information and we have to select which are reliable and trustworthy to those which are not. However, with the limited time given, we were supposed to do research and presentation. Therefore, we just did what we could with the information we have and present it. It was a fun learning experience as I did not realise how much Singapore cared about Infocomm as an important step to A Global City. IDA does play an important role and to think of new ideas every five years, help to keep the society engage and up to date with technology. It was an interesting lesson which left me wanting to know more about IDA actions in the future. Sorry for the delay. Written by Basirah =)
Firstly, i think that the activity was very enriching. Other than the things i knew, i learnt things like many other programmes by IDA other than programmes like the Silver Infocomm Initiative and the optical fibre programme.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, the lesson made me feel that research on certain topics will be very hard without the internet, because information on hard copy is actually quite limited.
Lastly, it's quite a fun challenge to find and compile so much information within a short time, but i don't think i want to repeat this again :D
Written by Kelvin Chow.
This lesson I went exploring around the school's library. They have a lot of books, ensuring that there are many subjects covered, which is good. However, they have a lot of books, making specific books hard to find. In my opinion, I still prefer to use Google to search for information, compared to reading books at the library. Although I found it quite fun to take all the related books before the other team got to use them. =)
ReplyDeleteWritten by Lewis Koh
I just learned that IDA had been doing their best all these while to help Singaporeans access into the cyber world because it is essential in our daily needs in this generation. From dial-up connection to wireless and now fibre optics, Singapore is improving throughout the years.
ReplyDeleteThe internet has no doubt been useful in obtaining information but there are too much of them. I learned how to pick out the key information for the powerpoint slides.
Written by Firdaus
After searching high and low for the books my group needs for our research, i learned that books is really useful for us to do our research.By restricting us not to use the computers and laptops, i also found out that the internet is an important tool towards students and the society. I learned more about the iN 2015 that the IDA introduced such as Singapore's ambition to be the number 1 in IT and helping old folks to know and learn to use computers. I found out about the importance of closing the gap of the digital divide in Singapore and feel that the goals of the iN 2015 is realistic and can be achieve in Singapore by every citizens, no matter young or old,working together to be an IT society. All in all, i feel that it is a wonderful experience working in a team and working on the research of Singapore's digital divide in the library through books.This learning experience really enriches me by making me understand more about the IT segment in Singapore.And that's
ReplyDeleteall!=)
Written by Walter Seah
In this lesson , i learnt that google is such a great website, that have a lot of information needed ! All you need is just type &press enter :D
ReplyDelete*******
Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) have been doing a lot to enable everyone in Singapore to be IT literate. They have come out with such interesting devices to enable those with physical disability to use the computer. Also, Singapore being such a well developed country, there is still 14% of school going children family without a Computer at home. IDA also have training for elderly, so that they know how to use the computer.
By Chee Chee, QIQI!
In this lesson, I have learned that the Info-comm Development Authority have been making efforts to allow the whole of Singapore to be able to use high speed internet instead of the mindset i had long ago - they would not care about the poor or the elderly, profits are all they want.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy finding facts on this lesson, Google is no doubt your best friend but it is important to pick out appropriate points needed for the presentation instead of copying and pasting and be caught for plagiarism.
In conclusion, this lesson not only taught me how to pick out points for the assignment but also increase a bit of my confidence in public speaking, therefore, i would encourage more of such activities.
By Tan Yong Wei
In this lesson, I have discovered that IDA has prepared and implemented many programmes to help the elderly and less fortunate. I feel that Singaporeans are very lucky as they have such a government agency that is putting in a lot of effort and resouces to develop Singapore's IT capability and at the same time, taking care to bridge the digital divide.
ReplyDeleteFor the activity, I felt that I was fortunate to be one of the teams to use computers to find information. With Google, searching for information is easy and quick. However, Google sometimes returns too much information, and hence i had to learn to identify and pick out points and information relevant to the topic at hand.
By Lee Seng Cheong
Through this lesson, I learnt that programmes by IDA of Singapore like Silver Infocomm Initiative and the NEU pc plus programme are conducted with the aim of getting each and every Singaporean to be able to own a personal computer and have the necessary digital lifestyle skills.
ReplyDeleteI also learnt that books from the library are absolutely true from Mr Andrew as they need to go through the publisher for content checking. However, the disadvantage of the library is that it is hard to find a specific book with the content you are looking for without technology like OPAC.
Personally, I prefer the to use the search engine like Google to search for information as it is a more convenient way compared to going to the library to search for relevant books.
Written by Calvin
After this lesson I have learn that technology plays a big part in our lives. Without technology, getting information will be time consuming and hard to find.As I was part of the group which was sent to the library to search for information, I have learnt that group work is important as the library was huge and we were looking for a few particular books that will hep us in our research.Not only that, I'm also able to experience how research were done when technology were not advance during the older days.
ReplyDeleteI have also learn that Singapore have help to improve the awareness of technology greatly in hand with IDA.
If this lesson was not held I would not have known about the projects that IDA have contributed to help the poor and needy to be able to have access to technology.
By Jie Yi
From this lesson, I learnt that the IDA have been doing their part to help the needy,the disabled and the elderly through various programmes(NEU PC plus,Training for all disability groups,etc)so that they will not be left out in the Digital Age.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I feel that more needs to be done in order for everyone to be part of the digital age because 14 per cent of households with school going children still have no computers at home. Furthermore, some of the elderly might find it troublesome for them to learn about computer stuffs at their age.
Other than that, I've also learnt that finding information might be easy using the various search engine but information found might not be totally true. On the other hand, information in books are true so it would be better to gather information from books even though it would be more tedious.
Lastly, I am glad that I attended the lesson as i learnt how much the IDA has done to ensure that most of us would be a part of the digital society in 2015.
By: Jun Yong
The GREATEST IMPACT that the lesson left on me was that doing things (in this case research) was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT without the help of the internet.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I say that? Because without the internet and technology, it is not easy to locate your required information, especially in the library where there is so much different informations everywhere.
However, in the library, when we have limited time and limited resources, we are forced to collect only the more important key points we need and to leave out the smaller unimportant points. Through this I've learnt about the approaches IDA and the government has to bridge the IT divide in Singapore.
I've also learnt that with the help of the internet the other half of the class managed to get more details due to the fact that the resources on the net is pretty much unlimited and searching time is very fast. This however may also be a disadvantage as there is so much information that one may go crazy trying to acquire the most accurate one. Nonetheless, searching on the internet is fast and more things can be done.
To conclude, I've not only learn more about the IDA's plans, I've learnt about the pros and cons about the internet and IT in general.
By: ZhongHan
This lesson really taught me the importance of technology and computers in my life. Not being able to use technology to aid me in finding information was really a big challenge. It was very hard and slow. We had to physically look for books and articles, which took us at least an hour. The same information could be available to us in 5 mins using a computer.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, the library had limited books that contained the information we needed, and since the other team had already acquired all the books, we felt extremely helpless as we then had no information to present, so we just had to resort to asking for a book that they did not want.
Thus, we learnt more about IN2015, which is an initiative by IDA, to bridge the digital divide, enabling people who are disabled, the poor and the elderly to also become it literate.
I learnt that the In2015 initiative ensures that there is a infocomm club/ society in all government school to make student interested in IT from a young age. There are also IA centres that are customized to train physically disable people, allows them to even have apprenticeship and employment opportunities to help them to integrate into the society better. Senior citizens are taught basic IT Knowledge to enable them to interact with their children or grandchildren. IDA also helps poor family which cannot afford computers by giving them subsidies and free internet access, and also by reducing the price of computers entirely. They help to make new technologies that enable the manufacturing industry to run more faster and efficiently, thus reducing the cost the companies incur to make the IT product enabling them to sell them at a lower price.
In conclusion I have learnt that despite the fact that Singapore is a advanced and developed country there are still some people that fall through the cracks, however the government does not neglect them but is working with IDA to enable these people to be able to integrate into society better, by providing them IT knowledge
By Saklani Pankaj
I've learned that IDA is taking a lot of measures to introduce Info-comm Technology (ICT) to Singaporeans. IDA is targeting not only the wealthy people, but the disabled, less-fortunate and elderly as well. I think that the effort of targeting all or most of the population is important.
ReplyDeleteThrough the short presentation during class, I've learned many things about IDA's purpose and goal in starting the iN2015. It basically equips Singapore with the state-of-the-art ICT. I've also learned the various means in which the government is trying to bridge the IT divide in Singapore.
The importance of IT was demonstrated to me in class. Our group was able to pick-up points via the internet. It was much more convenient than having to run all the way to the library and finding all the relevant books.
The lesson was pretty interesting. We were only given a short amount of time to prepare a short presentation, which I think everyone did a good job on it. Spontaneous assignments are always so fun! (No sarcasms intended)
To conclude, I've learned the importance for the need of ICT in our daily lives, and the fact that the government is working hard to improve ICT in Singapore. I look forward to more fun and interesting CIS classes in the future! Peace out!
PS: I apologize for the delay in posting this.
By Jang Min Gyu aka Glen
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOn Digital Divide:
ReplyDeleteBefore this lesson I knew there was this problem existing, but this lesson taught me exactly how big is divide is in Singapore and the World (Extremly huge, I didn't expect not even half of the world have computers). I also learnt other reasons I don't know about that is causing the digital divide, such as some parts of China still using insanely slow and expensive dial-up (I thought it was wiped out already) or even how some areas of the world does not even have electricity.
I felt that one of the problem causing the digital divide which is software isn't really as big of a problem as people think. One major problem is the software cost, but this can be solved extremly easily by using free alternatives such as Linux (Specifically Ubuntu which is more user-friendly considering we are giving it to computer illiterate people) rather than pay hundreds for Windows. Microsoft Office can also be replaced with the free alternative LibreOffice that provides all the basic functionalities such as simple word processing, making spreadsheets, generating graphs or making presentations. Lately with all the cloud computing stuff, you don't even need a full office suite; just a browser that can access the internet. You can use Google Docs, the free service provided by google to do your work.
IDA is definetly doing its best at attempting to solve the great divide in Singapore. They have came up with many diffrent programmes to bring IT to students, elderly, disabled and the needy, and I felt some these programmes are quite successful, as students now (including me) must know how to search for information on the internet and put it in a presentation to present it to the class. We now rarely go to the library to find information we need and after being exposed to such a speed and ease in finding information on the internet, if we ever need to go back to the library to find information we will be at a loss (I did).
On the learning experience:
I was part of the group that had to go to the library. We were not allowed to use any computers or devices at all to find information. As such, it was extremely difficult for us to find even books as we could not know where the relevant books are without using the computers. We had to ask the librarian to help ask search for what we need (its like she helped us use the computer) and we took some time to find it, but by that time the relevant books were already taken by another group. This activity showed that without IT, searching information will take a lot of time, even information on where books are located. Other group's presentation showed a big diffrence between searching the internet and relying on library. The groups who used internet to research tend to have more information about the topic while those who relied on the library have less information, but points of those bits of information were explained more. Overall I felt it helped me learnt a lot about the Digital Divide than if it is just pure lectures since we do get to research on the subject. It also taught how much we are relying on IT to find information and we should not take this for granted.
By Luo Wenhan (The previous post was removed to add who wrote this aka me)
After the lesson, I had an increased awareness of the digital divide. I began to notice the old lady in on the MRT watching Channel 8 on her iPad. Today I spotted an old "Uncle" trying to teach his friend how to find the latest 4D results on his iPhone.
ReplyDeleteIn practical terms the digital world has little bearing on one's survival, but every day more and more people are getting "plugged-in". To most youth, updating their Facebook status is as much a habit as brushing their teeth.
The main allure of IT is efficiency and convenience. We can receive up-to-the-minute updates of world shaping events or more mundane things like soccer results. IT allows many tasks to be completed in a fraction of the time required to do so manually.
Through the lesson, I discovered that the Government (IDA) has made a concerted effort to bridge the digital divide. Personally, I feel that it is only a matter of time before virtually (pun intended) every Singaporean has access to the digital world.
With the current trend of decreasing prices and major upgrades year after year, free market forces will inevitably overcome the digital divide. The main obstacle, in my humble opinion, is the lack of broad based vendor-neutral IT knowledge. Many families and companies pay thousands of dollars more than necessary due to a lack of knowledge.
For example, many people are convinced to buy expensive "multimedia" laptops when they simple require a cheap netbook for sufing the net and watching the occasional movie. Many parents buy their children a new version of Microsoft Office annually, when there are a pletora of freeware choices available.
It is my view that just as the iPhone slowly gained widespread acceptance due to its ease of use and functionality, freeware and cheap alternatives will eventually be as widespread as Windows is today, making it easier for millions to get connected.
By Daniel Khoo
I am not a fan of IT stuff, thus before this lesson, I never bothered about technology around me, and I never knew about plans such as iN2015, NEU PC Plus, Silver Infocomm Initiative, etc. I never had the interest to research on such topics.
ReplyDeleteThis lesson "forced" me to research on these information and present them within a short period of time. From this, I learn that the internet is a GREAT tool. I can never imagine myself having to research for information within a short period of time, without the internet and google. With the internet, we can find answers just a click away!
In addition, I realised that these information needs to be accumulated over a period of time in order for us to know it well enough to present it in a clear manner. 15 minutes is not enough to absorb all these information and present it clearly. We are bound to forget some information.
Technology has advanced so quickly that we don't notice the changes that have been happening around us. One example given to us during the lesson is that primary 1 students are already communicating through facebook, a social-networking site. Thinking back in secondary school, as my school is a full school with primary school in a whole compund, I would see primary school students as young as primary 1 holding handphones and making phonecalls. When I was 7, I had to use phone cards to call my parents after school, much less using the internet when technology was less advanced then. However, I never thought of such great changes technology has brought to us then, everything seemed normal as I had a handphone too.
The poor in the society is being left behind, but we see our government lending a helping hand with schemes such as NEU PC Plus and Silver Infocomm Initiative. Despite all these efforts, 14% of families with children still do not own a computer at home. This tells us that although the government made efforts to help people, some still remain out of reach as there are limits.
From this, technology may seem to be advancing too quickly but with this fast-paced and competitive society, it is inevitible for technology to advance at such speed in order to keep up.
Written by, Olivia Loo
Succinctly put, the lesson on the digital divide has its distinct takeaways:
ReplyDeleteBooks found in the library are less accessible due to their nature of storage and access, however they are reliable because they have been verified through their publishers and the library itself. This itself is an advantage which information found through the internet lacks.
Information gathered through the internet is undoubtedly fast, nearly instant. Also, the results in which one acquires from a simple search is enormous, hence there is no lack of information. However, much work is needed to verify the accuracy of the found articles as content on the internet can be inserted by anyone with ease. Regardless of the intention of the author, the content may not contain accurate. This issue decreases the effectiveness of using the internet to gather information. One may however circumvent this issue through gathering data from reputed journals.
Beyond this, we learn about the Singapore Government's attempts to bridge the digital divide. We have seen the iN2015 initiative, and learned about it's impact on Singapore's current state of IT. iN2015 is a huge initiative (will not go in depth), however, through the lessons in Week 2, i have gained awareness about this issue called the "digital divide" which I was not aware of prior to the lesson.
From the lesson, i have most importantly got to know what in2015 was all about as earlier i did not know anything about it.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, the group which was left at class together with me were the more fortunate ones as we could easily get what we want by just searching in google as compared to the rest where they had to search for the specific books to get the specific infomation that they want.Also i have learn how to manage my time better as we had to come up with a presentation in such a short time.
As for the Digital Divide, the IDA is doing a good job as their initiatives are looking promising as for example they are looking to get the elderly involved in the technology world by teaching them to use modern technology so as to keep them in touch with the modern world.
The lesson has taught me a lot on the actions taken by Singapore to bridge the digital divide especially by IDA. IDA aims to support the vision of An Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015), A Global City, powered by Infocomm. This is very important in my opinion as it helps us to not be left behind in the fast and advancing technology.
ReplyDeleteMy group stayed in class to do the research on the internet. We used Google and IDA websites to find our information. In my opinion, everything can easily be found in the net if we know how and where to look. There is a lot of information and we have to select which are reliable and trustworthy to those which are not. However, with the limited time given, we were supposed to do research and presentation. Therefore, we just did what we could with the information we have and present it.
It was a fun learning experience as I did not realise how much Singapore cared about Infocomm as an important step to A Global City. IDA does play an important role and to think of new ideas every five years, help to keep the society engage and up to date with technology. It was an interesting lesson which left me wanting to know more about IDA actions in the future.
Sorry for the delay.
Written by Basirah =)