Cyber Warfare

The concept of war has always been a massive problem for society. Throughout history there are vast examples of wars between superpowers and countries that have resulted in mass devastation and that have also changed and even benefited society. Historically, war has been portrayed as a bloody battle on a field between two armies, using swords and spears. As time passed, new technological developments meant new methods could be used in war, such as guns and bombs in WW1 and WW2. One of the more recent developments of war is that of the nuclear kind. This extremely dangerous has the practice has the ability to literally destroy mankind and the world itself. This is shown in such disasters as Hiroshima and Chernobyl, where thousands of people were killed and effected, and living areas were labelled unsuitable for people to live in because of the infection and devastation it has and still is causing. However, a new type of war has been declared, in terms of Cyber warfare.

It's most commonly thought that technology will be the making of humankind and it can only make our lives better. However the development of the Internet and cyber space, this new form of war, which is quite literally a virtual war, can effect reality and cause a lot of devastation without even physically harming anyone, completely contrasting to the stereotype of war. 


As Deena mentions in her blog, ''Even militaries now have branches committed to defending and running cyber warfare.'' This shows the seriousness of the matter that there has to be a specially trained team to tackle the issue. I investigated Deena's point and this article enlightened me that institutions such as the Army and Navy are teaching cadets ''to combat increasing security threats to the nation’s computer networks''. 

In my blog post titled ''Digital Divide'' I mentioned how we are dependent on technology, and mentioned how Egypt's government turned off the Internet for the entire country. In this workshop and outside we discussed and researched the concept of EMP weapons. According the linked article, they do exist and to be honest it's quite a scary thought. Now I'm not technical or interested in complex science in any shape or form, and all the mentions of words such as 'flux' and 'compression' is only making me think of Doc Brown and Marty Mcfly, however researching into the topic has led me to believe the invention isn't such a bad thing. It's built to bring down Military's, not communities, and would therefore be much less of a disaster  than that of a nuclear bomb. 

Now this weapon is said to be obtained by American forces, who thankfully for us our are best friends. However, if an opposing side got hold of this weapon and set it upon the Luton area, we would have literally no electricity, and all this research would go to waste because there would be no Internet to see it any more  (Please, please don't do it until I've submitted this!). It would quite literally take out all electricity. Put simply, it'd be like a massive microwave with the door open, sending out waves to destroy electricity. It's not just the internet, we'd have no lights, no cars, no phones, no TV's, no hair straighteners, no fridges or freezers, no ovens. It'd be like going back to the stone age. Would you survive? Could you? I don't think I'd want to live in a world without Spotify. 







References/Read more

Cyber warfare: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberwarfare
Teaching defence: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/army-navy-air-force-academies-groom-cadets-for-cyberwarfare-to-face-national-security-threats
Explaining EMP weapons: http://science.howstuffworks.com/e-bomb4.htm

Digital Divide

In my previous posts, I've stated again and again that digital activity and the internet is a massive part of society in 2013. It's hard to get by in everyday life today without having some sort of technical interactivity. Even shops use electronic devices to pay now, as well as travelling with oyster cards and electronic tickets.

So can you survive in 2013 without technology?

Truth is, everywhere uses technology. I am using technology and digital means to right now to write this blog. The same will be used to mark and grade this blog, and then the same again for me to see the result of this assessment. Without technology or digital devices, this unit wouldn't even exist. Most of us have our own mobile phones, according to these statistics more people have mobile phones than they do access to working toilets, which is very surreal. To get through the stages of typical life in modern Britain, you must know how to use a phone and the basics of a computer at least. You must use the phone to talk to organisations such as call centres when you need help with something such as a bank account or a transaction, and you learn how to use the basics of  computer in school in ICT, where you learn how to use programmes such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and others. In further education, depending on which courses you choose, you may have to learn to use much more advanced software such as Photoshop or Final cut. These will be essential tools if you were to choose a career in Media or film for example.

This chart, courtesy of  the BBC shows which countries contrast to each other in digital activity and connection.



This shows that some of the countries considered to be third world such as Ethiopia are almost completely out of touch with technology. This reflects in the reports of complete poverty in these areas. In places like Ethiopia and other African countries, people struggle to find food and clean water to drink so it's no wonder that their internet connection is the least of their worries. However with past examples of how the Internet has boosted economy, it's easy to see how if made possible the Internet could massively advantage these third world countries, such as it has for places like South America.
In such remote, poverty stricken countries, the idea of a fully functioning Internet connection is quite extreme for obvious reasons.

This video explains a business idea to bring laptops to children in third world countries and improve the Geographical digital divide. It costs $100 which may seem like a good price for a fully functioning laptop with all the cool added bits on such as being dust proof which would be ideal for a place like Ethiopia. This short documentary shows the laptops in action and what good they can do for such a community. Although a good and thoughtful idea of how to spread the digital world to disadvantaged people, there are many other factors that contribute to the possible and most likely failure of the system, such as affordability as well as James (2010) stating that ''the project would divert resources from other important projects that may be of higher priority and have more impact on development.''  
This in mind, it is a valuable point but surely with all the resources the internet has to offer, with the right teaching and the right environment, the standard and rate of education could grow, meaning that the economy of third world countries could possibly grow so vast that there will no longer be a third world category, meaning the entire global economy would be better off as there wouldn't be as much cause for other countries to contribute funds to others. 

Of course, to say that giving everyone in the world access to the Internet would solve everything would be ridiculous. On the contrary it could have completely undesirables circumstances, such as the recent Internet cut in Egypt at the protests, where the Egyptian government cut off the Internet for the whole country when it was discovered it was being used to arrange and encourage protests against them. If the government has the power to cut off the internet, what's to stop anyone being able to do it? What if we were completely reliant on the Internet and it got hacked or destroyed? We would be completely and utterly lost. 

As well as being a global matter, it could also be a problem closer to home. Our dear Grandma's and Grandpa's try their best to be cool and down with the kids, however when it comes to Blackberry's and Facebook, they are quite simply hopeless. Surprisingly, statistics show that 43% of British senior citizens aged 55-74 are frequent users of the Internet. However for the majority that don't know how, simple every day tasks can become a trek. Having personal experience with this working as a cashier in a Supermarket, it's not even laughable any more when an older person puts their back card in the wrong way up, it's quite concerning as to how vulnerable they are.

References:

James (2010) http://impactofinformationsystemsonsociety.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/week-2-technology-and-third-world-development/
News feed http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/03/25/more-people-have-cell-phones-than-toilets-u-n-study-shows/
BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8568681.stm
The Blaze http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2011/01/28/provider-egypts-internet-suffers-severe-outages/
ISpreview http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/03/22/senior-uk-citizens-revealed-as-some-of-europes-most-internet-savvy-surfers.html

Gaming Culture - one

Gaming culture has become a thing. However it is not necessarily a new thing. Games have been around for centuries. The Olympics themselves are thousands of years old, being dated back to 776 BC in Olympia of Ancient Greece in honour of the God Zeus. This is one of the oldest gaming traditions that we have. 'However, 'gaming' nowadays doesn't typically relate to the Olympic, or in fact any other physical form of gaming such as sport and athletics like it used to. It usually relates to childhood, in that we play games with our friends or on our own when we are children, such as fancy dress or role play or with toys. They can also relate to things like board games and card games which anyone can play.

Now, if you told someone you were a gamer, they would presume you meant video games, and they'd probably be right. The evolution and popularisation of video gaming have encouraged the increase of 'gamification'. 

Video games themselves started with the concept of  'pong' in the early 50's. 'XOXO' was next in 1952, followed by other computer games in the 60's/70's including 'The Magnavox Odyssey' the first video game console which was battery powered with no sound. In 1972 the Atari company was founded and officially released 'Pong'. The popularity of the Atari grew and grew until competitors emerged  and the Atari company went down because of a few reasons, such as selling too cheaply and the bad quality of gaming. Other companies and competitors emerged with more to offer consumers such as Sony, Sega and Nintendo.

Space Invaders on the Atari. 

Old school Mario which started out on the Nintendo 64 but has branched out to be one of the most iconic gaming characters in the world, with games on new consoles such as the Wii and the Gameboy DS.

The task for this particular blog post was to think of a way to solve University attendance by using gamification, to make it more fun and enjoyable to increase the number of people coming to their seminars and workshops. 

We discussed methods such as giving out balloons when you walk into the lecture to encourage people to enjoy their time. More encouraging methods however outrageous could be letting people bring their duvets into the lecture, as sleeping in is one of the main reasons students miss their assigned lectures and workshops. From personal experience, they don't want to get out of their warm cosy beds to sit in hard desks and not listen for an hour. Bringing their beds with them may encourage attendance as they have no excuse. Another method could be to make the lectures and workshops more interactive, in that talking much louder perhaps into a microphone or structuring the room differently, for example in a circle may be effective as it wouldn't have the usual classroom effect. 

Tea and biscuits could be a way to make students more interested. A hot drink and something to eat could make you engage more with the lesson as you have something to enjoy and focus upon rather than thinking about how much you really want a cup of tea and a biscuit. 

Without using the threat of expulsion or exclusion from the course, you could use the threat of taking away the privileges of bringing your duvet or having a cup of tea, for example to get to bring your duvet or get a cup of tea you had to of been present the previous week. Maybe your old MySpace or Bebo pictures will be put on every single slide of that Power point? That would definitely make me have 100% attendance. 

Other methods of increasing and securing attendance in Universities could be for the lecturer to do some sort of quiz which meant the winning team didn't have to do the assignment that week, which would encourage students to not only attend, but also to do a bit of self study without realising it to win the quiz. Reverse psychology in a way. 

Overall, many of these ideas and others given in discussion are quite unrealistic and far-fetched as things like classroom rules and budgets come into context when thinking of these ideas. Students won't always have perfect attendance and it's predictable they won't turn up all the time or even on time. It's hard to think of a method to secure attendance every time as there are so many issues and problems which arise. 

Paper vs Screen

There has been a lot of previous discussion about the technical debates of the internet and it's properties. The scientific and mathematical properties of the internet are often the first to be discussed in computing, as computers are a scientific technological invention. However, computers and the internet can have many more cultural and creative sides which are often unthought of when discussing them.

With the progression of the availability and business prospects the internet has brought around mean that a lot of different industries are able to produce and sell original or new products online. 'Internet shopping' is a phrase which is highly popular, which quite literally means what it says, shopping for and paying for things through the internet. These changes  have had a massive impact on social culture. Other features of the internet have also brought around changes not just in social culture, but also in areas such as learning, education and leisure.

The programme 'paint' is always one of the first programmes you learn to use when learning to use a computer for the first time. Older people and younger children often take these first steps as it's an easy programme to use.

There's been a direct correlation between the advancement of technology and art. Obviously with the invention of new programmes on the computer there has been room for new forms of art to take place. Photoshop and the uploading of photographs has become a main source of editing for journalists, as they can edit and change pictures to suit their story or their angle. Other programmes such as open source, character animation software, and more give people the opportunity to download these features which give anyone the chance to create art that would otherwise be reserved for specialists, or would have to be constructed on paper had the programme not been invented. This shows the positives and advantages of having these artistic, creative programmes available to us, as anyone has the chance to create this form of art.

In terms of other art forms such as literature, technology has recently been significantly upfront about new forms of reading. Literature is one of the oldest forms of education in the world. Reading and writing is one of the main skills you learn in primary education and you are generally expected to have extensive skills in both areas. Books and text are the classic ways of demonstrating these skills. With the internet, reading and typing are the new forms of reading and writing. You have to physically read what's on the screen, but typing has the same properties of writing apart from the physical action.

Kindle's, iPads and E-books are among new technologies which allow you to read books and texts on a screen that isn't a traditional computer or laptop. Although expensive, they've become very popular with all ages. ''IApple's iBookstore has seen 1.5 million books uploaded since 2010, with more than 400 million downloads. There are reportedly 2,500 U.S. classrooms using iBooks textbooks.'' - iBook stats


(Apple iPad)


These gadgets have become increasingly popular. 41% of readers of e-books consume their books on an e-book reader like original Kindles or Nook. This shows the popularity of e-books as well as the gadgets. E-books are the term for books downloaded onto and read from your tablet/device. The advantages of this is that the books are quick and easy to access, they are normally cheaper than buying paper back books, and are easier to store and read again. 

There is always the argument of the authenticity and experience of buying and reading a paper back book. According to statistics, more than 70% of adults prefer reading a paperback book to an e-book. 




Inanimate Alice 

In our workshop we were told to go onto the website 'www.inanimatealice.com' and look around to see what we thought.

The website states clearly it is a website for children and pre-teenagers to help to teach them to read digitally and it is available in many other languages. It says it's interactivity helps the individual to co-create their own versions of the stories and to make their own decisions to keep them interested. This is a free and easy method of teaching that more and more teachers are supposedly starting to use.

''Designed originally as entertainment, Inanimate Alice has been adopted by teachers eager to develop their students' digital literacy skills. Available in French, German, Italian and Spanish and created around a high-quality robust text, the story provides the ideal context for teaching global citizenship and for learning across the curriculum.'' - Inanimate Alice Website  




Personally after taking part in Episode 1 of inanimate alice, I found the activities quite tedious as it's obviously not directed at my age group, however I know if I were to use this when I was at the intended age I probably would've found it a lot more interesting. It's intention is to help children learn to read digitally and manually. The interactivity of having to use the 'player' as a camera at points and having to click on different things, as well as the tabs at the sides are useful however I personally wouldn't find it useful for learning to read as it's quite hard to concentrate because of all the background noises that are quite frankly irrelevant and annoying.

I can see how it would be relevant and quite successful in a primary education curriculum as it's obviously crucial for children to learn to read, and perhaps for children less inclined to traditional education and teaching this might be more attractive for the student as it is interactive and on the computer which children now find most desirable thanks to the evolution and constant reminder of technology today.

According to my peer Deena, she had the same mindset as me in that we can both see how it would be helpful for children however personally we both wouldn't use it. Deena doesn't see the point or  understand how it would help children in the long run. I do see her point in that learning to read electronically could have it's downsides in contrast to learning to read the usual way, through physical books and words.