Brief Overview
In today’s session, we learnt about how technology has
impacted the world. How some nations achieve and perform better in certain
areas as compared to others. Furthermore, the different attributes and traits
that are adopted to do well – the rising star or the falling star. And it was
truly a fulfilling session with the presentations by the few individuals.
Interesting
Observations and Ideas
I learnt that one reason that contributes to the dominance
of one entity over another was innovation and invention where the latter is the
subset of the former. Citing the article “Innovation In The Reset World”,
brainstorming for novel ideas and products is imperative in order to remain
relevant in the near future. One has to be far-sighted and have a vision that
lies way ahead to lead in the long run. The article also mentioned that the
optimal time for expansion was during a recession during which most companies
choose to adopt restructuring and cost-cutting measures. The minority that
utilizes this period of recession as a challenge and motivation to push their boundaries
find themselves successful after recession. The few minorities would spend
their resources acquiring cheap goods and sourcing for fresh talents that are
aplenty after the recession. By investing in all these, they are essentially
investing in their future. These attitudes help many companies become “breakout
stars” and leaders in their respective areas.
Another interesting observation would be the ideology of the
rising star and falling star. On one hand, rising stars are motivated and
hungry to acquire new knowledge and strive to achieve excellence. They are
risk-takers and invest a lot in the future especially when it comes to new
ideas. On the other hand, falling stars refer to those who are “trapped in
their bubble”. They are very closed to acquiring new perspectives and ideas and
are usually not keen in learning. They usually believe in the notion that “if
it ain’t broke, doesn’t fix it”. This rigid system usually sets nations apart
because they are not able to keep up with times and often realize that they
lose out as compared to those who continually strive to improve themselves.
Key Takeaways
The Human Development Index (HDI) measures the development
of a nation by combining different indicators such as life expectancy, educational
attainment and standard of living. It may be a good reference for the
measurement of social and economic development however; it is not a
comprehensive gauge because there are much more to human life than just the
above-mentioned factors.
Some disadvantages of the HDI are:
1.
It does not take into account the well-being,
happiness, political freedom of its people which are generally difficult to
compute.
2.
Does not show the distribution of wealth and so
it is an inaccurate measure of the monetary well-being of its people.
3.
Does not reflect any short-term changes as it
only shows the long-term changes of the different components being measured.
Issues for Further
Discussion (Presentation)
What if everyone
in the world was equipped with a smartphone with access to a data connection?
Data connection
could refer to the access to the Internet even without Wi-Fi. Majority of the people today possess a smart
phone with data connection and it is already a norm. What truly amazes me in
this discussion was the availability of data connection as well as the phone
application that was introduced in the video. With the phone application, it
could help revolutionize the way we communicate with people, especially those
from other countries and where we possess a language barrier. We could learn so
much more about other cultures by interacting with locals themselves, learn by
spending a day in their shoes without the fear of not knowing how to
communicate and getting lost in translation. This could really bring people
closer together.
Can the role of
teachers be replaced by technology in later stages of education?
Technology can
improve and aid in the learning stages of a child by exposing them to a vast
network of information. With the introduction of the Internet, it has evidently
eased the way we source for much of our materials we use today. We learn about
the latest events that have happened on the other side of the globe in an
instant to learning about why other cultures behave this way as opposed to
others and this will definitely broaden our perspective.
However, even with
the many advantages to technology, I do not think the role of a teacher can
ever be replaced by any mean. In today’s
context, a teacher is no longer a figure that imparts knowledge alone. They are
now a mentor, a friend and a parent. Other than just imparting knowledge, they
now impart skills that prepare for us the future. To be more exact, the soft
skills such as perseverance, independence, responsibility and so on and so
forth. All of which, I believe, can only be taught through face-to-face
interaction and actual communication between student and teacher.
Personal Ratings
I would rate this lesson an 8 because of the amount of
things we have covered in the lesson. I especially enjoyed all the individual
presentations because you get to understand different perspectives and learn
something new like the phone application. Also, the questions that were posed
really were thought provoking and make you think about the everyday things we
take for granted. What if our teachers really were replaced by technologically
advance computers?
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