Red Queens and Increasing Returns

When I decided to obtain a DVD for my science fiction assignment in Module 4, I downloaded the digital version on Amazon.com from their Prime Members' ($75/year) video library. I considered renting an actual DVD  from a local Red Box, a video library usually located in front of drug and grocery stores. Red Box is less costly than downloading. They rent movies for $1 with the use of a debit card. 

We pay for conveniences. The increasing competition between DVDs and video-on-demand services is definitely an example of increasing returns, as video-on-demand services are taking over the way we view movies because of its convenience. DVDs are losing advantage because of the inconvenience of having to go to the store to select the movie, and then return it once we have viewed it. Most households own a desktop, laptop, iPad or other tablet, or smartphone now. The ease of access to streamed movies and videos on these tech devices outweighs the troublesome process of traveling to a store front twice - to rent the movie and again to return it. (Are we becoming a lazy society? (-:)

DVDs and Video-on-Demand Services

Placement on McLuhan’s Tetrad

Enhancement Video-on-Demand services definitely enhance the movie-watching experience by making it less complicated and providing easier access to movies from the comfort of home.	Obsolete DVDs are becoming obsolete because of the cumbersome process by which consumers must go through to rent and return them to video stores. Even if they are purchased, they can become inoperable.
Retrieval DVDs rekindle VHS tapes and movie reels for movie watching.	Reversal Video-on-Demand services provide greater mobility with decreased need for human logistics to acquire a movie!

The Disruptive Power of Second Life

Hedberg & Chang (2007) define disruptive innovations as those that “…eventually take over the existing dominate technology in the market…” even though it is quite a bit differentI believe people build virtual worlds in places like Second Life to hide or mask their identity. It is also an engaging multimedia approach to an activity or way of learning and interacting, as in a class or a way to replace face-to-face communication. By creating a personal avatar, we can become anyone we want to be and take on a persona not our own.

Second Life is not very popular in the field in which I work (K-12 education). I can imagine K-12 teachers implementing this form of multimedia creatively, perhaps to complete a project-based learning unit. Students would have access to a lot of creativity through creating the learning goal in a world, a room, any setting they choose.

I believe Second Life (if introduced to some, re-introduced to others) has the potential to be around for a long time. It could potentially replace Skype or other forms of face-to-face at a distance programs. There is no need to be ‘presentable’, but one’s own thoughts and opinions could still be expressed.

References:

Hedberg, J. G., & Chang, C.-H. (2007). The G-portal digital repository as a potentially disruptive pedagogical innovation. Educational Media International, 44(1), 3–15. Retrieved from the Academic Search Complete database.

Rosedale, P. (2008). Philip Rosedale on Second Life [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html.

Rhymes of History Technology (Module 3)

 

Before the 1872 first film was made, there were various other forms of motion picture (The History of Film, n.d.). As the rhymes of time began to replace the never-ending favorite of movie-watching – by means of making tapes available to borrow from the public library or video rental stores – even those methods have witnessed 21^st century methods of movie-watching as services such as Netflix (n.d.) and Youtube (n.d.) have become popular. We can now take movies with us everywhere, everyday by downloading them or watching them from our smartphones and tablets!

I agree with the quote in this week’s discussion notes: ““The future will be like the past, only with cooler toys.”  As more and more opportunities are created for us to “toy” with technology, the more I find myself delving into learning, experimenting, growing, and at the same time “teaching others”, how to be more productive individuals and employees by implementing all types of technology. With so much portable power at our fingertips, it will be very interesting to see where the world of technology leads us, and to be an integral part of its growth.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Rhymes of History  [Video]. In Emerging and future technology [DVD] Baltimore, MD: Author.

Netflix. Retrieved from www.netflix.com

The History of Film (n.d.). Retrieved from http://ths1.ttsd.k12.or.us/cs/studentwork08/rebe_hubbweb/1800.html

Youtube. Retrieved from www.youtube.com

CELL PHONE TETRAD (BLOG POST)

Toni Duke, EDUC 8848 Module 2

This week, April 3, 2013, marks the 40-year anniversary of the first cell phone!

Enhancement/Extension: The establishment of the cell phone enhanced communication from far-away places. Prior to the invention of the cell phone, people had to travel far to reach one another to communicate. The use of today’s cell phone has greatly improved cost of use. After the initial costly purchase of a cell or smart phone today, one can talk for a fraction of the cost of those in the 1970s and 1980s.

Obsolete: The cell phone reduced the need for people to travel to communicate. Today’s smartphones reduce the need to carry many devices (i.e. calculators, address books, calendars, grocery lists, mp3 players, cameras, etc.), as the phones of today contain all of these features – and more…and if they don’t, there are apps that allow all of these methods of productivity – and some!

Retrieval: The cell phone of today rekindles the ability to speak to another person from a far distance, and to take long trips to visit in order to enjoy a face-to-face conversation, as the smartphones of today provide the ability to see others’ faces as we enjoy conversations through add-on services, and apps like Skype, Tango, etc.

Reversal: The establishment of cell/smartphones has set the tone for the creation of many more capabilities to improve productivity for personal and business use.

As early as the 1930s travelers could place phone calls from and to ocean liners in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The process was driven by Marine VHF Radio and cost $7 a minute (roughly $100 a minute when adjusted for inflation to today’s money).

The first fully automated mobile phone system for vehicles was launched in Sweden by TeliaSonera and Ericsson in 1956. Named MTA (Mobile Telephone system A). This was the first time calls could be made and received in the car while using the public telephone network.

April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment. The prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Cooper weighed 2.5 pounds and measured 9 inches long, 5 inches deep and 1.75 inches wide. The prototype offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took 10 hours to re-charge” (Netprolive, n.d.).

Social twist: I purchased my first cell phone, a large phone-in-a-bag, in the early 1990s. I thought that was the first of the cell phone. Knowing what I know now about tetrads and the realization of technology, I would have been able to identify those that came before mine, and how much they had improved – both in cost and design. I recall vividly one of my close friend’s acquisition of the large, white cell phone that he carried everywhere. Socially, it was a sign of being “established” or “wealthy”, because not everyone could afford the phone nor the air time (or talk time, as we refer to it today).

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.) Mobile devices and the future [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2643401_1%26url%3D

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.) McLuhan’s tetrad  [Video]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2643401_1%26url%3D

Netprolive (n.d.). World’s first in technology: The first cell phone. Retrieved from http://www.netprolive.com/cellphones.php

Thornburg, D.D. (2008). Emerging Technologies and McLuhan’s Laws of Media. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for space Exploration.

From limited capacity flash drives to storage of any information in the cloud (EDUC 8848, Spr '13)

Toni Duke

The challenges of the “pen drives”, a type of flash drive that Thornburg (2009) refers to, are one reason why that type of file storage technology is about to expire. At the time of Thornburg’s 2009 article,  the challenges of the pen flash drive storage devices had a high cost, limited storage capacity, and a limited life (“number of read/write cycles”) (Thornburg, 2009, p. 4). In addition to those cited limitations, the need to physically keep up with and carry all of one’s important information, photos, music, etc. with them limits the reliability of a flash drive, not to mention the opportunities for corruption and breaking. Now, 4 years later, the cost has drastically decreased, the storage capacity has drastically increased, and the number of read/write cycles is seemingly unlimited. (I have used a 16GB flash drive for the past 4 1/2 years, throughout my doctoral studies, and it is still going strong...although I often utilize my cloud storage.)

When educators consider all of the pitfalls of dealing with issuing information on flash drives, the growing use of cloud storage becomes a more attractive, productive use for storage options. There are several cloud storage options available – most of them free for a limited amount of storage. (See list posted to right for Top 10 recommended storage sites). The benefits of a cloud storage account are convenience, portability, and ease of use. Users are able to access any personally stored information, pictures, music, etc. from any computer, tablet or smartphone with internet access.

Strickland discusses the potential problems or challenges of utilizing a cloud storage alternative as “reliability and security” (Strickland, n.d.). If the cloud storage companies are not able to maintain safety and security of customers’ information from hackers and data encryption, they will not be in business long as there are several companies competing for their customers. The only improvement I would recommend for the cloud technology industry would be the security feature, and the continuance of free storage space to users who refer additional customers, as offered by Dropbox.

References:

Cloud storage finder (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cloudstoragefinder.com/

Strickland, J. (n.d.). How cloud storage works. Retrieved from               http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-storage3.htm

Thornburg, D.D. (2009). Current trends in educational technology. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.