TWC Session 13

This is the last week of our TWC lesson and we have another round of group presentations. We have four presentations this week and each group have different topics. The first group presented on technological developments of music and its impacts. This group has a very nice and clean website. They covered the past of music and I learnt a lot on the evolution of human interactions over the time. Before their presentation, I didn’t know about the phonograph cylinders and gramophone and I had learned quite a bit from their presentation. The group also covered the present of music and it shows that with technology advancing, although it is easier for people to have access to music but they are also negative impacts. We are getting away from the age of cassette tape and moving towards the using of MP3. With the use of MP3 file, it is easy for people to download music and this has adverse effect because people start to download MP3 tracks for free instead of purchasing them online. The group also talks about the future of technology where they mentioned about the using of cloud computing for people to discover and share music. I think that although in the future it will be easier and convenient to share music, but they must also be careful about the issue of music piracy.

The second group presented on the vaccines. I had very limited knowledge on vaccines and this group presentation had sort of enlightened me. This group had a timeline which shows when the different types of vaccines are developed and the uses of the vaccines. They also talked about the impacts and concerns. One of the concerns is environmental concerns where they said that the research and development is done and these genetically-modified viruses to create vaccine may pose environmental damages to the air as they breakdown. Thus, I think in the future, with even more advanced technologies, they can come out with a way of carrying out research and development which will not harm the environment and hence will make the world more sustainable.

The third group presented on the technology and food. Their website is simple and easy to navigate. One of the points that they talked about is modern food options. They mentioned that convenience food such as 3 in 1 coffees being extremely unhealthy. They also show us to pictures of MacDonald happy meal; one is when it was just bought and one is after it was left it out for 171 days. Both pictures look the same and this means there is insufficient moisture for bacterial decomposition to take place and the lack of moisture was in fact due to the high amount of fat already present in the food items. Thus I think that technology had made it possible for us to have cooked food within a short time, but one also has to think about what they consume as it might have negative impacts.

The last group presented on crime tracking technologies. They talked about how crime was track down in the past as well as the various crime tracking technologies that we have now. I didn’t realize that there are actually so many ways of tracking crime such as mobile phone tracking and polygraph. They also mentioned the crime tracking technologies of the future such as sun-dermal GPS and DNA access door. I feel that since technology is advancing so quickly, there will be an increasing number of technologies to help in tracking down of crimes in the future and people might want to think twice about committing crimes!

Overall, think lesson is very interesting as the topics for this lesson is quite diverse.  I have learnt different things from different presentations. And once again, it’s quite fun learning through all these websites. I had a wonderful TWC journey and had gained a lot from these 12 weeks of lessons.

TWC Session 12

This week’s lesson is different from the past few weeks. This week is the start of our group presentations and my group was the first group to present. We started off the with some quotes; one of this quote by Oscar Wilde which says “You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.” This is true as at times people tends to underestimate themselves and nobody will know the extent of their own knowledge. I also feel that it is normal for people to have the passion to want to learn more since nobody in this world is able to know every thing that exists.

One of the group’s presentations is about finding love online. It is about e-dating where people find partners through the constructing of their profile. I find this group’s presentation quite interesting and I didn’t know that there are actually dating services in the 1700s. They is also a video in the website that shows how e-dating services will be like in the future. In the future, everyone that downloaded the application will be seen or able to be accessed by other user; their information and they types of partners that they are looking for will be visible. This is definitely cool and helpful, but I feel that this will in a way lead to the infringement of privacy.

Another group presented on kinetic technology which is an infinite source of energy that is easily accessible. This presentation is also quite interesting and I have learnt quite a lot from their presentation which talks about tidal energy, energy from subway trains and energy from dynamo.  The group also covered the future of kinetic energy; they also showed us a video on people walking on the tiles to generate kinetic energy which is then transferred as stored energy and they also talked about charging handheld devices on the go by using the energy from physical movement. I think it all these are very environmental friendly as the current fossil fuels will be depleted soon and other green alternatives have to be discovered.

The last group presented on genetic modified foods which are foods derived from genetically modified crops and animals. This group covered the impacts genetic modified food has on society, economy, and environment and the medical industry. They mentioned that in the future, lab meat will be produced and also a gene which accounts for a particular growth hormone was inserted into Salmon to cope with the growing demand. Well, it cannot be denied that all these can actually help to solve problems such as shortage of food supply and the increasing demand. However, all these might not be safe and it may end up doing much more harm than good!

Overall, I think that all the groups have came up with very nice websites and it is actually quite fun learning through all these websites.