Thesis Idea—-

—- Thesis—–”Help Them to Help Themselves”——

 

“You don’t need fancy highbrow traditions or money to really learn. You just need people with the desire to better themselves.”

 

 

-Adam Cooper and Bill Collage

My project for mini-thesis deals with the same concept , I believe that every person has a right to basic living standards like sanitation , clean water and adequate housing. And I also believe that the only thing that can help in achieveing it is education and the new technologies.

But have we really reached our goals , are the new technologies really helping people around the globe. With the kind of technologies that we have today and the mass of educated people that are in the world we should have eradicated most of the problem’s , but have we?

Statistical data shows:- Half the world’s population lives on two dollars a day,
and 800 million people are malnourished in developing countries.
1.3 billion people who have no clean water.

- Two billion people have no sanitation.

- Two billion have no electricity.

Now the question is why are we still at the starting line , why haven’t we seen any improvements , why half of the worlds population is still under poverty line and has no external help.

The answer is education, I strongly believe education and knowledge can bring serious change in the society. All we have to do is pass it on. Help them to understand the new technologies and let them then pass on the flame of knowledge to others around them.

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My Thesis: PDF link

Adults Vs computer/Internet Use

Education was a medium through which adults passed on the knowledge of survival to young, irony is that now its the young who teach adults how to use the new and upcoming technologies. Most common being computers and internet. My project deals with creating a Graphical user interface that would help in creating an interactive, fun and exciting user learning experience.

document1.pdf

Major Studio Thesis

Adults Vs computer/Internet Use

Education was a medium through which adults passed on the knowledge of survival to young, irony is that now its the young who teach adults how to use the new and upcoming technologies. Most common being computers and internet. My project deals with creating a Graphical user interface that would help in creating an interactive, fun and exciting user learning experience.

Class writings: All assembled in one

CLASS WRITINGS

I really liked the text. Not only did it made me realise the importance of representation but also how important it is to question everything that you see or read.

Humans have an exceptional power and that is power of reasoning. They can think and ask how, when and why. And that is the main source of invention.

The drive to improvise evrything and lead to the discovery of pen and paper, and then the importance of reading and writing further lead to new inventions.

I completely agree with what socrates had said that we tend to read books and not question what is says. Most of us don’t even realise that whatever we read leave a deep impact on us and someway or the other change our thought process.

Thus it is important to have discussions on what you have read, bot only do these talks help us understand the writing better but they also help us to employ them better.

Last but not the least the power of representation can solve a problem with such an ease.

Frankly I never knew that there were so many ways of representing problems. The most interesting one was the number peoblem where the writer asks us to find the bigger number among the two. It was amazing to see how the thought process changes when instead of writing just the numbers we use graphs to represent them.

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This was an amazing mp3, the things he spoke about seen to be really normal but seriously as an individual I never thought about them.

The most important thing according to me was when he said that to make an observation it is important to drop your inhibitions and see or study everything with a child like curosity. Being open-minded is the key of being a good observer. I absolutely agree with him that without the sense of wonder and discovery we can never find the oppertunities that are right before our eyes.

As an observer it is important to keep a buglist/notebook and write down things that bug us. Not only this sharpens our sense of observation but also helps us maintain a record of new discoveries that we make.

There in the audio he talks about how we should follow method checks like ask, watch ,learn and try to make our observations fruitful.

One of the statements that he made about creating something new and useful with studying and observing the saily struggles and stumbles of people around us is extremely important and should be followed by us in every fold of life.

This actually made me realise that small observations help a lot.

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I am not into gaming and hardly know about different games that everyone mentioned in the mp3. But what really caught my attention were these facts:

• Games provide a common interface for people around the globe to interact.
• It enhances your relationship and validate show each one of the player thinks alike.
• It is a kind of forced change which had merged virtual world with the real world.
• I was amazed to know that people who play games start living a virtual life. For them right from the time they start till the time they end that virtual reality is the core of their exsistence.
• Edward stated that an example where a player spoke about his being as he belonge to the planet of Noar and visits earth sometimes.
• Edward also told us about RMT (Real Money Trade).
• Seriously for me it was astonishing , how gold and gear acquired at the synthetic world can be sold in the real world.
• I really likes Ivan’s explanation for creating a game which can be used as a tool to work through real life problems.
• Ivan’s game reflected a purpose and is a help to all those who are suffering from plroblems like corruption, discrimination of women or races.

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 Types of prototype:

Role prototype: This type of prototype focuses on the role that the artifact is going to play in the life of the user. It answers the quetsions like why and how ?It overlooks the implementation , look and feel perspective.

Look and feel: This type of prototype focuses on appearance of the artifacts. On how the look and feel of a particular object lead to the interaction with the user.Example: Giving a pizza box to an architect and observing how the architect handles it and then building an actual product based on that.

Implementation: This type of prototype focuses on just the implementation of a particular artifact. It is far away from role and look and feel prototype.

Integrated: Integrated prototype is a prototype which has a role assigned to it , it does have a look and feel to it and also is well implemented.

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Thesis Presentation:

Refrences: With A little Explanation

Al Doyle. “Web animation: Learning in motion. ” Technology & Learning 1 Sep. 2001: 30-42. Research Library. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	Animation is able to convey a vast amount of information in a very short period of time, and can be a powerful method of reinforcing concepts and topics first introduced to students through text, discussion, or other media. Doyle offers practical tips and guidelines to teachers on using animation for, and with, students.
Doronina, O V. “Fear of computers: Its nature, prevention, and cure. ” Russian Social Science Review 36.4 (1995): 79. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	As computers become more prevalent in society, many people have developed a phenomenon known as computer anxiety. Several types of computer anxiety and ways to eliminate the problem are discussed.
Flynn, Gillian. “Build the wow-factor into pension training. ” Personnel Journal 1 Apr. 1996: 70. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	Lecturing employees on saving for their futures will elicit only yawns. If companies are looking for better ways to communicate, they need to toss out the static stuff. Multimedia can help employees receive high marks in their investment education. Multimedia can be defined in several ways. In a broad sense, a multimedia pension education program could be one in which text, graphics, audio, and video are all used to relay information. A 2nd definition of multimedia is used to describe a new kind of technology. In this context, it is an application, such as CD-ROM, that combines video chips, animation, photographs, illustrations, text, and sound. These formats tend to be extremely interactive. They are easily customized to fit a company’s needs and to tailor information to certain employee population groups, and they are not particularly expensive. Two years ago, Engelhard Corp. plunged into multimedia. It approached Coopers & Lybrand to customize its Retirement Counselor software for Engelhard.
Keizer, Gregg. “Class Acts. ” Omni 1 Dec. 1991: 42-44+. Research Library. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	In schools around the country, kids are getting excited about science and developing the skills needed to invent the future. Schools are using satellite hookups, computer networks and old-fashioned ingenuity and enthusiasm.
Kennedy C Chinyowa. “Helping them to help themselves: case study of an integrated popular theatre approach in Africa. ” Research in Drama Education 12.2 (2007): 133. Research Library. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	An outstanding problem that has haunted most development workers in Africa has been how to effectively engage rural communities who often have no access to modern technological media like newspapers, radio, television, video and film. The tendency has been for development workers to resort to top-down or blueprint development approaches that usually undermine the very purpose for which they were intended. Instead of inspiring community-driven action, such exogenous approaches tend to treat development as an event rather than a process. This article looks at an alternative development approach that has come to be called integrated popular theatre. In particular, the article focuses on a case study that demonstrates how development can be turned into a combined learning process between rural communities and outside experts. Integrated popular theatre thus marks an innovative paradigm shift in which the grassroots and development experts become partners in development. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Kristian Borch. “Emerging technologies in favour of sustainable agriculture. ” Futures 39.9 (2007): 1045. Research Library. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	European agricultural systems are going through a modernisation process involving radical structural changes. To tackle these important challenges, technology foresight has been employed as a systematic, participatory, intelligence gathering exercise focusing on future R&D investments in sustainable agricultural systems and green technologies. Because reliable data on emerging technology are scarce, any assessment has to be based to a large extent on qualitative methods and on an operational conception of sustainability using priority indicators. The paper describes the Danish Green Technological Foresight on Environmental Friendly Agriculture (GTFEFA). It treats this as a case study and examines the way in which a group of interested parties arrived at recommendations on the application of a number of emerging agriculture-related technologies. Two questions are then addressed: Can technological foresight simultaneously: (1) systematically describe and evaluate the consequences of employing emerging technologies in order to choose between alternatives, and (2) prioritise investments in emerging technologies so as to favour innovation. The discussion here is intended to help meet the challenge of operationalising the term ’sustainability’, so that environmental friendly agricultural technology can be assessed against priority indicators. Finally, it is suggested that, provided that clear criteria for assessing the sustainability of emerging technologies are identified and made explicit, technology foresight offers a space for dialogue and exploration in contested territory. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
M Crisham. “Enhancing learning through technology. ” Rev. of: title_of_work_reviewed_in_italics, clarifying_information. Choice 1 Oct. 2006: 347. Research Library. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	44-1063 LB1028 2006-3555 CIP Murchu, Daithi O. Enhancing learning through technology, by Daithi U. Murchu, Gaelscoil O. Doghair, and Innovative e-Learning/e-Tutoring, Hibernie College, Ireland, lnfomation Science, 2006. 335p index ISBN 1591409721 pbk, $69.95
Michelle H Kelly. “Teach an Old Dog New Tricks: Training Techniques for the Adult Learner. ” Professional Safety 51.8 (2006): 44-48. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	Some would argue that everyone learns the same way — that there is no difference between adults and children when it comes to education. This article will demonstrate that trainers need to address the differences to provide the best possible educational environment for adult learners. By improving preparation and teaching techniques, trainers can create better retention for those trained. Knowing the audience and their background, and discovering their expectations are the first steps to improving training. Developing teaching techniques based on learning theory is easily accomplished by choosing elements of theory that work best for the individual trainer and audience. Using auditory, visual and participatory teaching techniques will allow more learners to apply their individual learning style. Needs assessment should be conducted before training to determine the scope and focus of the training. Trainers must be vigilant in dealing effectively with learners’ expectations, fears and frustrations with the learning process.
Paola Luconi Galva. “Animating the Learning Environment. ” T.H.E. Journal 1 Jan. 2006: 36. Research Library. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	Galva describes how animation and simulation software helps her and her fellow students think and work creatively. With the software, the students at Saint Jude School in Santa Ana, Costa Rica learned how to type, the basic programming concepts, and how to work in groups, among others.
Y G Harto Pramono. “The Role of Static and Animated Pictures That Complement Texts in Supporting Learning. ” K@ta 7.1 (2005): 25. Research Library. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	Pictures are widely used to accompany texts as adjuncts to facilitate learning. This article discusses the role of such a combination in supporting learning and the underlying theory that explains how individuals process visual and verbal information and how they can benefit from such a combination. It is hypothesized that the facilitative effect of picture-text combination is attributed to the supportive role of pictures played in the cognitive processing involved in mental model building of the situation being explained. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
“ Fear of technology - 1990s phobia. ” USA Today 1 Dec. 1993: 6. Research Library. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	The phobia of the 1990s appears to be the fear of technology, according to a recent nationwide survey. Reasons why 55% of all Americans remain resistant and fearful of technological change are discussed.
John P Targia, Matthew Gregoire. “Technology for Technology’s Sake. ” Phi Delta Kappan 88.3 (2006): 0_3. Research Library. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	The Public Broadcasting Service provides an interactive learning laboratory for technology education students. From the whirling-arm devices used to test the earliest airfoils to todays high-tech wind tunnels, this site provides information and graphics on the forces of flight and the operation of wind tunnels that will leave students and teachers thirsty for more.
Margaret Boles, Brenda Paik Sunoo. “Do your employees suffer from technophobia? ” Workforce 1 Jan. 1998: 21. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***. 19 Nov. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/>
	Nearly 60% of workers are technophobic. The phobia prevents 75% of employees from using information technology properly.

Refrence works: New Technology and Animation in Education

Works Cited

Boles, Margaret, and Brenda Paik Sunoo. “Do Your Employees Suffer from Technophobia?” Workforce 77.1 (1998): 21.Borch, Kristian. “Emerging Technologies in Favour of Sustainable Agriculture.”

Futures 39.9 (2007): 1045.

Chinyowa, Kennedy C. “Helping them to Help Themselves: Case Study of an

Integrated Popular Theatre Approach in Africa.” Research in Drama Education 12.2

(2007): 133.

Crisham, M. “Enhancing Learning through Technology.” Choice 44.2 (2006): 347.

Doronina, O. V. “Fear of Computers: Its Nature, Prevention, and Cure.” Russian

Social Science Review 36.4 (1995): 79.

Doyle, Al. “Web Animation: Learning in Motion.” Technology & Learning 22.2

(2001): 30.

“Fear of Technology - 1990s Phobia.” USA Today 122.2583 (1993): 6.

Flynn, Gillian. “Build the Wow-Factor into Pension Training.” The Personnel

journal 75.4 (1996): 70.

Galva, Paola Luconi. “Animating the Learning Environment.” T.H.E.Journal 33.6

(2006): 36.

Keizer, Gregg. “Class Acts.” Omni 14.3 (1991): 42.

Kelly, Michelle H. “Teach an Old Dog New Tricks: Training Techniques for the

Adult Learner.” Professional safety 51.8 (2006): 44.

Pramono, Y. G. Harto. “The Role of Static and Animated Pictures that Complement

Texts in Supporting Learning.” K@ta 7.1 (2005): 25.

Targia, John P., and Matthew Gregoire. “Technology for Technology’s Sake.” Phi

Delta Kappan 88.3 (2006): 0_3.

Motivations and Ideas: Final project

Designing Technology is not just what it looks like and feels like. It is seeing and showing how it works….

As I had stated in my introduction for this class , my idea of using design and technology together is using it for educating and entertaining people of all ages. I believe that education is the best way of making serious changes in the society in general and it starts right from birth. I am from a country where education is taken very seriously, one has to know Math, English, Physics, Economics to exist. For me I believe that education is learning while you grow , experiencing simple things which make your mind wonder and also discovering new things and asking how when and why???? Education should be what you use not just what you have. It should be a medium which helps you to exist not something without which you cannot exist.

My motivation is bringing technology and design together to create a new way of educating and making people familiar with the small but essential things in life and familiarising them with ways technology can be used for their betterment. I believe that human mind dosen’t ever stop learning. Everyday we learn something new. Something we didn’t know yesterday. So the kind of education I plan to design is just a step towards making people undersatnd what technology can do for them. It stands true for all ages.

Hence I aim to to work on these questions:

• Can we design new ways of educating children, making them familiar with their surroundings. The new world that they are about to enter into.
• Can design and technology work in such a manner that people have less fear of using it.
• Can we build an atmosphere where learning and teaching both are engaging and thrilling !!

The keywords associated are for designing education using design and technology are:

• Design
• Technology
• Simple Animations
• Entertainment
• Engaging
• Motivational
• Ideas
• Imaginative
• Enjoyment
• Inspirational

Research and Analysis: My View Point

Social Network or Solitary Existence in a virtual world???

I am going start out by saying that I do understand that Man is a social animal and has a constant need to communicate and interact with people. But I still don’t agree with living in the world of social Networking and building relationships with people you hardly know or have met, when there are several of those who are long forgotten from your friends list, people who did mean to you once but now you hardly get a chance to interact with.

I was reading this article which questions the trust worthy nature of human beings , the statement that ‘I trust him and he’s a good guy’ does not necessarily means that you know the person too well, the article talks about the general tendency of human beings to trust their fellow human beings. It talks about the two ways of developing relationships, one is to utilize the relation of individual-based trust and the other is to work with phenomenon that “one’s friends become friends.” This process creates the triad closure (transitive closure). One more way of developing human relationships is to utilize general trust. General trust plays a role to expand the relationship outside the group because it may encourage the person to create a relationship with a person unknown to him/her. This is the theory social networking sites are build on. They lead you towards unkown groups and people whom you quickly trust.

This is the reason why anyone and everyone on this social network scenario tends to talk to strangers and try hard to make friends on line. What I don’t understand is why? Why do they have a need to trust people they haven’t ever seen. I am a user of Orkut and have heard of so many hacking and breach of safety problems. And yet everyone acts unaware of everything.

Also another article which was about this networking site called MySpace was in a huge limelight , Rob Stafford is back with another report on the popular social networking site, MySpace.com, which has made headlines recently since several sex crimes have been connected to the site. In the multi-part report, “Dateline” follows a police officer who assumes a fake identity, engages in on line conversations with young teens, and then shares with their parents what he has found.

You may have heard of MySpace.com, it’s a safe bet, that kids today have. It’s a social networking sites — sort of a cyber combination of a yearbook, personal diary and social club. The biggest of them is MySpace.com. With more than 50 million members, its one of the fastest growing Web sites in the country. They interviewed a teenager who has an online account on what she felt when she was putting her address and her personal details while creating her profile. And this is what she had to say: “I honestly just thought it was my friends looking at it ,Which is why Shannon disclosed so much on her space. She put her name, her address, and where she went to school— everything about how to find Shannon was on that site.

An educator who educates parents about the kind of crimes happening on these networking sites said that Pedophiles are using all of the social networking sites. And every other anonymous Internet technology to find kids. The social networking sites are where kids are.

Its not that I disagree with the Social networking Idea, its just that I take it as medium to connect with people I haven’t met in years and have been looking to reach them. I take it as a common meeting place where it is easy for me to be in touch with people who matter to me. I understand that now-days social networking or the virtual world that we have created is a thread linking us to people around the globe, it has opened so many doors which were just impossible without it , and I do value what we have today: we have a source which allows us to work with these features:

• Expressing and developing identity (especially for youth).
• Relationships
• Trust
• User-driven and generated sites and content

But I strongly believe that however close this virtual networking has brought us to people around the globe it has definitely taken away the most precious thing and that is our need to be present in a real world and make our present relationships grow strong.

My Choice: Social Interactive Network

The social interactive network that I am a part of is called ORKUT, its an international netwrok and I found most of my friends who I had completely lost in touch with on it. So I find it extremly interesting and usefull.

Orkut is an Internet social netwrok service run by google and named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Buyukkoten. It claims to be designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. Similar to Facebook, Friendster and MySpace, Orkut goes a step further by permitting the creation of easy-to-set-up simple forums (called “communities”) of users. Since October 2006, Orkut has permitted users to create accounts without an invitation. In April 2007 Orkut introduced polls in communities.The initial target market for Orkut was the United States, but the majority of its users are in Brazil. Orkut was launched in January 2004 by the search company Google, the brainchild of Orkut Büykökten, a Turkish software engineer, who developed it as an independent project while working at Google.In late June 2004, Affinity Engines filed suit against Google, claiming that Orkut Büyükkökten and Google based Orkut on inCircle code.

Originally, its membership was by invitation only. At the end of July 2004, Orkut’s membership surpassed 1 million accounts, and by the following September, it had surpassed 2 million accounts. As of August 2007, the service claimed 67 million users.

The design features that promote Triangulation are:

1. Users get to create an orkut account with/without invitation. This feature enbles pople to communicate as and when they like.
2. Another feature of Orkut are “Communities”. Anyone with an Orkut account can create a community on anything. One can post topics, inform users about an event, ask them questions or just play games. There are more than one million communities on Orkut with topics ranging from pizza to pasta or from film star to superstar. The first five communities on Orkut were started within 24 hrs of the site’s launch. Users can upload photos into their Orkut profile with a caption. Users can also add videos to their profile from either You Tube or Google Videos with the additional option of creating either restricted or un-restricted polls for polling a community of users.
3. UnlikeFacebook, where a member can view profile details of people only on their network, Orkut allows anyone to visit anyone’s profile, unless a potential visitor is on your “Ignore List”.
4. Importantly, each member can also customize their profile preferences and can restrict informationthat appear on their profile from their friends and/or others (not on the friends list).

They Observe and keep updating their look , since the time they launched it till today their have been numerous      changes made to the design and features. The one that I think were great chnages as they lead to more and more people getting involved in it are:

1. They made the interface more easy to navigate thourgh.
2. Earlier they showed eight friends in the friends display window, now they have nine and an easy way of seeing then.
3. It also announced the initial release of Orkut in 5 new languages: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. Profile editing can take place by clicking the settings button under your profile photo (or alternatively, click the blue settings link at the top of any page).
4. Orkut announced another new feature. You can now see a “Updates from your friends” box on the homepage where you’ll get real-time updates when your friends update or make changes to their profiles, photos and videos. Moreover in case of some things on your profile you want to keep private, Orkut has added an easy opt-out button on the settings page.
5.  Orkut greeted it’s Indian users Happy Diwali in a very special way, by allowing them to change their Orkut theme to Diwali flavoured reddish theme.

I couldn’t get the images out of my profile so I just picked up a random orkut Image to show how the interface looks like :