Distance Learning & Virtual Learning

Distance learning is becoming incredibly popular these days. Considering that everything else can be acquired online, I suppose it was only a matter of time before learning was online. There are clearly pros and cons to distance or virtual learning. One of the most advantageous aspects of virtual learning is that it allows students from all over the world to actually see and listen to a lecture by a world famous professor. Sometimes, a Q&A session may even take a place after these lectures to provide an interactive learning experience for the students. Needless to say, such an experience might be a valuable and memorable experience for a student. In addition, virtual and distance learning such as the popular Blackboard program allows the professors to keep the students well informed in all aspects of the class – lecture slides, notes, schedule for upcoming tests, homework assignments, projects, contact information etc.. Organization is one of the most important elements of learning. Most of the students who perform below average have trouble organizing their schoolwork/homework and a program such as blackboard helps the student organize greatly. Clearly, as I’ve mentioned above, there are great advantages to distance learning. It is no surprise that most major universities use the Blackboard program. However, there are a couple of disadvantages to distance learning that I will mention here. First and foremost, ironically, the problem with distance or virtual learning is that it is almost too effective at making it easy for students to attend a classroom without actually attending it. I know from personal experience that many students simply grow reliant on virtual learning programs such as Blackboard to keep up with the class work for them. Thus, the students do not bother to take notes in class because they know that they can access Blackboard for the lecture notes. Even further, the students do not take mental notes about upcoming tests or projects to organize for the same reason for not taking class notes. In short, the students get extremely lazy. As we all know, there is no Blackboard for real life and these students, I believe, will have trouble adjusting to life after school. Secondly, classroom dynamics is more than just learning from the professor; it is learning from your fellow classmates. If it becomes extremely easy for students to stay home and get their degrees , then I believe the students are missing out meaningful connections.

Flying Penguins

I saw this video and I really liked it. I almost believed it. When penguins were flying, I almost thought it was touching, but this is a film made by and broadcasted on B.B.C on April fool's day as a joke to people. I liked the fact that people can have, and share the sense of humor like this.I think humour plays an important and desirable role in many aspects of our life. Sometimes, it can get rid of tension, misunderstanding, fear between people, sometimes it can convey the feelings of understanding, sympathy and so on.

My thoghts on artificial Intelligence

Recently, I’ve read many interesting articles regarding artificial intelligence on the web. Artificial intelligence and robotics are two of the fastest improving fields today. There have been vast improvements starting from artificial math tutors to interactive playmates for young children. The future is very bright indeed in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence. In fact, I would say that a world that we only saw in science fiction movies and books is inevitable. Currently, because there is a shortage of teachers, such a world in which artificially intelligent robots can lessen the shortage seems attractive. Nevertheless, whether such a world would be beneficial to our society must be considered carefully because teachers play one of the most important roles in society. First and foremost, we must ask whether or not we can trust artificially intelligent robots and programs with our children. A machine, unlike a human, does not have emotions or morals or decision making capabilities. Therefore, a clear cut moral choice for a human may not be so obvious to a machine. Do we want our children to learn in such a cold and heartless environment? A teacher’s job goes beyond simply providing the students mathematical formulas or information about the civil war. A teacher’s job, more than ever, requires a human element of love. A teacher is somebody that the students should be able to turn to regarding not only academic problems, but emotional and life problems as well. Secondly, I believe students, and eventually the society as a whole, would lose the ability to creatively think and solve problems. A machine, no matter how “intelligent,” is merely following coded laws rules. Sometimes, a teacher must make the decision to break those rules for some students who are particularly gifted. In other words, each and every student differs in terms of what they are capable of producing. They are unique. Therefore, a computer program that treats every student the same would not be very effective in bringing out the best possible performance in them. I remember the best teacher that I’ve ever had was not necessarily the “smartest” teacher. I remember my favorite teacher as someone who was warm and kind. He had an eye for seeing the students’ talents and skills. He knew how to react to every student’s needs and when to punish and when to compliment. Lastly, because I respected this teacher very much, I tried incredibly hard to do well in the class. There is a relationship that forms between the students and the teachers, and this relationship element plays a vital role in any learning environment.

Exploring flash

Doing the action script flash assignment, I found the function of the flash that I don't have to type every world with my hands.

On the left middle section under the action scrip window, there are many preset scripts such as goAndPlay and Onpress etc. I could use those functions. I found it really interesting to explore just by clicking any symbols of flash and I found some useful functions such as round shape tool and some color mixing function. So happy that I finished my action script flash file which I spent my whole weekend on. I found that exploring doesen't hurt.