1st Portfolio due - 9th September  2007

2nd Portfolio due - End of September 2007

3rd Portfolio due - End of October 2007

Extension due - ASAP!  

NO MORE EXAMS! -- although we need to finish off our portfolio peice :(

• 800 words
• the main social and ethical issues related to virtual world
• students performance improvement (evaluate strenghts and weakness of the project

Virtual World is a computer simulated environment intended for the users to inhabit and interact with via avatars. This is usually represented in the form of two or three-dimentional graphical representations of of humanoids or other graphical or text based avatars. Some worlds allow multiple users, for example some games that can be found online like "Mythwar", etc.

Watch the Mythwar video here.  

Avatars refer to an interactive representation of a human in a virtual reality environment. A very good example could be found in a chatting site called "IMUV". Here one can create themselves in 3D format, meet friends online, and have fun with their own virtual home and town! This is also a social networking site and very popular among the uprising generation. 

The internet is opening up more opportunities for virtual world. It is also being used by more and more people. With so many people using the internet, an educational window has been thrown open. With the growth of internet comes the growth of the desire to connect. People all over the world want to reach out and meet people from a place they could never go. This desire also goes towards the growth of virtual worlds. The structure of computers also goes a long way towards the development and growth of virtual worlds, affecting the worlds environment by saving resources and peoples health in both in a positive and negetive way.

Virtual world's impact on health, science and environment becomes very inter-related with the term, "men being ruled by computers or computers being ruled by men?" As we can see from the video I created that vitual world has already taken over the medcine area's. It is now being used as a learning tool to teach surgery and things related to that particular area. Since the 21st generation habitats are demanding more better facilities, virtual world is definately an improvement. 

This was only one of the advantages of using the virtual world in medical purposes. The other health issues could be: applying for a driving licience, assuring life security, etc. Young teenagers could now learn driving through virtual world instead of going straight to the real world driving and have some experience what it is like in the reality and be safe. Many lives can be saved this way when virtual world will enable people to get better treatments at their home and don't have to travel long distances for check ups, etc. Thus this is not only assuring safety but also saves energy and natural resources that is wasted while travelling by a car or plane for long distances.

Virtual world ensures us that we can go to work, do our shopping, our everyday chores just by staying infront of the computer. The disadvantage of this is that people are becoming obese as they are not moving adequetly and staying inside their home a lot. Another impact on heath in a bad way is that people due to better technology, live long lives. 

 

This year another successful project was the horizon project. It was fun collaborating with other students and working with them. I was working under the virtual world trend and how it impacts the heath issues. I was partnered up with a student from PLC, named Isabelle. At the beginning communication was difficult but later as we were approaching the deadline things went much smooth. The multimedia artifacts and everything went very well! We also participated in the summit conference and our school participated along with some teachers around the world. In short, the project was fun fun!

YES! I completed my first portfolio task and I feel MUCH better now...We are currently working on our horizion report project and hopefully this will be as successful as the flat class room project. 

http://news.com.com/RFID+tags+become+hacker+target/2100-102

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID

http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/protectingid/0,

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/02/13/1368724.htm

http://www.drugresearcher.com/news/ng.asp?id=55448-fda-clears-rfid

http://www.greaterthings.com/News/Chip_Implants/index.html

http://news.com.com/RFID+designer+gets+21+million+in+ventur

http://news.com.com/Nixed+Black+Hat+talk+on+RFID+access+bad

http://news.com.com/RFID+coming+to+scooters%2C+diapers/2100

http://news.com.com/Year+in+review+Privacy+and+surveillance

http://news.com.com/RFID+software+market+to+boom/2110-1012_

http://news.com.com/Cattle+producers+embracing+wireless/211

http://news.com.com/Students+dream+up+tech+for+health+care/

http://search.bnet.com/search/health+care+and+rfid.html?&c

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BPC/is_6_29/ai_n1382141

http://www.sun.com/br/0205_ezine/hc_rfid.html

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/07/10/rfid/index.html

http://www.aeroscout.com/content.asp?page=Healthcare

------ resources == yet to process  

For the upcomming portfolio task I have been adviced to use : http://news.com.com/2100-11746_3-6158701.html?part=rss& the link as my main article

"Patients, doctors staying away from implantable RFID chips"

I also have attached the advice mail from Ms. Lindsay below:

AofI:  I think this is Health

Crit A: The issue is personal safety. The RFID will have important information that cna be used if the person is ill. But provacy and
security are issues as well.

Crit.B: IT developments: what is RFID? what does it do?
concept: storing information on a computer chip....database implications
trends: how widely is this being used? who is using it?

Crit C: You need to identofy a main problem: Is it provacy? is it ecurity? is there a health risk??

Crit D: What is the solution to the problem you identified in C??

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I am on my way to complete the portfolio plan but there are some areas that i couldn't fill out like the Criterion B. Criterion C was also confusing but I could complete the areas with sufficient information. In Criterion D the solution is a very broad issue to explore and I am planning to fill it with bullet points. I would love some feedbacks for the Criterion B please!

Surprise: People Don't Want To Be Implanted With RFID Chips

 I found this topic to be very intruding beacuse as i read further along the article I started to ask myself diffrent questions like weather I'd like to install myself with these chips and I realized it will actually take away all my privacy I possess and maybe I would rather like to be the way I am... well the rest is to be discussed in my essay... 

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070213/061130.shtml

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6332619.stm

This is the article I think I would work on during my portfolio task. I find it a very suitable topic because it discusses about the net users safety especially of those childrens. It has now been officially maked that 6th of February is now known as Internet Safety Day.  

--under construction--