DO YOU HAVE YOUR POPCORN READY??

HEY THERE!

I'm really excited about this week's post!
Our task is to blog about one of the many Google tools and to...
MAKE A MOVIE!
Both are my virgin tries.
Exciting stuff. :)
So, do you have your popcorn ready??

GOOGLE EARTH

I chose this application as I found it really really interesting. I first came into contact with Google Earth during my college days. As a geography student, I had to fiddle around with the application to learn some stuff which I've already forgotten by now. So, as I revived my interest in Google Earth again, I'm not surprised to find that it has improved so much! Let's look at what are some of the cool things Google Earth 5.0 can do! :)

Now that you have the know-hows. Go ahead and have fun with it! I can easily entertain myself for hours just by looking at the aerial view of different places. We will never have the chance to visit most of these places in our lifetime. Best we can do for now is to admire them on our screens. It is indeed applaud-able that we humans have surpassed ourselves once again. With the access to Google Earth, we are able to, virtually, go anywhere anytime.

However, the application comes with many controversial issues as well. Below are some extracts from www.earthtimes.org

"A failed attack on oil facilities in Yemen in September last year was also reportedly planned with the use of Google Earth, which provides detailed satellite maps of the world, the Daily Telegraph reported, without quoting sources."

"The newspaper revealed in January that Iraqi insurgents were using Google Earth to attack British bases in Basra, prompting the company to replace images of military positions in the southern Iraqi province with others taken before the war."

"... high-resolution images could further compromise the security of some developing countries that were already a target of terrorism."


Solution: Google Earth has struck agreements to show fuzzy, low resolution pictures and distorted building plans' of installations that governments considered sensitive.

This may be a workable plan for now. But are the problems uprooted entirely?

MOVIE TIME!!

Here's a short video I made for my beloved ...

Hope it has been an enjoyable read & watch! :)

Please feel free to comment!
Cheers
Jody

GROWTH MINDSET

HELLO ONCE AGAIN!~

In last week's class we explored the concept of GROWTH MINDSET.
We learnt that it is important to constantly be eager and willing to learn. When we do not have a growth mindset towards learning, we will find it very hard to learn anything. I always believe that what we think really have tremendous influence over our actions.

All of us should have experienced those days whereby we don't feel like dragging ourselves out of bed to go to work/school. So we keep telling ourselves that we are unwell and there's a very bad headache going on. After a few minutes of such thoughts, our body is really convinced by our thoughts and VIOLA! We are REALLY down with a bad headache...


During my college days, I really really hated maths. So I kept telling myself that I am really bad at maths and can never do well in it. No matter how hard I tried to practise, I still did really badly. My brain refused to accept any knowledge that is related to maths. The negative thoughts resulted in 2 years of F grade in maths.

It is only when A'levels is drawing near, I told myself that by hook or crook, I have to at the very least pass maths. And i realised that i cannot let myself stay in the vicious cycle of bad thoughts. Hence, i started to encourage myself, telling myself that maths is easy peasy. These thoughts were indeed helpful. I managed to achieve an E grade for A'levels, which is a pass grade. Though E is not at all fantastic, it is still an achievement to me as i pulled myself out if the cycle just in time to obtain my FIRST pass grade in 2 years.

if only maths was this easy...

One movie that i really like is FORREST GUMP. The main character, Forrest, has an IQ level of 75, which that is slightly lower than the average of 90-100. Despite this disability, he does not allow himself to believe that he is inferior. Many at times he is the victim of bully due to his subnormal intelligence. Whenever someone calls him stupid, Forrest always replies, 'Stupid is as stupid does.' He refuses to agree with them that he is stupid and choose to have a positive outlook towards life. He is always eager to learn new skills, such as ping pong. His attitude towards his circumstances has made him outstanding and successful in life.



So. Here's the bottom line : if u want to avoid having your brain look like this

HAVE A GROWTH MINDSET!

E-SHOPPIN!

hi guys!

apologies for being MIA! (missin in action)
here's me and my insights to e-commerce.
*or i'd prefer to call it e-shoppin :)

the phenomenon of e-commerce has been on the rise. many ppl now prefer to shop in the comfort of their own homes rather than exhaust themselves with actual shoppin trips. in this post, we shall discuss why e-commerce has succeeded since its birth. and despite its success, what are some boohoos of this trend.

reasons for success

we are living in a world whereby convenience is highly valued. and when there is a way for people to bring convenience to themselves, it is just a matter of time that the idea rises to fame. it can be quite effortless to engage ourselves in e-commerce as our purchase is literally on click away!

i used to set aside a full day for a shopping escapade. now, i can be on a shopping escapade during a short lunch break. and i can even look specifically for what i want. many online shops classify their goods according to colors or style. for instance, i can just click on the link to skirts and just browse thru all the designs available! power of focus :) how convenient! below is a cataloge from http://missvonjo.blogspot.com/ . its one of my favourites! click on e link for some good bargains! :)

also, as a generation that is really good at multi-tasking, we have learnt how to divide our attention fairly well. one might be booking movie tickets online, ordering mcdelivery and making a purchase on ebay all at once. doing all 3 at the same time would be impossible when out of this virtual world.

reasons for failures

it would be unrealistic to conclude that e-commerce is all success and nothin else. e-commerce has its banes as well. personally, i feel that one major bane is that it does not allow us to have personal interaction with the sellers/buyers. many at times we have no idea who we are buying from or selling our goods to. interaction is an important aspect of our lives. to swoop it for convenience may not be a wise choice as we may isolate ourselves from the outside world.

also, we sometimes have to pay via online banking or credit card before getting our goods. this is dangerous as we never know who to trust. moreover, it is risky to allow the organisations to store our information in their database. we may lose our privacy if our information is passed to outsiders without our approval.


moving on, e-commerce can sometimes be quite a hassle. we are not able to check the quality of our goods before having it delievered to us. it can be quite a hassle to have it exchanged or checked as it takes another few days for the process to be completed. reality purchase, on the other hand, allows quality check to take place. and we are able to try out before purchasing. hence, i would believe that virtual purchase is many at times impluse purchase.

so this marks the end of insights to e-commerce.
the next post shall be on e-learning.
we shall discuss how the internet has changed our learning habits.
stay tuned :)

jody