Week 8 Blog Post- The Disruptive Power of Second Life

Week 8 Blog Post-The Disruptive Power of Second Life

                  A disruptive technology is an innovation that is developed typically for less money, is more convenient in use, although not necessarily better in performance (Christensen, 1997). The creation of the new technology can disrupt entire industries- as an industry that creates a more sustainable technology has not built in a way to combat the new disruptive technology, nor do the industry executives buy into an emerging disruptive technology – all leading to the sustainable technology being surpassed by the new, disruptive technology (Christensen, 1997).

                  Second Life is a disruptive technology that can replace face-to-face environments through online avatar creations and simulated worlds invented by users (Kalning, 2007). The technology is an updated version of Sim City, which originated as an animated world where users could join and play games online. In Second Life, the users actually create individual worlds with whatever their imagination allows (Kalning, 2007).

                  For the industry of education, this could be utilized as a creative learning tool, where teachers could lead virtual classrooms and interact with students, as well as students interacting with each other. This idea is already as far as distance/online education is concerned, however the creativity factor seems endless. Socially, this can be good for those that perform better with some level of anonymity. However, all of the technology that emerges that subdues social interaction in a face-to-face environment can reek havoc on personal relationships.

References:

Christensen, C. (1997). The innovator’s dilemma: When new technologies cause great firms to fail. Boston. Harvard Business School Press

Kalning, K. (2007). If second life isn’t a game, what is it? Msnbc.com. Retrieved from www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17538999/ns/technology_and_science-games/t/if-secong-life-isnt-game-what-it/

Rhymes of History Technology

Rhymes of History Technology

The rhymes of history describes how in history, a new development rekindles something from the past (Thornburg, 2009).  What comes to mind is the use of Skype and Facetime, or video conferencing. We know now that we can  Skype or Facetime our family and friends, and business colleagues. The technology makes communication interactive, fun, and personable. The best part is most of these technologies are free.

This is not a new technology, but rather a rekindled technology.

Over 130 years ago, science fiction movies were depicting face-to-face communication over a television of sorts (Edwards, 2010). According to Edwards (2010), experiments with actual videophone technology began in 1956 with AT&T.  Of course we can look back now and call the attempt a failure- but knowing what we know now is a rekindling of the past in ways such as try and try again.

Edwards, B., (2010). 132 Years of the Videophone: From Futuristic Fantasy to Flops to FaceTime: A visual history of the science and sci-fi of phone calls you can see. Retrieved from http://technologizer.com/2010/06/14/videophones/3/

Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Emerging and future technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Skype.com. (2012). Skyp-to-skype calls. Retrieved from http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/features/allfeatures/skype-to-skype-calls/