Reflective Post

Link of my blog:

http://julia0406.blogspot.com/

Choice of sample post:   

http://julia0406.blogspot.com/2011/02/session-4-more-than-words.html

Summary:

I am not a first time blog user, but this is the first time for me to write a blog academically. I love writing blog because it is a good chance for me to think and to reflect what I know. When I learn a new thing, I like to think in a different way. I will try to imagine if things go on another way, what the differences are. I also like to observe. This is the reason why I like MTR. In the compartment, I can see many people. They have different characteristics. I can guess it by their gestures.

Obviously, I am a person who likes to think. Blog is a good platform for me to write down what I have thought of. After going to a lesson for EN2848, I learnt some new things. When I am on my way home, I start my brainstorming. I try to think of any examples for the information mentioned in the lesson. When I am at home, I search on the internet to find more information. Then my reflective mind switches on again and I can start writing a blog.

I think blog is not just a place for expressing ideas. It is also an opportunity for everyone to think more. In the society, everyone is too busy to think. Many of them are busy for their living. If a person stops thinking for a long time, he will turn into a puppet. Writing a blog is a chance for busy people, just like me, to think more and train up a reflective mind.

Blogs that I have commented on:

http://en2848sarah.blogspot.com/2011/03/am-i-add.html#comments

http://agnes5062.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-digital-life.html#comments

http://agnes5062.blogspot.com/2011/02/font-size-pictures.html#comments

http://agnes5062.blogspot.com/2011/03/online-games.html?showComment=1303183070969#c6769230850263722245

http://en2848claire.blogspot.com/2011/03/normal-0-0-2-false-false-false-en-us-zh.html#comments

http://en2848crystalwan.blogspot.com/2011/03/social-networking-and-me.html#comments

Session 10: The Attention Economy

As mentioned in the lecture, attention economy is a new economy. The attention can be seen as property or wealth because they can help you to do business and earn money.

The Openrice website is one of the platforms developing the attention economy. Openrice is a website that people can share and comment on the restaurants that they dine at. People can post photos of the dishes and share their feedback. They can also select whether the restaurant is good or bad.

When I want to find a good restaurant in Kowloon Tong, I can go to Openrice website and see the comment of others. The website has a ranking of good restaurant and bad restaurant. Some good restaurants are in great attention, so more and more people will go and try. On the other hand, the bad restaurant can also in great attention, but less people will go and try. This shows that under the attention economy, people can choose a good restaurant easily.

However, I will not always trust on the ranking. As I know, some of the restaurants are not that bad. However, their locations have low accessibility. Less people will go; the ranking on Openrice is low. So I recommend all of you to look for some new good restaurant but not just rely on Openrice.

Session 8: Games learning and literacy

In Hong Kong, games are very popular. We have NDS, PSP, Wii etc. in the market. If you do not have these game devices, you can also play games online. iphone is very popular recently. Many game applicants can be found on iphone.

Recently, I am addicted to Coin Dozer on iphone. It is actually a very interesting game. Players can place coins in the machine. The machine will push the coins down to the front, those are pushed down to the front will belong to the players.  The players can collect money by pushing coins to the front. However, there are two gaps on both sides of the machine. The coins pushing into the gaps will not be counted. Apart from pushing coins, there are many additional gifts for special functions. For example, some gifts can help you to have more coins when you have coin shower as a bonus.

This game actually is quite old in Hong Kong. However, because of the strategy of collecting gifts and coins, it becomes one of the most popular games in iphone application.

I believe for the games which have to collect thing can be very popular quickly. This is because every player wants to collect more and more which can contribute to the popularity. This shows that strategy of game designing is a very challenging and important work. I cannot be the programmer of designing games, but I hope more and more can get my attention in the coming future.

Happy reading!

Session 6: Working together on the Web

This week we have mentioned how a Wiki site can be developed. What I can immediately think of is the forum in Asia countries. Forum is very popular in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. When I want to buy a new mobile phone, I will go to a forum which is about mobile phone to have a look. This is because I know many people will share their experience onto the forum. So what I can do is to search for the model of the mobile phone, then many users’ experience can be found there.

But how are all the pages in forum developed? First of all, one person creates a page about the model of a mobile phone. Then, the members of the forum can express their feelings and ideas in the wall. However, unlike Wiki, members of the forum cannot change what others have talked about. They can only response and leave messages to it. So there are some similarities on the development of Wiki and forum.

Forum is not just for fun, it can be very useful. Forum is used in where I am working for. I am working in the Department of Economics and Finance. Every year, many postgraduate students are from the mainland. It’s hard for them to find a place to stay once they have arrived Hong Kong. So the department creates a forum to help them to rent a place before arriving Hong Kong. Once the department have contacted with the agent, then the information of the agent will be post in the forum. The students can contact the agent to find a place. If there are some alumni who have some recommendation about the accommodations, they can also post the information to the forum. This can show that forum is very helpful for exchanging information.

Internet is very helpful for exchanging information. However, we have to be very careful about the trust worthless of the information. Then the internet can be a thing which can save time and resources for our life.

Happy Reading!

Session 4: More than words

As mentioned in the last lecture, we have discussed about the layout of some advertisements. We have also gone through the ideal/real and the given/new idea. So I try to use this concept to read some print advertisement and I find there are some interesting points.

Now, let’s read two print advertisements first. 

(Source: http://copyranter.blogspot.com/2011/01/todays-ads-thatll-make-art-directors.html)
In the advertisement of Faber Castell, it wants to convey that by using its colour pencil, people can paint as good as the real one. So the dog has a colour pencil as its body. In this ad, the logo of the company is located at the bottom right. This matches with what we have discussed in the lesson. The ad uses the ideal/real layout. The dog in the ad is the ideal concept; the bottom part of the ad has the real idea and introduces the brand of the colour pencil.

(Because of copyright, this picture cannot be posted, and it has been deleted)
However, in the advertisement of Johnnie Walker, the situation is different. The brand is located at the top right hand corner while the slogan and the product are at the bottom left of the ad. These contradict what we have discussed in our lecture.

(Because of copyright, this picture cannot be posted, and it has been deleted)
However, I think the two layouts are different because the design of the two ad are different. The design of the ad of Johnnie Walker encourages readers to read as the marked arrows. So the logo and the product are located in a particular area.

Happy reading!

Session 1-2 Communication on Facebook

When the word digital media came to my mind, what I can immediately think of is Facebook. Facebook is a very convenient social networking site. It brings everyone nearer to one another. Many people have the same point of view as DavinciRed:

One of the main advantages that Facebook provides for individuals is that it allows them to easily connect with their friends and family wherever they might be.

Once I have a Facebook account, I check the status of my friends everyday. I leave comments to them. If not, I can click the “like” button to show my interest. Or if I want to share something about my life, I can also update my Facebook status. Then my friends can catch up about my life. It seems that Facebook can reduce the distance between my friends and me.

However, I do not think Facebook can really help to maintain social network effectively. Communication should have a message conveyed by a sender to a receiver through a media which contains meaning. A receiver will then send back the feedback to the sender. This is the simplest way for communication. However, on Facebook, communication may not perform accurately. For example, “I failed my examination!!! What the……!!! :’(” What the sender will receive as feedback is “like”. What does that mean? Does it mean that many people are happy because of your fiasco of examination? Why the receivers just click “like” instead of leaving comments on it?

If we have a conversation with our friends face to face, will your friends say like for everything you mentioned? Does Facebook help to communicate effectively?