Blog Week 7 Chinese Hackers.

Here’s a blog related to technology, the future of education, the flat world and probably other less obvious things.




I was poking around SecurityFocus.com—(a pretty popular IT security website—like I usually do, wondering what ‘hackers, blackhats, Etc’ are up to around the world and came across as somewhat disheartening article about global internet security. The main thesis of the article was that it is now China that poses the greatest cyber-threat to global network security. The website sited a federal publication that was released by The Naval Network Command and stated that “attacks coming from China [are] the most significant for the United States’ military network defenders.” The purpose of these digital attacks from China have had a variety of different motives ranging from the theft of intellectual property to intelligence gathering and the creation of backdoors on U.S. military networks for later snooping. Currently the U.S. militarily holds the position that these attacks are government-driven. I found this interesting because during the Cold-War the U.S. spied on the soviet union and relied heavily on futuristic technology to do so (spyplanes, satellites, etc) and today we are seeing the fomentation of a new type of Cold-War that is being fought covertly on the internet. I think I already mentioned earlier in my previous blogs that the U.S. has planned to fight a global information war already and is prepared to be able to sever all communications on the planet—of course if this happened, so much for Friedman’s ‘flat world.’
On the education side, we have discussed and even demonstrated by using eportfolios on how new technology is being integrated into education, at all levels. If there is an information-war in the future where education is almost completely reliant on IT, then most of this nations learning facilities would more or less come to a halt, schools would have to call a virtual snow day. Also, since the hacking from China is also intended to steal intellectual property, American Universities conducting research will—or have already—fall victim to hackers who could steal research data and personal information on a daily basis. What disheartened me about this article is that new technology has allowed a Cold-War type of environment to take place that the general public doesn’t know anything about or assumes is years away and only a hypothetical possibility. I think that if the internet is going to have an expanded role in education and maintain the role it plays in defense, business, and technology, then there must be an effective method of policing the web.
Of course, to any negative there is only a positive, and that is this insecurity will mean that there will always be a demand for skilled IT professionals who specialize in network security, ‘untouchables’ if you will.

ENG1A Eportfolio assignment

the typepad site went down for maintenance so I am posting on my own blog as proof I completed it at around 10:45PM Monday Feb. 26th. I will also print one and bring it to class tomorrow as well as post this on the class blog once the site is back up.




First of all, I found this question really interesting (it is always surprising just how well we can all relate to archetypes).

Dr. Noble mentions that each part of life is like a quest, and I think that this is generally true. At first we all have to grow up and then we begin to be exposed to different ideas, develop different skills, and find what creates passion in our lives. That stage would be the call, and then the rest of the journey or “quest” is trying to realize that call, or achieve one or several goals that one sets for themselves.

Eportfolios are primarily intended to serve as a showcase of an individuals work. This can be in the format of a chronological progression or it can detail someones development in a subject or at a skill. This is the aspect of Dr. Noble that relates to Eportfolios as the typical portfolio is not just about one set of work that the owner created but it instead shows change, thought, learning, and progression. If one is Odysseus, then their Eportfolio is an autobiographical Odyssey in a sense that it shows each new challenge that they faced on their quest to master the skill that their Eportfolio is all about. In the past I had to work on a portfolio for webdesign and I had to showcase not just one skillset I mastered, but all of the technique, design, and programming knowledge I have acquired. That portfolio experience reminds me of Dr. Noble’s idea about life as a quest, because in all of the aspects of my knowledge that my portfolio conveyed, there was an inherent display of progress in what I had created. At first I had to show my basic knowledge and explain myself; why I like to deal with web-architecture, why I am passionate—my calling. Next was a display of previous projects I had worked on—essentially a retelling of all the challenges I had to conquer. The most complicated code and design in my portfolio could be compared to Noble’s homecoming, it was the grand result of all of the trials I had to face.

In the ‘flat world’ that we are reading about in class, we can see that the world is rapidly changing. If one organizes their eportfolio around Dr. Noble’s idea of a quest, then one can express how they have changed, learned, and progressed. Eportfolios are not about showing the same work over and over again, they are about chronicling all of one’s skills in an area. With an eportfolio modeled in Noble’s way, an employer can see that a prospective candidate is versatile and has a diverse skillset. In the world today, adaptability and complex skills are what is most valued and eportfolios allow a user to display real concrete evidence of what they can do. If they show how they can change and adapt than this makes the person even more attractive if they are trying to get noticed because it shows they will be able to function in the new ‘flat world’ and change when they must. It is in this way that the ‘lifequest’ idea that Noble outlines might actually be a great way to model an Eportfolio. Particularly in the IT related field, employers aren’t looking for someone that can only do one thing, they need to know that an employee can learn since the technology is always changing and they need to know that the people that they hire have a broad skillset to optimize new technologies. When one’s work is displayed as a subtle progression, these ideas can all be expressed.

Even on a personal level, one can appreciate what they have achieved even more when they realize where they have started from—or once they understand their journey.

For my last few blogs I focused on how the current educational system needs to change in order to make U.S. students competative in a globalized world. Fortunately our state has been a leader in technology and this new global change, and this still continues. On Feb 16th. California gave out 45 million in research grants to 20 state universities and research laboratories, exceeding the federal governments plan for investment into stem cell research. Although this type of research also includes a moral aspect, it is a high-technology industry that is going to create more jobs in the future and other countries who are not intrigued by the moral issue may get the edge in the next 10 years if there is little investment in stem cell research. Nearby in our own town, Stanford received 10 grants worth 8 million dollars, and the J. David Gladstone Institute in San Francisco also recieved grants. The public financing also included the first publicly funded effort to clone a human embryo. Although this may be right or wrong, this is going to lead to a new era of medical technology. Already biopharmaecuticals are generating more and more capital each day and new companies are going public almost every day. The industry is growing at an amazing rate and these drugs also have no patent laws that expire them like convential drugs, companies are ensured to make a growing profit. I personally view this type of medical technology as a crucial area for the U.S. to invest in since workers in foreign countries once they acquire more wealth will want new drugs and healthcare. Also, since these bio-tech drugs are very difficult to produce, cheap copies cannot be made by foreign companies.
This is a perfect area for U.S. dominance since it will allow the U.S. to be an exporter of the technology and it will create jobs that demand highly educated researchers. Where this falls into educational philosophy is that public investment has to create enough educated graduates to work in new technology fields. Students have to understand that they must plan to work in these new areas if they want to have the high-paying jobs. Universities like Stanford should be producing as many domestic graduates as possible and public funding at the primary levels of education can help this. Just as the U.S. fed propaganda in education about the nature of the Soviet Union and tried to motivate people to work to research and make their country superior, the same has to happen today. It seems however that more enlightened states like California are doing the right thing and not waiting for the federal government to set a precedent before they start to change the nature of education.

Blog#5

Time magazine had an article last month about how to modernize schools in the U.S. Fortunately I’ve only attended schools that are fairly modern but there are still many which are under funded and lacking in technology. A very interesting section of the article was the comparison between the 20th century and teaching today and how the format is very similar. Students sit down, take notes, listen to lectures, and the teacher writes on the chalkboard. Perhaps this is a case of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ but if private industry is modernizing for greater efficiency and production, then schools ought to do the same. The new globalized world isn’t about lectures and notes, it is about abstract ideas, critical thinking, working as a team, being multilingual.
Relating to my last blog, the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce recently released a blueprint for pre-K-12 schools to better prepare students to survive in the global economy. Fortunately it seems, at least some are preparing—albeit rather late—for the new phenomenal competition that is emerging overseas. Education must change to not just focus on traditional academic skills, but instead on the skills of the 21st century. The first way to do this is to teach children more about the world; they must be culturally sensitive and view themselves as global citizens. There should also be an emphasis on creative thinking and pattern recognition. Subjects must be combined, be it art and technology or design and mathematics. Originally, public schools were designed to educated agrarian workers and make them more well-rounded, so this will be a dramatic shift from what has come before. Up until now, schools that wished to modernize had to do so on their own with the help of local business and donations, so there must be a greater federal emphasis on bringing schools into the 21st century for schools that do not have access to a wealth community.
The best solution is to indoctrinate children to these new ideas as young as possible so by the time they are adults they will be comfortable and capable enough to succeed in the world. Educators should also always be looking to modernize or be cutting-edge in order to prepare their students as best as possible for new challenges that await. Between reform and investment I believe that schools could be radically changed quite quickly, perhaps in time enough to deal with the droves of graduates coming from East Asia and elsewhere around the globe.

Blog#4

I recently read an article about education in developing countries that I found very interesting. The article argued that stimulating the growth of education in science was crucial for developing nations if education was to be engineered for economic growth. This was somewhat alarming because it is exactly science and mathematics that the U.S. has suffered in because of a failing education system. I realized that the scientific and technological infrastructure the U.S. has today was built and maintained by older generations and that now with the current outsourcing this may put this nation in turmoil. I think that since modern science and technology are so preeminant in culture today that there really should be a greater emphasis on those subjects in lower education. Education can serve several roles, one is a propaganda role, another is economic, and yet another is philanthropic, but in order for a nation to maintain a role as a world power there must be an economic motivation. I think that the United States should implement a greater collaboration between the government, universities, and industry. The article I read simply stated that for developing countries to achieve greater levels of economic growth that they should invest a greater percentage of GNP to universities and research institutions. If one examines the history of education in America, one can find that this proved true and I would assume that it will still prove true. I think that the course education can take today is a political decision and politicians must carefully analyze the geopolitical situation around the globe to decide what should be the emphasis in education.
This also made me realize that education is not just simply to enhance man’s character, education serves a very real purpose for a nation and its global ambitions. Not only should education prepare an individual for the basic trials of life, it must also serve the ambitions of a nation. I think that it can be shown that sometimes education can be used in a crucial PR or propaganda role when trying to generate support against a national threat. Education can also create the type of citizens necessary to overcome a certain challenge. Since the greatest challenge the U.S. faces today is not military but economic—primarily the Chinese economy—it should be the role of educators and schools to teach their students how to succeed in an economy that is tied in to markets around the world. I find that it is in this way that education is the most crucial factor that determines the success, rise, and fall of any nation. I view it as a shame that developing countries are beginning to surpass the U.S. in technological fields where the infrastructure already exists in the U.S. if there was only a greater focus (hydrogen vehicles, biotechnology, fusion power, etc).