520R - Journal # 2 -- The Internet, and the digital divide

"Despite the technological progress that the Internet brings, one must be wary of the "digital divide" that it might creates"

This subtitle is written on a book that I saw yesterday behind the window of a small bookstore. It has attracted my attention while I was waiting at a bus stop in Vancouver downtown. There are no doubts that the Internet has made a big revolution in the world of knowledge and communication, but what about the new problems that Internet has brought to our lives? and how are we going to overcome it?

Let me first describe the term "digital divide" for you: it means that the world can be divided into people who do and people who don't have access to the Internet, whether it was a matter of how industrially is the nation developed, or how capable are the people to use it. However, the existence of the digital divide is not universally recognized, because they think it should soon disappear in any case, and the knowledge of computers will become less important as they get smarter and easier to use. Therefore, people will not need high-tech skills to access the web. But the main issue here is: when this is going to happen? and how can we overcome this problem while computers get smarter? same thing applies for all other drawbacks of this important technology.

One of the practical solutions was the OLPC Association. It stands for "One Laptop Per Child", it is a non-profit organization established in the U.S. to oversee the creation of cheap and affordable educational devises to be used in the developing world. Furthermore, one of the brave solutions is supporting the open source software industry, which is considered as a highly appreciated contribution from computer developers to the world. It is about developing high-performance mandatory software (e.g. operating systems, word processors, antivirus programs, etc.) and distribute it on the Internet free of charge in order to achieve the goal to overcome the digital divide. Also, it is good to know that open software are not only free to use, but also they are free to develop and improve by other programmers around the world, so it is a win-win strategy for everyone.

OLPC pilot Thailand - Ban Samkha - hiking, 2007

In conclusion, there are still a lot of obstacles ahead that we must deal with to spread the knowledge and limitate the abuse of the Internet in every place around the globe.

520R - Journal # 1

In this short journal I would like to shed some light on Creativity different definitions and how can we combine between them. Also I am going to talk about interesting differences between the word Creativity and one of its widely used synonyms. 

Today, I have read a very interesting article about Creativity: Method or Magic?

The author, Stevan Harnad, has introduced his article asking about how can we define "creativity" ? can we just say that it is a cognitive trait or an occasional state ? or it is defined in different ways depending on different usages "creativity is as creativity does" ? 

So, those are the three main notions about creativity, and I hardly can say which one is right and which one is wrong.

Creativity can be a trait, because it is a statistical fact that some people exhibit it frequently. But it is also a state, because people sometimes get to be creative once in their lives, or they become creative in certain fields more than another. ٍSo, I would rather to say: both of them are correct.

There is another thing that I was thinking of regarding the word "creativity", I was always using it as a synonym for "Innovation". But when I was googling around for the word "creativity" I found an interesting information at Wikipedia about distinguishing between the two words "creativity" and "innovation". It says that "creativity" is the act of producing and generating newideas only, while "innovation" is wider and it covers generating new ideas and applying them too.

For example, Amabile et al. (1996) suggest that while innovation "begins with creative ideas,"

"...creativity by individuals and teams is a starting point for innovation; the first is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the second."

Other interesting difference between creativity and innovation the author thinks, so do I, that the word "creativity" is preferred in art contexts whereas "innovation" is preferred in business. And I have seen this true in the practical life, I have seen the word "innovation" was widely used in my working place and it is always about deliverables to clients and how to exceed their expectations. While I have always been reading about creativity in art books and topics.

Hopefully I have added something new to your information about Creativity. 

See you soon on my next blog.

Bassam

Hi Everyone ^_^

Salam Alikum (Arabian greeting),

This is my first blog in english. I used to write blogs in arabic before I come to Canada, but this is a new experience to me.

I named it "The Smiler" because it is the meaning of my name in arabic :-)
It is an adjective, and it describes a person (male) who smiles all the time ^__^
The female form of my name is (Basmah), it means "a smile" in arabic.
And by the way, Basmah is my older sister and she is studying at the ELI with us :-)

Anyway, I would like to say that I really like this way of learning english, or generally I like to learn anything aided by technology, like social networks which is the trend of nowadays time. I feel that I am doing something that I really like which is blogging, while I am doing my reading class homework at the same time!

Thanks to our creative reading class teacher Eilidh for this creative idea.

See you soon on my next homework... I mean blog :-)

Bassam