Wear What? Wearable Technology

For one of the assignments this week I looked up an article about wearable technology. Originally I imaged some of the new fashion designs like Vega Wang Bioluminescent Couture (below), which feature creative lighting, LCD and EL Panels. However the article I found was Towards Washable Wearable Antennas: A Comparison of Coating Materials for Screen-Printed Textile-Based UHF RFID Tag. I then found a introduction to a more productive, needed and beneficial use of integrating technology into clothing. This was integrating (Radio frequency identification) RFID tags/antennas into clothing to enable monitoring for healthcare reasons. The goals of the tags are to be unobtrusive, durable/wear able and help patients from monitoring body temperature, breathing, to their overall well-being. Very inspirational and cool!

Picture Reference: http://www.fashioningtech.com/photo/vega-wang-bioluminescent-1?xg_source=activity

Augmented Reality

Changing the reality that we know. Innovation – New creation that transforms how we interact with our reality and society’s paradigm is changed as a whole. Artists initiate and society duplicates.
Allowing another layer in losing our human ability to interact physically, and engage in real purity. Creativity has always been reflections, but now we exist in reflections of reflections and perpetuate and and exponential rate. The struggle will be to keep original thought.

Gorillaz – Stylo (featured video)

Others for fun and thought…
a-ha – Take On Me

Kid Cudi – Day ‘N’ Nite

John Mayer “Heartbreak Warfare”

will.i.am, Nicki Minaj – Check It Out

Björk – Hunter

Marina Abramovic Meets Ulay

My 2-cents on Game Based Learning

Game Based Learning (GBL) most definitely will be a component transforming the education system. Along with augmented and virtual reality game based learning is a platform for students to engage collaboratively and the education to be more relative to real-world situations. Thus enhancing students ability to problem solve, make quick adjustments, improve their ability to actively learning, and open them up to a wider variety of opportunities/experience whereas because of time and place they may not able otherwise.

As with most new technology trends GBL will have to be adopted effectively into the education system. Also with other new technologies more GBL platforms/activities will need to be created specifically for the education system, with clear delivery, and assessment. However I think GBL has more integration abilities in the current education system whereas the other platforms may take more time, adjustment and maturity to be as effective.  GBL has a variety of way it can be delivered, accessed and ‘played’.

Two things that came up in my thoughts about the future of GBL are (1) hopefully GBL stays competitive and (2) continues to become more physically active.  Concern #1 because too many kids and adults of the last generation feel entitled. This is due to a concept that ‘everyone is a winner’. The concept has created a lack of competiveness. Hopefully as educational games are developed they keep both encouragement and competiveness in balance for students. The second thought is watching most of technology based ‘game players’ sitting on their butts for hours a day. Hopefully in the future GBL will be implemented more following the lead of game consoles like Nintendo Wii and mobile apps that make students search/move around in thier environment.