Session 2

This week's lesson was on the topic of global dominance and human development.

For the session on global dominance, we studied the characteristics of countries that are rising and falling, and the main difference was that the countries that are rising tend to be more open to new ideas and humble enough to recognise that they needed to keep learning from others, while the opposite is true for the falling countries. These qualities are important because a willingness to learn from others will allow a country to make better use of her resources, and the citizens will benefit as a result. The country's economy will then be dominant. However, I feel that there are other factors that play a role in allowing a country global dominance. Singapore has been trying to establish itself as an education and knowledge hub, and some of the brightest minds can be found here. The Biopolis, Fusionopolis and A*Star have also helped in reinforcing Singapore's position as a knowledge-based economy. While Singapore's economy has come a long way since more than 40 years ago, I do not feel that Singapore's economy is anywhere close to global dominance. The Chinese economy used to be driven by the export and manufacturing industries, but is moving towards a knowledge-based industry. Yet, China is clearly more dominant than Singapore is. Hence I feel that the people in a country is also an important factor for the success of a country, and a country cannot be dominant without people or knowledge.

I found Ke Ming's presentation really interesting, it was about how robots will be able to do the jobs that people do now. Robots are more efficient, more accurate and less easily distracted than humans can ever be. And many people fear that they may become dispensable in future because companies can simply buy or design robots to do the jobs that humans do, with more accuracy and in less time. I agree that this will eventually happen, but I do not think that this development is necessarily a bad thing. Because the robots are able to do the jobs efficiently, people will now have more time on their hands to do other things. I believe that because of the existence of these robots, there will be other interesting and more exciting jobs being created in the future that we cannot conceive of now. These robots are not robbing us of jobs, they are actually providing us the opportunity to be more innovative and change the world like never before.

Jenny's presentation on human development through E-learning also caught my attention. There are many websites now that provide free online courses that are actually conducted by many reputable and prestigious universities. This open university concept seems to be gaining popularity rather quickly, and some less well-known universities have also started offering some courses on the iTunes store. People now have access to reliable information that was once only available to those who were formally enrolled in a university. This system may one day replace the current system of formal education, since it provides one with quality education while still allowing students to be more flexible with their time. The video lectures will also help students to absorb more information since they are able to review the entire lecture if they have problems understanding, which makes teaching more effective. Students of the future may no longer be conferred a degree from a single instituition, they can choose courses that interest them and earn certificates of completion from multiple schools instead. Learning will then be less rigid and more personlised. Such online courses also have the potential to close the income gap between the rich and the poor in a society, since those who could never afford to pay tuition fees can now learn for free, and still receive credits for their effort, and I feel that the transition to a web-based approach is a giant step towards equal opportunity and free education for everyone.

Rating: 7.75
This lesson was interesting, but I felt that more time should have been dedicated to the discussion of the presentation topics.