Article 2 for Blog Submission 2: Term 2

Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6647011.stm

Review of Article:
The Ministry of Education has recently advocated the policy of "Teach Less Learn More". Apparently, Mitchel Resnick, creator of a kids programming software called "Scratch", thinks so too. In this new age of technology, I think that educating children about new technology such as programming is also very important. I think that "Scratch" is a very innovative software as it actually allows kids some freedom to create their very own characters and learn more about programming and intellectual property at the same time. They can then also improve their social skills by sharing their own work with other children around the World. This program also let kids learn independently on their own without external help to create their own video. This new technology has a very huge impact, no doubt, but is it always in a positive way? Even though this article seems very reliable and it makes us think that "Scratch" is actually a very good product, but there are a number of questions that this article fails to answer. Firstly, it fails to answer what are the implications of exposing kids to the Internet and programming at such a young age. Even though the article says that "Scratch" is "a useful tool for teaching children about computational thinking and enthusing "the next generation" of IT professionals", but then it fails to say that it can also generate "the next generation" of hackers and crackers through learning about programming at such a young age. Also, there are also other kids programming software out there such as "HacketyHack". What makes "Scratch" so special? Also, the article fails to mention that "Scratch" can also encourage failure and depression in children as their video may fail repeatedly just because of one small error in the programming. Also, is programming too advanced for children? The article did not delve into that. Of course, I know that my knowledge is limited, as I have never learnt programming, and that I haven't tried "Scratch" for myself to measure its effectiveness. Also, I have the mindset of a teenager, which may be different from the mindsets of young children or the creator's perspective, to name just a few. Thus, I may not understand the perspective of the author and thus I should try to take his views into account. However, I can use the knowledge garnered from this article to familiarize myself with programming software and their implications on young children, thus letting me discuss more about this interesting topic. Lastly, to really understand more about "Scratch" and its implications, I will have to modify my thought process by trying "Scratch" out for myself and learning more about programming and the psychology of young children to really understand the article and make a logical conclusion.

Word Count: 459 Words (Checked by Microsoft Word)

Article 1 for Blog Submission 2: Term 2

Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051900457.html

Review of Article:
After reading this article, I am shocked at how the president can close opposing channels just to keep himself at a distinct advantage over opposition parties. This article described why the opposition channels are closed, and the reactions to the closing. If RCTV is closed, then the opposition parties will have no medium to communicate with the citizens, causing a huge blow to the "democracy" of Venezuela. A democracy is supposed to allow genuine alternatives to the current party such that fair elections could be held. However, if the media is controlled completely by the state government, then they could spread unfair propaganda without any opposition, as the media is now fully theirs. This will surely give an unfair advantage to them which could well be the deciding factor in the next election. From the article, we can also see that many of the Venezuelans disagreed with this decision, as it risks collapsing the democratic society that is Venezuela. Even though I agree with the article, I must say that the article provides inconclusive evidence. For all we know, RCTV might have added immoral content in their soap operas, the article did not clearly state what RCTV's soap operas are about. Also, this article may be distinctively biased against the current party as it did not present much of the perspective of the current government as compared to the opposition party. Also, from the article, we can see how most people support RCTV because of sustaining their jobs, or because they don't want their favourite soap operas being cancelled instead of genuine political reason. Of course, I know that being a Singaporean, I do not know anything about media run by opposition parties, as Singapore does not have opposition-run media, thus my view could have been different from the author. I do realize that I have limited knowledge on this topic, having only learnt about democracy this year, and the evidence in the article was not conclusive, thus my view could have been wrong. The author could have known things that I don't, since he must have had more experience in the field of politics than I have. However, I can use the knowledge in this article to learn more about the conditions that fulfill a democratic society such that I can discuss more about democracy with other more knowledgeable people and thus learn more about democracy and maybe even educate others about democracy so they can learn how to read articles like these more effectively. Lastly, since I do not live in Venezuela, my thinking should be modified to suit this article by learning more about democracy in Venezuela and about democracy itself in general so that I can discourse about it more intensively next time.

Word Count: 457 Words (Checked by Microsoft Word)