E-Learning 2.0

What the heck is e-learning? That was the question I literally asked myself when I first heard of it on the internet somewhere in 1996. Electronic-learning? Or just learning on another platform?

I never really understood WHY they must call it E-learning when all there was to it, was simply LEARNING. Why didn't we call it P-Learning when people started using paper to learn instead of merely depending on ORAL tradition?

If you do that comparison, then E-Learning should soon lose it's luster and be considered just learning in general. I mean LDL degrees that came out all depended on E-learning in the early days anyways. But the degree that was earned was nothing less than if you actually got the degree from the university on-site. So why do we always cheapen something that is equally difficult to get but merely gotten over a long distance using an electronic medium?

While most people of the previous generation here in ASIA, commonly cheapen or discount heavily on e-learning, our current generation is learning many times more information in a single year that our predecessors have ever did in their lifetimes because of E-learning.

Examples such as learning a new language, COMPUTING based languages such as L33T speak, internet Lingo, foreign vocabulary so that we can better communicate with our overseas internet friends. These things are COMPLETELY overlooked by our seniors and thought to be garbage by them. They can never pick these languages up even if they wanted to, thus putting the rest of us who are learning these language skills at an almost sub-concious level and at an alarming pace. Just ask all the gamers on the internet if they know l33t speak. Even if they don't speak it, they will understand it.

I learnt a large portion of my Japanese online via chatting and interacting with the Japanese online. Could we have done that in the past without paying exorbitant fees to language schools and having few if any Japanese companions living around in our country? The simple answer is NO. We all are learning more and more via the internet, but we only "credit" it when what we learn is given "value" by companies that eventually find out that these skills learnt on the internet are what is required of their staff in the impending future.

So is the term e-learning flawed? I don't know if we should even continue labelling it as such. Simply because to label something as DIFFERENT is enough to allow people to cheapen its value because they do not understand or want to understand why is there such a difference in the first place.

Alauz Out!

Idiots of today, Geniuses of tomorrow
今日の馬鹿，明日わ天才

Lesson learnt in E-Commerce

It was 2001, at the end of the dot com bubble burst. More and more internet companies are going belly up. But one of my friends said, "Hey why don't we set up a web hosting company?" He was completely oblivious to the fact that the bubble had just burst and he was thinking on catching the "wave" that just wasn't there anymore.

But the group of friends with him, were similarly oblivious and was wondering if such a venture would work. I was one of those friends. So we decided to try it out, 8 years ago. And I heavily invested in a high bandwidth internet connection and the hardware for the server. Among all of the participants, I suppose I was very optimistic that this would work in the beginning.

But as time wore on, we realized that we bought the equipment too early and did not even have any customers who wanted our services as of yet. Probably the dot com bubble bursting had a huge impact on our business prospectus but in the end, I was badly burnt by the experience because I had put in so much of my own money in at the time.

It wasn't a great amount by today's standards, but it was my personal savings and it was a lot when I was still a freshman at Nanyang Polytechnic and not yet earning much from my games reviewing that I just started a couple months before I decided on the venture.

Looking back almost ten years ago, I realized that we would have required a huge amount of luck, dedication and tons of publicity. Obviously we did not have that or I wouldn't be here typing this blog right now. Anyways, it was still a valuable lesson learnt in how to do an E-business, in fact not just an E-business but any business in general is to have a solid vision of your business model right from the start or your not going to go anywhere fast.

Alauz Out!

Idiots of today, Geniuses of tomorrow
今日の馬鹿，明日わ天才