Imporatance of Digital Citizenship.

What is Digital Citizenship? Why is it so important?

Digital Citizenship is something that all teachers need to be aware of. With the growing amount of online activity that students are involved in, we need to provide students with clear guidance on ‘best practice’ when working online. We want our students to enjoy the huge benefits that the internet and computers generally offer but at the same time make our students aware of the issues and dangers. Just like people should be good citizens in society, they should also be good citizens online. In this article we provide you with an general overview of the topic and then suggest an activity that you might like to try with your students.

Ethics is at the core of digital citizenship. It is particularly important to students as they tend to use technology a lot but are not necessary clear on the issues. The types of issues that might come up include:

What do you do if someone contacts through the internet that you don’t know?Is it a good idea to share compromising pictures of yourself or a friend on the internet? What could be the consequences?Is it fair to download and use pictures that are not yours? Is it fair to download movies from an illegal website?Can you copy text from a website and paste it in to your essay?How do you know if the information your friend sends to you is authentic?What should you do if you receive an unkind or rude text about someone in your class?

A very simple framework that can help you think about digital citizenship was set out by Howard Gardner [1]. He suggested 5 main areas.

Identity

Students need to think about how they would be viewed if someone searched for information about them on the internet. Have they uploaded any compromising pictures into their profile? Have they included any silly or rude comments on discussion boards that other people can easily find?

Privacy

How well protected is their information? Are they using simple passcodes? Who do they share their passcodes with? What information have they set as public on sites like Facebook?

Ownership

How do they deal with content that has been created by other people? How do they know if they have permission to use certain pictures, videos or even text? What should they do if they used a quote from an article on the internet? Is it right to copy text from another source and claim it as yours?

Trustworthiness

How do they know if the information they receive from the information is right or wrong? What is fake news and how can they find out if it is fake or not? How do they know if a website is authentic?

Community

How should they engage with the rest of the community on the internet? What should they do if they receive malicious texts or emails about other people?

These are the 5 key areas that they need to think about and under each of these headings a number of issues are likely to be raised, especially in the context of young people. The good news is, there are a whole number of resources that English teachers can make use of. The following is an example of an activity that you might like to try with your students. It helps students to think about the 5 areas and the sorts of issues that are raised under each category. It also encourages students to develop a set of guidelines.

Source: Magazine.

Technology that will rule the world.

There are many technologies trending in 2018 but below listed technologies dominate 2018 and make headlines.

1) Driverless Cars

The development race for self-driving cars was the major fodder for news channels around the world in 2017. The concept of self-driving cars has attracted some big corporations such as Google, Tesla, Mercedes and more in an arms race for introducing the first driver-less cars on the road.

2) AI (Artificial Intelligence) OR IoT (Internet of Things)

2017 witnessed the marvel of AlphaGo Zero when it taught itself the game of Go became its best player ever in just 40 days. And it did all that without any human data or interference.

3) Prescriptive Analytics

Large organizations and companies started working on Big Data and created their way to be better at predictive analytics. This was helping medium and large businesses tremendously for improving customer experience, processes and many other things.

4) Edge Computing

Edge computing is the key factor in making IoT (Internet of Things) work. There has been an unprecedented rise in data generation which has led to an increase in demand for means of gathering, storing and utilizing all of that data in more compatible and centralized means.

5) Wearable Tech

Track your health using technology that is wearable and helps you measure the status of your health when you exercise. Wearable technology comes with many features that are futuristic and accurate.

6) 5G Technology

4G technology reached its peak in application in the year 2017 and 2018 has been predicted as the year which finally gives us the next set of communication technology in the series; the 5G.

7) Seamless Voice Recognition (Conversation with Machines)

Voice recognition technology has always been viewed as a helping but unreliable assistance. But all that may change in 2018 with the rise of sophisticated voice and speech recognition technology.

Future Ruling Technology are:

Some future technologies trends that will rule the planet are:-

1. AI

Artificial Intelligence has been continuing to make its place in the list of top technology trends since quite some years. Its present day tasks of enabling computers to read (studying messages and reports), see (through facial recognition), listen (by enabling Amazon Echo to answer your command), speak ( Siri being able to give you an answer) and even record emotions (through affective computing) will help AI become a technology that no longer needs human intervention to aid its learning.

2. Voice

The future belongs to Voice. Google recently revealed that 20% of the searches on its mobile app and Android services are made by voice, and this number is going to increase in the next few years. The marketers also announced that search by voice will replace keyboards by 2022.

Alexa, Google assistant and Siri have already acquainted us with the power of voice in conducting everyday tasks, the applications have still remained very limited. Here’s a demo video describing the future of Voice technology.

3. NLP

The majority of the businesses employing them to redefine their customer engagement policies. However, by 2020 chatbots would reach a whole different level with the integration of NLP.

4. Blockchain

The rate at which Blockchain is growing has placed it at a pivotal point in the list of top technology trends 2020. Blockchain technology is definitely here to stay. While prevalent in only a handful of industries right now, by 2020 the world will see its mass adoption.

5.IoT

IoT has been finding itself in the list of up and coming technologies to look out for. Pretty much everything would be made smart in the coming time. There are already a lot of devices, but the IoT is only getting started. IHS has predicted there’ll be over 75 billion total connected devices by 2020.

6. Edge Computing

Edge computing is a computing element where everything from – information processing, content collection, and its delivery are situated close to the source of information. Latency and connectivity challenges, bandwidth restrictions, and higher functionality are some of the benefits that get embedded at the edge of the source.

7. Prescriptive Analysis

While the present time is that of predictive analysis, with software giving out prompts on the basis of users’ behaviour and past interaction, in the coming time, the plethora of collected user data will help businesses in a much different way.

8. 5G

5g will find its place in the market very soon, bringing with itself benefits such as high internet speed, lower latency, and higher capacities. The benefits that will make it a prime technology trend in 2020 and beyond.

9. Facial Recognition

Your face will become the ideal technology partner by 2020. What started with iPhone X with its face IDwill be taken ahead by a number of industries who would now be using your face for a series of different applications.

10. Automation

From packaging juice boxes to delivering pizza in self driving vehicles, automation is fast climbing the food chain from doing routine tasks to a lot more complex, decision making tasks.

##Main Technology:

1.Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Machine Learning

Applied AI and machine learning are composed of many technologies and techniques (such as deep learning, neural networks and natural-language processing [NLP]). These technologies, which are different from traditional algorithms and programs, make the machines intelligent. Gartner predicts that the applied AI advanced machine learning will inspire applications like robots, autonomous vehicles, consumer electronics, virtual personal assistants, and smart advisors. The smart machines are context & event driven. They will be able to deal with complexities, understand, learn, predict, adapt and act anonymously.

2.Intelligent Apps

Organizations are applying AI and machine-learning techniques to create new apps. Intelligent applications like personal assistants are making our lives easier. Gartner expects that future assistants will be more specialized and equipped with potential to transform the workplaces and homes. Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) make tasks easier and users effective by highlighting important information and interactions, virtual customer assistants (VCAs) help in specialized areas like sales and customer service. Packaged app and service providers are increasingly using AI and machine-learning techniques to deliver more robust systems. Over the course of next 10 years, every application, and service will make use of some kind of AI. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is used in intelligent sensors, smart appliances, operational & security applications, smart enterprise apps etc.

3.Intelligent Things

Intelligent things are the machines that use applied machine learning to interact with the surroundings and people more naturally. Gartner expects that intelligent things like drones, autonomous vehicles and smart appliances will work together in an intelligent and collaborative environment. The autonomous vehicles is used in controlled settings like farming, mining and warehousing etc. Autonomous drones and robots will undergo significant technical evolution powered by new AI and machine-learning models and algorithms. They will be used in defined scenarios and controlled environments. AI and machine learning will increasingly be embedded into everyday things, such as appliances, speakers and hospital equipment etc.

4.Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Presently VR and AR technologies are in nascent phase. They are new wave of computing devices that will transform the way individuals interact with one another and with software systems. Gartner expects that the landscape of immersive consumer applications will evolve at a rapid pace through 2021. They will form a digital network by collaborating with apps, mobile, wearables, and IoT devices and will extend immersive applications beyond isolated and single-person experiences.

5.Digital Twins

Digital twin refers to a dynamic software model that uses sensor data to understand its state. It responds to the changes accordingly and improves its operations. They include a combination of metadata, state, event data, and analytics. Gartner predicts that within 3-5 years, hundreds of millions of things will be represented by digital twins. They will be used for planning and repairing equipment services, predict equipment failure or increase operational efficiency, planning manufacturing processes for operating factories. They will replace the combination of skilled human resources, traditional monitoring devices and will perform enhanced product development.

6.Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers

Blockchain and distributed-ledger concepts are becoming popular as the industry thinks that they hold the power to transform the operating models. Apart from the financial industry, they have future applications in identity verifications, title registry, supply chain, healthcare, music distribution etc. Bitcoin is the only proven blockchain. Its architecture not only supports bitcoin transactions, but also enables authoritative recording of events, immutable snippets of data and simple programmable scripts. They lack scalability, complete transparency, have limitations concerning consumption of resources, Operational risk from unintended centralization of resources (mining) etc. They also bring adoption challenges like lack of standards, robust platforms, scalable distributed consensus systems, interoperability mechanisms. While they have immense potential, Gartner says that they are still in their early alpha or beta testing stage.

7.Conversational Systems

In future, in the conversation interface arena, the focus will shift from chatbots and microphone-enabled devices to the digital meshes that will encompass a wide range of endpoints. According to Gartner, Dynamic natural-language ontologies or knowledge graphs at multiple levels of specificity will be needed to support NLP capabilities, such as disambiguation, concept identification and relationship extraction. Apps will target an orchestrated collection of devices being used together, rather than an individual device used in isolation. This will preserve continuity of user experience across traditional boundaries of devices, time and space. There will be greater cooperative interaction between devices, creating a path for a new ambient digital experience.

8.Mesh App and Service Architecture-

                 The mesh app and service architecture (MASA) is a multichannel solution architecture that supports multiple users in multiple roles using multiple devices and communicating over multiple networks to access application functions. In MASA, mesh app and service architecture, mobile, desktop, and IoT apps are connected to a mesh of back-end service to create an application for the end user. This architecture exposes APIs at different levels balancing the demand for agility and scalability of services. It allows the users to have an optimized solution for endpoints in the digital mesh as well as a continuous experience as they shift across these different channels.

8.Digital Technology Platforms

They act as a basic building block for a digital business. Gartner has specified 5 major focal points that enable new capabilities and model businesses. These points are

Information system platform — Supports the back office, operations such as ERP, core systems, and associated middleware and development capabilities to deliver solutions.

9.Customer experience platform —       
Contains the main customer-facing elements, such as customer and citizen portals, multichannel commerce, and customer apps.

10.Analytics and intelligence platform —
       Contains information management and analytical capabilities. Data management programs and analytical applications fuel data-driven decision making, and algorithms automate discovery and action.

11.IoT platform —
         Connects physical assets for monitoring, optimization, control and monetization. Capabilities include connectivity, analytics, and integration with core and operational technology systems.

12.Business ecosystem platform — 
       Supports the creation of, and connection to, external ecosystems, marketplaces and communities. API management, control and security are the main elements.

##Gartner says that every organization must have a mix of these five factors.

1.Adaptive Security Architecture

The intelligent digital mesh and related digital technology platforms and applications are creating complex world for security. The technology companies will be focusing more on the security applications due to a complex world of interconnected platforms and applications. Organizations will need security-aware application design, application self-protection, user and entity behavior analytics, API protection, and specific tools and techniques to address IoT and intelligent app related vulnerabilities. With the addition of the IoT frontier, slowly, we are observing newer security implications. Security providers will have to factor new remediation tools and processes.

 

Technological development works on the Law of Acceleration, which means that the more advanced the technology is the faster it tends to grow. Here are some of the very trending technologies that are acquiring huge markets in 2019 and will make it big for the future:

2.Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has already created a lot of buzz in recent years, and it continues to be a trend because of its aggressive involvement in every sector of our society and into our lives.

In 1956, few scientist and mathematicians gathered for a meeting at Dartmouth College. A discussion was already taking place about a ‘strange new discipline’ so new that it didn’t even have a name. The ‘Dartmouth-workshop’ which was based on the theory of building machines that could think, kicked off the decades-long quest for Artificial Intelligence.

Currently, ‘narrow’ or basic AIs are everywhere, embedded into games such as Pokemon Go to your Amazon recommendations and weather forecast systems. We are moving forward towards making artificial general intelligence that has the power to outperform humans.

Still, talking about the ‘latest trends,’ AI has started to set its own place in our daily lives. Devices like Alexa and Siri are just a few examples of how artificial intelligence is setting up a trend among people of all ages. Isn’t it weird that we talk to artificial beings and get a valid reply in return!What's weirder is when you people flirt with them virtual beings.

3.Blockchain

Next to AI, Blockchain is the most emerging technology in recent years. Also considered as the ‘new Internet,’ Blockchain is a distributed ledger of economic transactions that are programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.

Blockchain focuses on the decentralization of the whole network which means that there is no third party involved in keeping a record of your data. This database, instead of being stored in a single location, instead are truly public and easily verifiable. As there is no centralized version of this information, it makes it impossible for hackers to corrupt it.

Cryptocurrencies, virtual tokens, digital assets, smart contracts, and initial coin offerings are some of the concepts that reply on Blockchain technology. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to hit the headlines, and it is what relates to the masses when Blockchain or fintech comes up.

We all conduct our lives online — online banking, social media, shopping, apps, and other online services. The core functions of the government and the country’s economy are being executed on the Internet.

Blockchain will slowly but surely grow its presence in the International market.

4.Virtual and Augmented Reality

AR and VR are hot topics in the technology world and has already become mainstream in everyday life. People working in the field of marketing and advertising are going to receive great help through this technology.

To understand the terms better, Virtual Reality or VR refers to complete immersion experience that shuts out the physical world. It is an artificial environment created with software and presented in such a way that the user believes it to be real.

Augmented Reality technology is a technology where the images from the real or physical world are augmented by computer-generated information thus providing a composite view. It provides a computerized image of the real world and other virtual beings can be added into the physical environment. A fine example of this technology is the game Pokemon Go.

These will only get better with the coming years and will be used in different sectors as well as in everyday lives.
        
Every year technology tends to amaze everyone around it with its speed of evolution. There are a few trends whose buzz has been ever growing since the beginning and are still hyped in 2018. They are:

5.VR/ AR - Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality -
            We all heard the buzz of pokemon game where people were out on streets for real to catch a pokemon.

6.User Behaviour Tracking -
             With modern web browsers providing more and more features to attract users towards them. Their behaviour tracking is very important to drive better conversions to any web product.

7.Motion UI -
          A technology that spread in the web design industry like wildfire due to its simplistic deployment and flexible customization. Drawing motion UI has been very helpful in drawing an end user attention to the content on your website.

8.PWA - Progressive Web Apps-
            Ahh! The primary reason overshadowing the popularity of Native applications in recent years. PWA application provides a UI and UX similar to a native application but you don’t have to download or install them into your device storage. They are fully accessible on the internet by typing respective URL in the browser.Blockchain - An incorruptible digital ledger developed for recording transactions related to any cryptocurrency.

9.Webview -
         Meant to ease the 3rd party application promotion through an in-app browser. Now you don’t get pushed onto another 3rd party application, rather an in-app browser pulls the content from the web for you. With the convenience of staying in the intended application. Take Instagram for an instance, where you need to swipe up in some stories and you are redirected to a webpage through an in-app browser, rather than opening the content in chrome, safari, firefox or any other browser. You can navigate the content freely on the redirected webpage by scrolling up/down, zooming in/out or searching for a text.AI and Machine Learning - A field that has been growing enormously. If you are new to the concept of machine learning then the below video will be very helpful in providing you with information on an abstract level.

By:Kaushal Kaphle

Development Of Technology In Nepal

Research By: Kaushal Kaphle

TECHNOLOGY 

Computers came into use in Nepal sporadically since the mid-1980s. But, Nepal has not yet been able to manufacture and export one of its own computers. There is a high rate in the import of computers and peripherals.This information is till 2017 AD.

The development of ICT in Nepal is not considered satisfactory as it still lags behind its minimum ICT infrastructures but the telecom sector, with an exception, has excelled since 2005 and is still developing rapidly with a penetration of above 50%.

With the increase in a number of computers and mobile phone users, there has been an internet penetration of 63% as of Kartik 2074 reported by Management Information system(MIS) which is considered a good number for an underdeveloped country.

One in two Nepalis uses the internet.

Mahabir Pun has played an important role in the penetration of internet to the remote areas of Nepal formulating a Nepal Wireless Networking Project in 2002. It has maximised the use of ICT and improved the social and economic condition of people in rural areas.

One of the remarkable achievements of Nepal is that it has been able to stand on the 22nd position among emerging economies of the world and 1st position among the South Asian countries in the 2018 Inclusive Development Index (IDI) of World Economic Forum (WEF). IDI is based on three pillars – Growth and Development, Inclusion, and Equity- sustainable stewardship of natural and financial resources.

The number of startups in Nepal has significantly grown over past decade with a number of more than a hundred excelling in national as well as international level. To name, a few of them are CloudFactory, F1Soft, Paaila etc. Paaila has been manufacturing service robots in the hospitality industry with its products being Pari, Ginger and many more.

Nepal has also been able to produce capable candidates for outsourcing which is one of the fast-growing exports in Nepal.

Recently, a team from Nepal, RARA BioTech has been able to win the day 1 startup competition in World innovation forum. RARA BioTech is a company currently working on developing an effective prototype of a pregnancy detection kit for cattle.

Despite, these few developments in the technological field in Nepal, Nepal lags far behind the technological research. We consume technology but do no research on it. The public and private sectors are passive in terms of making an investment in the research fields. Thus, we are not able to make any manufacture or invention but making lots of imports.

By:Kaushal Kaphle

Amazon

Amazon (Amazon.com) is the world’s largest online retailer and a prominent cloud services provider. 

The company was originally a book seller but has expanded to sell a wide variety of consumer goods and digital media as well as its own electronic devices, such as the Kindle e-book reader, Kindle Firetablet and Fire TV, a streaming media adapter.

Amazon Web Services(AWS) is a comprehensive, evolving cloud computing platform. The first AWS offerings were launched in 2006 to provide online services for websites and client-side applications. Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3) are the backbone of the company’s large and growing collection of Web services.

Jeff Bezos incorporated the company as Cadabra in 1994 but changed the name to Amazon for the website launch in 1995. Bezos is said to have browsed a dictionary for a word beginning with “A” for the value of alphabetic placement.  He selected the name Amazon because it was “exotic and different” and as a reference to his plan for the company’s size to reflect that of the Amazon River, one of the largest rivers in the world.

Amazon is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The company has individual websites, software development centers, customer service centers and fulfillment centers in many locations around the world.

By:Kaushal Kaphle

Freelance Work

Freelancing:

Freelance work: What you need to know

By:Kaushal Kaphle

Thinking of going freelance?

Whether you’re looking for a job with flexible working hours, you want something with more variety, or you’re just really interested in pursuing a passion you haven’t been able to utilise in your current role – freelancing is a great way to break out of the 9-5 and go it alone.

To give you and insight of what freelancing is all about, here are a few things you should know:

What is freelance work?

Freelance work is a type of self-employment that is carried out on a flexible basis, and provided to a variety of different businesses.

Freelancers could work on big or small projects, both short-term and long-term – depending on what suits their skills, availability, and the employer’s needs.

Typical tasks could include anything from building a website or designing a logo, to writing a weekly blog post or shooting and editing a video.

How does freelancing work?

Usually, employers will get the ball rolling by posting a job or project on a freelance website.

This allows freelancers to contact them, explaining the reasons their skills and abilities make them suitable for this particular role – also stating how much they’d charge.

The employer is then able to choose from a number of proposals to find the best fit, discuss next steps, and come to a mutual agreement on how and when the work will be done. After it’s completed to the required standard, payment will be made.

What jobs can I do freelance?

Almost every service an employer needs can be outsourced to a freelancer.

However, there are certain fields and industries where freelance work is particularly common.