About IDmap
Letter from the Principal:
To You, Your Avatar(s) and Your computer….
My dear Reader,
Here it comes. Few days ago I received a fascinating commercial ad of a new soft marketed as Web 2.0 Marketing Small Business Solution. The soft advertized was supposed to crawl the web, harvest email addresses, extract private and family names out of the emails, create a random personal letter and a commercial offer based on the main keywords of my corporate site and track the users responses through sophisticated CRM. Statistics talks and numbers will become clients as my digital products will be sold through Internet payment gateways and my virtual business account would top-up with millions of greens.
I was about to click on the “Buy now!!!!!!” button though I didn’t have a finger. I could not complete the transaction because I’ve been virtual the same as the sender of the amazing commercial offer. As Peter Steiner put it almost two decades ago “On the Internet, nobody knew I’m a Dog”. I’m not a real Me, just a configuration of certain amount of kilobytes pondering somewhere there between the physical and the imagined realities.
And yet, do I have a chance to become real? The answer is positive and it can be occure through meaningful human interaction entitled Learning or Internet based learning – the eLearning.
Let me explain this thought more profoundly. I strongly believe that it is the sharing of the personal knowledge combined with the individual experience that will become the unique feature that will diverge us from computers and programming packages in the range of few decades. We [the humans] would be able to value a picture of a friend on a sunset in Fuji; a comparative and applicable experience of the neighbor sending her CVs to potential employers; the banking service estimation article comparing few town banks provided by young student in the similar situation like ours and so on.
Humans have much more identification categories and patterns that any computer program can be able to proceed and our learning process is much more sophisticated than simple trace-and-combine computer process. Basically, in IDmap we believe that the real eLearning would develop when the knowledge would be presented on few identity levels: the general all recognizable and acceptable terms; the specific industry or academic field terminology and vocabulary and finally, the specific cultural and traditional jargon which will emotionally connect learners to the content.
I recall a situation when a College Secretary called me just a couple of days before the term begins and said “You have two classes of Organizational Decision Making course scheduled for this week: one is of newbie’s BA and the other one is of Senior Managers of Health sector. Don’t worry”, she said, “that’s exactly the same course”… Well, it’s not. Technically may be, the topics of the course would be the same, but actually I would need to prepare totally different courses which will base on totally different background of the audience. The identifying factors of age, gender, personal and professional experience would be different so I’ll need to prepare two different programs. And this is what eLerning is about.
In the Institute of Identity Research (IDmap) we make a modest attempt to develop identity based approach to the eLearning, suggesting that any valuable learning is possible only when a student can feel comfortable and comply with the advancement of the studies. For these purposes we use SCORM and Advanced Distributed Learning software, combine live lessons and recorded materials and try to establish instant connection with the students.
We welcome anyone who is interested in sharing knowledge and eLearning to join our network as researchers, assistants or students.
Yours truthfully (me myself)
Dr. Marina Shorer-Zeltser, PhD
Our Research Projects:
Diasporic Networks
Chinese food restaurants are no longer located in the heart of Beijing but rather in the suburbs of London, New York, Buenos Aires and Warsaw. This is possible because recipes to Chinese delicacies are just a click away from anywhere on the globe. Through the Internet, diasporic communities are getting a chance to participate in socio-political activities that transcend national boundaries. From trading on the stock markets, participating in political debates to holding chat sessions with friends, the list of what one can do through the Internet is endless.
This development has opened new possibilities in the area of Identity. Scholars argue that such transnational interactions among Diasporic communities lead to hybridized cultural identities. This is because new cultural attachments beyond those of national identities have been formed through the Internet. So the next time you see Sushi on a menu, do not assume you are in Japan, you could as well be in the jungles of Africa.
Neuro-linguistic programming
According to Jean Nidetch, “Its choice, not chance, that determines your destiny.” Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a communication model that can help us make the right behavioral choices in order to determine our destiny. NLP helps us to shape our identities by allowing us to change, adopt or eliminate behaviors as we desire. It is a program that allows us to choose our mental, emotional, and physical states of well being thereby allowing us to become proficient at creating our futures.
NLP utilizes a set of techniques or strategies to help us in enhancing our communication skills and personal influence. This means that it provides us with a set of guiding values, approaches, and techniques about real life behavior. NLP therefore aims to increase behavioral and emotional flexibility by instruction in using language, imagination, and the body.
Terror and the Internet
It has often been argued that terrorists thrive on the publicity they receive from the media. This being the case, the Internet has made this scenario even worse. Terrorists have a lot to celebrate about the nature of the Internet today. This is because it offers them easy access, vast potential audiences, anonymity of communication and no regulation whatsoever.
Terrorists have therefore used the Internet to achieve several of their goals that include recruitment, fundraising and sharing information. The fight against terror on the Internet has for a long time been an uphill task. This is because the Internet is an embodiment of the democratic ideals of free speech and open communication. To fight terrorism, it is therefore important that our governments and the public in general become informed about the uses to which terrorists put the Internet.
Identity Algorithm
Since most Internet users identify themselves by means of pseudonyms rather than their real names, online identities can be best described as malleable. This makes it difficult for governments or online businesses to authentically identify a person over the internet. Consequently, identification has become a major problem on the internet since it creates room for cyber crimes such as identity theft, cyber terrorism, electronic vandalism and extortion.
Identity Algorithm is therefore a project that builds a profile of a person who wants to be identified. To establish identity, this program uses computer programs to analyze different aspects of human identity such as ethnicity, gender, age and social status. This program helps in reducing online crimes such as stealing money and other benefits by pretending to be someone else or by hiding real identities.
Identity Algorithm is a project builds a profile of a person who wants to be identified. We will use computer programs to analyze different aspects of human identity such as ethnical, gender, age and social status. These profiles will be mainly used for governmental and commercial usages helping preventing Cyber-crimes such as fishing, stilling identity and Cyber-terrorism. The logic behind the development of the Algorithm is that a computer will be likely to make a decision to initiate information sharing, even before human receiver are even aware of the information sent.
Specifically we will apply the search identity, combinatorial algorithms and machine learning algorithms for better analysis of the data existing on the person to be identified.
Research Collaborations
Identity Research opportunities:
- Governmental
- Non-governmental
- Public.
As our institute continues to grow, we are increasingly striving to tackle scientific problems spanning the entire spectrum of research in the field of identity. We also realize that it is through promoting collaboration that innovation can be best achieved in a more and more complex research arena in the future. We are therefore ready to make clear our research objectives and lines of accountability in order to maintain a close and positive relationship with governments and other major funding sources. We also insist on working in alliance with governments and other research institutes because we appreciate the fact that research is becoming more interdisciplinary. This means that it is becoming ever more important for researchers to work together to achieve a larger scale in their research efforts.
Commercial applications
Market Value of on-line learning
Why an Online degree?
The next big killer application for the Internet is going to be education. Education over the Internet is going to be so big it is going to make email usage look like a rounding error.(John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, 2000). Over the past decade, there has been an increased investment in e-learning initiatives which appears to have occurred as a reaction to the view that higher education is in crisis. The crisis revolves around three issues – access to education, the cost of providing education, and dwindling public revenues (Daniel, 1997; Johnstone, 1992).
Daniel (1997; p.14) further believes that “technology provides the most fertile ground for growing these key ingredients of university renewal: lower costs and unique attractions.” Bates (1997) believes there are four reasons for using technology in higher education;
- To improve the quality of learning;
- To improve access to education and training;
- To reduce the costs of education; and
- To improve the cost-effectiveness of education.
At the beginning of the 21st Century, the U.S. Depart of Education commissioned a report to find out more about distance learning. Here are some of the statistics the report revealed;
One-third of all post-secondary schools offer distance learning courses.
8% of post-secondary schools offer college-level degree orcertificate programs completely through distance learning.
55% of 2-year and 4-year institutions offer college-level credit-granting distance learning courses at either the undergraduate or graduate level.
The top 3 technologies used to deliver courses involved internet-based, two-way interactive video, and one-way prerecorded video.
According to the report, prospective students consider joining the online schools because of a number of advantages that they have over the traditional face to face learning. Most of them make the decisions based on the following key factors;
Convenience- they can study at their own time and pace
They can keep their existing job while they study
They do not have to leave their families and live on a campus
They have round-the-clock access to the many facilities of their college via their internet connection
Online degree programs generally cost less.
The report further outlines that academic institutions are now increasing the number of online courses so as to increase global student registration. They courses are also cost effective as there is no need to invest in infrastructure facilities such as lecture halls, offices, libraries and student accommodation. All that is needed is a web page and lectures who can disseminate knowledge from any part of the world.
Green & Gilbert (1995) noted, “the stated hope is that computing and information
technologies will yield new levels of institutional and instructional ‘productivity.’ The stated expectation is that the infusion or integration of new technologies into instruction will, at minimum maintain and ideally enhance student learning while significantly reducing instructional costs.”
Research Community
Institute of Identity Research is a part of a Research community devoted to the study of Identity formation. Our colleagues work in different areas and we are happy to contribute in common research.
Cooperation in research is a necessary condition of the modern academic life. It is not so rear to find that the inventions or theoretical developments made in one part of the globe are published simultaneously in another part of it. It is also useful to share ideas, while the researchers can make some real contribution while working together.
Our Institute sees itself as a part of large academic community. The following list is the list is one which partly illustrates the organizations we share ideas with and receive and share the research information: