Virtual Reality as the Next Step in Online Learning

With the advancement of technology, virtual reality is being used as a substitute for real classrooms. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many students either weren’t able to go to school or had difficulty traveling for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include, but are not limited to, having a disability or a long commute distance. With so many different circumstances globally to navigate through and work with, the difficulty in finding a mostly encompassing solution was omnipresent. However, as technology continues to improve with its connectivity of people around the world, a new age of learning is being born with virtual reality.

Virtual Reality (VR) is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment. Traditional user interface allows for the experience of interacting with a two dimensional display. The possibilities of utilization are endless, especially with the innovation of computers, laptops, tablets, and phones. Within the last two decades, humans have invented a way to keep almost every aspect of their life in their pocket. However virtual reality has allowed for a giant leap to be taken in terms of human innovation. Instead of viewing a two dimensional display, a headset is placed over the user’s head and they are immersed within a three dimensional world. The possibilities are multiplied tenfold, by allowing the user to be “transported” to any environment they wish to be in. For example, students taking history classes can be virtually placed in the setting they are learning about. Instead of viewing photos of specific landmarks or structures, the computer technology would generate it for the user to be fully immersed in.

While the experience of VR sounds life-changing and desirable, it has several drawbacks. People who live in districts where schools aren’t funded as generously will not get to experience this costly technology. Furthermore, since VR itself is still in its developing stages and only widespread across mainstream media, it will be a long time until the cost will be lowered for the people who cannot afford it. Another problem that arises comes from the experience itself. If users do not exercise moderation, addiction is likely to occur. Being immersed in a different world might create attachments that could become unhealthy if it comes into conflict with reality. For example, a user could end up neglecting their bodily functions of eating, drinking, or sleeping, and would want to spend all of their time in the computer generated reality.

When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, humans had to take a step back and reinvent learning to better adapt to the situation of the world . This was when the term “virtual learning” was born. Students turned from viewing whiteboards to viewing their teacher’s shared screen and notebooks to online note taking. However, even with all of the possibilities that virtual learning had to offer, there was one thing that was missing: the classroom setting itself. As weeks turned to months, and months turned into almost two years, the lack of the necessary environment for optimal learning was affecting both students and teachers alike. The recent and developing solution of virtual reality will ensure that students are immersed in the visual experience as well as receiving an enhanced education.

Crashed US Fighter Jet May Raise New Questions

On January 24, 2022, a US F-35C Fighter jet was launched above the South China Sea, with the simple prospect of routine flight operations. However, soon after, the plane made a premature descent and crashed into the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier. The event spurred only a brief moment of conversation across the US, but also lit a spark of international controversy that presents an uncertain future for the nations involved.

In a statement by the US Pacific Fleet, it was reported that a F-35C Lightning II fighter jet had crashed into an aircraft carrier in a “landing mishap”. Although the pilot had safely ejected out of the vehicle, seven sailors on deck of the carrier had been injured in the crash. Four of them could be treated onboard, but three others required extensive care and had to be evacuated to a facility in the Philippines. The injured were deemed stable, but one uncertainty still remained, as the fighter jet itself had fallen into the ocean and was unable to be recovered.

The fighter jet in question was a recent variant of the F-35, made operational in 2019, and designed as stealth fighters to be launched off of aircraft carriers like the Carl Vinson. The jet was built with the most advanced technology for US fighters, making it a valuable asset to the military. Its recency means that this was the very first time that an F-35C had crashed, which only contributes to the cloud of uncertainty that surrounds the crash.

Another factor that can be considered in this event is the political environment of the launch in the first place. The South China Sea has been allocated as international waters by the United Nations, which means that it is not owned by any single nation. However, the lack of specificity in this definition of ownership has caused disputes between the United States and China, which the sea borders. The United States has asserted that they should be free to navigate and sail through the area without notification due to the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea. However, the Chinese government believes that other nations should not have this jurisdiction, as the sea lies within their “exclusive economic zone”, or EEZ. They have given warnings to the United States after their recent excursion with a USS Benfold warship just a few days before, citing “provocative actions”. This conflict has caused issues as China makes attempts to militarize the islands in the region, and US deploys more missions and vessels like the fighter jet in question.

These tensions have made the crash of the F-35C a problem for the United States, as the recovery of the jet’s technology by other nations such as China could allow them to gain dangerous leverage over the US.

A spokesman from the Pentagon, John Kirby, commented on the issue, saying, “We’re certainly mindful of the value of an F-35 in every respect of what value means, and as we continue to attempt recovery of the aircraft we’re going to do it obviously with safety foremost in mind, but clearly our own national security interests. And I think I will just leave it at that.”

However, according to spokesman Zhao Lijian, the Chinese government isn’t interested in the jet’s technology nor its recovery, and stated, “We have no interest in their aircraft. We urge the country concerned to do things that are conducive to regional peace and stability, rather than flex muscles in the region.”

As the US’s most advanced fighter jet lies at the bottom of international waters, there is an air of uncertainty surrounding the repercussions of the crash of the F-35C. The situation remains in the air, so it is unknown if the situation will affect international tensions or the global balance of power.

Alternate Islamic Apps for Muslims

Since the reports concerning user data leaks in regards to the Islamic app Muslim Pro have been publicized, many new apps have emerged onto the internet. Muslim Pro is one of the most widely known Islamic apps amongst the Muslim community. The app has many features including reminders for daily prayers and recitation of the Quran and its translation. However last year, the company behind Muslim Pro was exposed for selling user data to the United States military. Many Muslim leaders have spoken to the community and urged them to delete the app, but it still exists and functions to this day. New apps have been released to help Muslims with their Islamic practices since then, but the lack of audience that Muslim Pro garnered leaves many skeptical about their credibility.

Muslim Pro has many features to make practicing Islam easier. Besides having the basic necessity of prayer times and easy access to the Quran, there are other smaller features such as locating Halal restaurants within the user’s easy travel vicinity, the ninety nine names of Allah (SWT), and decorated Islamic greeting cards for special occasions such as Eid and Ramadan. However the app was exposed for selling its users’ data to the United States military through a stream of companies promising that their intentions were for combating terrorism and cyber security breaches.

The developers behind Muslim Pro also promised that location data would cease being collected, but many Muslim leaders were not convinced. In a reply to a Muslim Pro tweet, journalist Johana Bhuiyan said, “(to be clear if I sell your location to someone and I know they’re going to sell it to the military, it doesn’t matter if I didnt hand it over to the military myself.)” The responses to the scandal, as well as many users’ promise to delete the app, made it clear that an alternative to Muslim Pro was needed.

There are many apps that exist for the benefit of Muslims, however a lot of them either have been released recently, or have been greatly overshadowed by Muslim Pro’s former audience. Muslim Assistant, Al-Moazin Lite, and Quran Majeed are all great alternatives to Muslim Pro. Muslim Assistant has an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars with well more than five million downloads. Its features include reading and recitation of the Quran and its translation, prayer times, the Adhan, Dhikr counter, Qiblah direction and more. Al-Moazin Lite by Parfield Software also has an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars with almost ten million downloads. Its features are almost the same as Muslim Assistant, however it omits Dhikr counter and has an addition of the Hijrah calendar. Finally, Quran Majeed by Pak Data has an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars with almost five million downloads. Its features include the Quran and its translation in over forty languages, eighteen reciter options, Hijrah calendar, and prayer times. There are many options available for Muslims in regards to Islamic apps, it is just a matter of clicking the download button now.

COVID-19 Update: The Omicron Variant and Staying Safe

It has almost been two years since COVID-19 devastated the globe and swept up our political, social, and educational lives. In that time, people lived in a very different world as they worked from their homes, took classes online, wore masks, and socially distanced themselves. Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep across the world in different nations and variations. As it continues to survive, it evolves as all living organisms do, forcing people to work around its changes in order to protect themselves. As the Omicron Variant rises and the world tries to move forward, it is important to keep informed of this deadly pandemic.

Curing a pandemic, especially on this large of a scale, is not a simple task, especially due to the birth of variants. As a pandemic spreads and reacts to people, new conditions, medicines, etc., it mutates, which allows it to evolve and adapt based on its surroundings. Sometimes, this can alter the virus greatly and create a variant, which was the case in South Africa, the birthplace of the Omicron Variant.

The strain was first reported on November 24, 2021 to the World Health Organization, or WHO, in South Africa and Botswana, but it didn’t make its way to the United States until December 1, 2021, when it was declared a “Variant of Concern” by the CDC. Since then, the variant has continued to spread across the US, and cases have been recorded in 45 of the 50 states, including New Jersey.

What is the difference between the original strain of COVID-19 and the Omicron Variant? It is important to note that the recent emergence of Omicron means that we do not know enough about it to make definitive conclusions at this time. However, authorities do know what it takes to start fighting this newest variant of COVID-19. Firstly, the variant can spread far faster than the original. In only a few weeks the Omicron variant has spread globally and is resisting the measures that were developed to fight the coronavirus. Secondly, according to the CDC, “anyone with Omicron infection can spread the virus to others, even if they are vaccinated or don’t have symptoms”. So, even if a person is vaccinated, they still need to stay safe by wearing masks and keeping away from germs.

What does the near future look like with the rise of COVID-19 cases? The United States’ current reigning expert on the virus, Anthony Fauci stated, “I don’t foresee the kind of lockdowns that we’ve seen before but I certainly see the potential for stress on our hospital system,”. However, the situation is constantly evolving and changing, so everyone should stay up-to-date with the latest information on the state of the world and the virus. Keep in mind that the COVID-19 issue is far from over as variants continue to pop up.

As schools are allowing their students to return to the building, it is imperative to understand how to stay safe in this environment. Students should remember to be extremely careful and aware when dealing with the pandemic, and heed instruction given to them by their administration. The CDC has issued statements about always wearing masks in social situations, and to remain careful when interacting with other students. As stated earlier, the Omicron Variant can still spread to vaccinated people, so even if you have been vaccinated, it is still recommended to follow these procedures. Be aware and stay safe.

What is Metaverse? Facebook Changes its Corporate Name

On Thursday, October 28th, Facebook announced that it has changed its corporate name to Meta. Facebook is a popular social media platform that enables its users to express themselves via customizable profiles. Users are able to use a variety of features on the platform, including posting pictures, videos, or simply their thoughts on any subject. For almost two decades, the company has dominated the social media landscape. Its name grew to be known internationally, becoming easily the most dependable source of information and communication. However, it recently changed its name to Meta, to reflect the new direction of the company’s ambition.

Facebook was the first major social media platform that not only allowed its users to communicate with one another but express themselves creatively via profiles. Its ability to showcase one’s personality, interests, and passions through pictures, videos, and texts attracted young people. It created a relatively secure and aesthetically pleasing environment for young people to connect with not only themselves but the world. Because of the outlook that Facebook projected to the world with its platform, the company grew to an international audience. The platform is used by almost three billion people worldwide.

On Thursday, October 28th, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced at the Facebook Connect Augmented and Virtual Reality Conference that it has changed its company name to Meta. The name Meta comes from the term “metaverse”. It originated from Neal Stephenson, a science fiction writer, in his 1992 novel Snow Crash. The novel covered many aspects and innovations of society including linguistics, anthropology, computer science, cryptography, and more. “Metaverse” is a term used by enthusiasts of the book to describe the immersive nature of virtual spaces. These virtual spaces have the capacity to host and play games, meet with friends and colleagues, purchase digital goods, and enjoy the generated three-dimensional world. In regards to the variety of services seen in potential products, Zuckerberg says, “Today we’re seen as a social media company. But in our DNA, we are a company that builds technology to connect people. And the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started.”

Virtual reality, or VR, refers to the simulated experience that can be similar to or entirely different from the real world. With the use of a headset that is placed over the eyes, one can look around and interact with the artificial world and its features. Zuckerberg showcased this at the conference by projecting on a big screen the artificial world he saw via virtual reality equipment. He said to investors that, “many billions of dollars for years to come.” He also said, “We are fully committed to this. It is the next chapter of our work and, we believe, for the internet overall.”

However changing names, especially a company that has almost three billion people worldwide using its services, yields a variety of responses and results. Speculators express that Zuckerberg’s decision to change the company name is because of his desire to cut ties with the negativity associated with the name Facebook. Like many widely known companies, Facebook has faced security breaches and scandals. Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights said, “The name change from Facebook to Meta may make sense from a commercial marketing perspective, but it’s also a blatant attempt to distance Mark Zuckerberg’s company from growing outrage over the harm it is causing to democracy in the U.S. and around the world.” Zuckerberg responded to this and statements of similar nature and said that he is simply reorienting the outlook of the company to appeal to young adults. This is because the audience that grew up with the original Facebook is now in their late twenties to early thirties.

The World’s Dependency on Social Media: Major Facebook Outage

On Monday, October 4th, Facebook suffered a major outage. Facebook is a popular website that enables its users to create free profiles and connect with people around the world. It includes a posting feature used to showcase pictures, videos, or simply thoughts the user has about anything. Facebook and its family of apps including Instagram and Whatsapp were inaccessible on the global scale. Although for only a few hours, it brought great awareness to the immense dependency of a single social media company, and social media in its entirety.

Facebook in the early 2000’s was the most popular social media platform. It was the first major platform to allow its users to express themselves creatively through pictures, videos, and text. It’s popularity was due to the fact that it created a secure environment for relatively young people to find their inner voice and publicize it. Similar to how older generations decorated their rooms with posters of their favorite bands or celebrities, Facebook enabled its users to create their “comfort space” virtually.

Facebook however, is not the only platform that the company owns. Its jurisdiction spreads to other social media and communication apps. Instagram, which is commonly used by younger people, is very similar to Facebook in terms of online profiles and posting features. WhatsApp is a messaging app that allows its users to do a multitude of things. Unlike older messaging platforms that only had features such as sending and receiving messages, WhatsApp allows its users to record voice messages, make calls, and share images, documents, location, and more content.

On Monday, October 4th, around 11:40 A.M. Eastern standard time, users reported that Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp were displaying error messages. In a matter of minutes Facebook disappeared from the internet. Mobile versions of each of the respective social media platforms displayed an infinite loading screen. Facebook released a statement expressing their apologies saying, “To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we're sorry," Along with this statement they also said, “We've been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now.” Their efforts to get the app running as soon as possible paid off. A little over six hours later, the platforms started coming back online.

The complete shutdown of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp lasted only a few hours, but its effects on its users were drastic. For people who were earlier mentioned to find a great comfort in their social media platforms, anxiety was increasing by the clock. People felt very disconnected from the world, and even fled to other social media platforms to express their concerns. Others worried about not being in touch with their loved ones via WhatsApp. To add onto the already tense environment, many wondered why nothing was working, speculating that it could be a data breach.

For those with businesses that heavily relied on exchanges being made via social media, the outage was absolutely devastating. Many companies suffered from financial loss as a result from not being able to advertise their products using posting features on Instagram and Facebook. Small business owners could not get in touch with their customers regarding inquiries or package tracking information. While many people suffered, some called this period of silence a blessing. Having a break from the world and its people allowed a moment of peace. Perhaps it gave the opportunity to reconnect with the material world after having the virtual world in one’s hands too long. However people reacted to the outage, the drastic nature of the effects were clear.

Outages have not been unfamiliar with Facebook before. In the past, Facebook has addressed outages and bugs. This time was no different. In the later hours of the same Monday, the Vice President of Facebook Infrastructure, Santos Janardhan, released a statement saying, “Our engineering teams have learned that configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centers caused issues that interrupted this communication. This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centers communicate, bringing our services to a halt.” In simpler terms, their service was down due to a disconnect that had a huge impact on the company’s data centers. However, while the data centers themselves were what needed to be fixed, Janardhan promised that no user data was compromised before and during the attempts to bring their services back.

The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, later released a statement, expressing his regrets of the platforms going down, as well as his thanks for the billions of people that depend on the company and its services.