Final Reflection

            I have to admit, I was not entirely sure where this class was going or what the outcomes were when we first started doing the classroom activities. The activities that I really benefited from were the visual learning tools, aka, Screencast-o-matic and VoiceThread lessons, and how to use Google Sites and Google Docs. Since we went over these tools, I used them throughout my semester for class work, and within my organization. I also use Animoto since I learned how to use it in this class. A disadvantage to these classroom activities was the mode of instruction. I really wish the classroom was designed better so that we could face the front of the classroom and follow along with the instructor. I think having the computers set up so that our backs were to the front added an extra difficulty to gaining skills in these new technology programs.

            I really liked having these classroom activities leading into the group projects. Knowing how to use these technologies really helped me produce creative ideas for our project. I also liked working in that capacity in a group. Creating a visual presentation was easy to do independently, and then come together and synthesize our portions of the presentation to make them a cohesive visual that communicated the content of the book. However, I didn’t really care for Misa’s book. While it was extremely informative, I don’t see how it helped me to understand how to use technologies in education. I would have liked more readings like Web Tool 2.0, but that went in more depth with detailed examples, of how to integrate certain technologies in higher education.

            I really enjoyed reading Carr’s and Shirky’s books. They were really interesting and helped me understand how new technologies displace old technologies. I really like discussing the difference in how each generation thinks or learns as a result of technological advances. I could especially relate to Carr’s book about the convenience of technology and how this convenience changes the functionality of the brain. These two authors gave me a better understanding of why we as educators need to integrate new technologies in classrooms and educational institutions.

            Working on this last group project, I learned a lot about iPads and their functionality in the classroom. I never considered all the possibilities iPads had to offer in the facilitation of learning in the classroom. I think it could be a great version of project based learning, which is something I really believe in. Hands-on and active learning, I believe, are the best ways to absorb information and practice the knowledge one acquires. I really didn’t like using Wikispaces as the technology tool for displaying our final papers. The formatting was annoying. If I would make changes and save, the formatting would save as something other than how I left it in edit mode. I just don’t think Wikispace is the most useful of the tools for this last assignment.

            Overall, I wish we could have spent more time on Diigo and Google Sites. I think these two technology tools would have been more beneficial in my future organization in higher education. I also think it would have been useful for other students in this class to view a presentation on Smart Boards. I know not every school will use the same technologies, but I think everyone should at least have some familiarity with Smart Boards. I also think this class should have more hands on class activities, in a lab format with everyone facing the front, and less readings. The more we use technologies hands on, the more I find myself using them on a regular basis, like VoiceThread and Animoto.

Technology or Sociology?

The statement “You can judge a book by its cover” certainly did not apply to Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. Looking at its cover and title, I really had no idea what this book was going to be about. I wouldn’t have even known it was about technology if it wasn’t a book required for this technology course.

In chapter one, Shirky (2010) discusses how, in the wake of the industrial revolution, people in society came across, what he called, a cognitive surplus. Essentially, it is something that occurred out of the opportunity of an excess of free time being “disconnected from talent,” (Shirky, 2010). Shirky (2010) discusses how people nowadays passively participate in activities in their free time, i.e. watching television, rather than actively engaging in something involving engagement and energy like writing or creating a new idea.

As I read through this first chapter, I was increasingly finding myself taking offense to Shirky’s comments. But I had to stop myself and think, why? Why am I so bothered by him blatantly disregarding the statement: “Where do people find the time?” I am one of those busy people. As a full time graduate student, holding a part time internship, part time job, being actively involved in 2-3 student groups on campus at any given point, having a family and being a first time homeowner, I often feel as though I am stretched thin and don’t get the time to do the things I always want to do. Yet Shirky (2010) is right, we do somehow find the time to watch television in our “billions” of hours of free time. The author seems to express distaste in the passive engagement in media and watching television. I understand why, but it is difficult not to be offended since I am part of the majority of people who watch television.

Moving into chapter two discussing the means of cognitive surplus, I begin to question the basis of this book. Is this a book about technology? Or is it really a sociological perspective on how society uses technology and assigns meaning to its involvement in our lives? At this point I find myself enjoying the read and noticing that industrialization and the invention of the printing press are brought into this conversation of regarding technology. At this point in our course work I will never doubt that the two single most powerful events in the history of technology is the industrial revolution in England and the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg.

I really enjoyed Shirky’s (2010) discussion on the Gutenberg economics. As a sociology undergraduate, it is very interesting to me to see the progression of cultural change through advancement of technology. “The low quality material that comes with increased freedom accompanies the experimentation that creates the stuff we will end up prizing,” (page 51). From the printing press to social media, Shirky argues that the more average quality work becomes socially acceptable, it allows for more “junk” to be produced. However, “the best work becomes better than ever before,” (page 51) making sifting through that junk worthwhile to find those few treasures.

I agree with Shirky’s statements. I not only can compare this to reading, but mostly to my hobby of being a movie fanatic. The more I see crappy movies, the more movies I want to watch to fine that next big box office hit. Once I discover it, I watch it over and over again, critiquing it, comparing it to other well-made classics that I possess in my movie collection and discussing it with peers. Of course watching movies is something that has changed too: from VHS to DVD to Bluray high definition to 3-D. With 3-D, watching movies has become something that involves the participant, like Shirky discusses about cognitive surplus awareness.

“How many places are there where someone’s free choice of activities matters much to anyone but the individual? In an age when our free time and talents are joint resources the answer is ‘Everywhere’,” (page 74, Shirky, 2010). Shirky (2010) discusses in chapter three the importance of motivation for cognitive surplus. He believes that a person either needs an extrinsic motivation, like money or love, to accomplish a task, or intrinsic motivation, like an activity that is personally fulfilling (Shirky, 2010).

This portion of the book makes me think of my career choice in the field of education. I have chosen to further my education, opening up my employment opportunities in an already troubling economy. In order to further my education, I am taking out loans, putting myself further into debt. However, there will hopefully be a pay-off for me when I am finished: a permanent position in higher education. While I will presumably be making more money with a master’s degree than just having a bachelor’s degree, I find this debatable. I initially was a pre-law student in my undergrad program in Milwaukee and my first career goal was to go to law school and be a practicing attorney. After further reflection and two law internships, I decided that law wasn’t for me and that the field of education was.

Clearly, my motivation behind this decision was not extrinsic since law pays a considerably larger salary than education. However, it is the intrinsic reward of helping students, like myself, achieve their educational goals that I find very self satisfying. Relating this back to technology, I think about blogging. Why would people post information or life stories to let anyone read without paying for a book, novel, or memoir at the local bookstore? Or why would people create programs and post them on websites for people to use for free instead of selling them? What is their motivation? I think Shirky’s (2010) theory of intrinsic rewards remain true here; people allow other people to use things for free for the pure fact that people are finding use for them and they are actively engaging in something they enjoy.

Shirky (2010) also discusses people needing the opportunity to access the resources to participate in these voluntary activities and discusses how this changes people in society and their culture. To wrap this up “The real change comes from our awareness that this surplus creates unprecedented opportunities, or rather that it creates an unprecedented opportunity for us to create those opportunities for each other,” (page 184, Shirky, 2010). This is the new way of participating in our free time: using our best knowledge to help each other, whether that is blogging or creating free open source software. I really like Shirky’s (2010) end note about media and technology that needs to include us actively, either using a mouse or using a skill or using your voice. Overall, Shirky’s opinions are very intriguing for me and I didn’t mind this read at all.

Melting Brain Matter?

“Not even McLuhan could have foreseen the feast that the Internet has laid before us; one course after another, each juicier than the last, with hardly a moment to catch our breath between bites,” (Page 4, Carr, 2011). This a very vivid image Nicholas Carr draws in his book, entitled What the Internet is doing to our Brains: The Shallows, as he begins to critique the affect the internet has on the human brain’s functionality. As I read this sentence, I thought, wow, this is very true. With each new technological advancement in the internet, and now, mobile internet, we have to taste it and digest it, and get used to the new diet.

Carr (2011) explains that in the past his research used to take days of reading and sorting through periodical, and that now, with the help of technology and the internet, can take minutes with the help of Google and other internet databases. I’m from the generation that is considered “Generation Next” or the “Millenial Generation” which essentially means that I have been brought up with the Internet. Honestly, I can’t even remember or picture life without it. I can’t even begin to fathom what it was like to write a research paper for class before the age of personal computers. It is a horrifying thought because I can’t even think about how I could fit something like that into my schedule because I’m so busy with, not only being a full time student, but also working full time as an intern in various departments on campus. It also makes me reflect upon students that have families. How would they find time or arrange child care to be able to use the library and conduct research for their projects and papers in the age before personal computers? Where can anyone really find time to research in their busy schedules unless they are a traditional-aged student that doesn’t work or have any other familial responsibilities?

Discussing the convenience of the Internet in the education field lead me to think of online colleges and online coursework, such as our own hybrid program for Educational Leadership Masters of Science. How convenient is it to have a Masters program that is full time, but offers only a part time time committment for class work! I wonder how many students that are in the program wouldn’t be able to be if it wasn’t a hybrid course. I know, for me, if the Educational Leadership program was a full time, traditional style of meeting for classes, I wouldn’t be able to do all the internships and extra responsibilities that I take on in order to have the hands on experience in the higher education field.

Carr (2011) muses about how the convenience of the Internet has changed his attention span for being able to read full novels. He discusses how his mind wonders and decides to do other tasks online. I often find myself having the same attention span problem with sitting down and turning everything off to read or write for homework purposes. I find myself taking a break every fifteen minutes to check my email or go on Facebook or a lot of the time I chat on Google chat or Facebook chat while I’m simultaneously doing homework. Simultaneously chatting or searching the web, or taking breaks to do so, while work on homework helps me to concentrate more on getting things done. Otherwise I find my mind wondering to other things after I start reading or writing for homework, and I remain unfocused and never accomplish too much in the time I have, just as Carr describes. Besides for the convenience factor, according to neuroscientists, the Internet does affect the brain and the way it functions because the mind is always changing and a “work in progress” (Carr, 2011).

“Every technology is an expression of human will. Through our tools, we seek to expand our power and control over our circumstances--over nature, over time and distance, over one another,” (Page 44, Carr, 2011). As Carr (2011) discussed regarding Nietzsche’s writings with a type writer instead of hard writing, the tools we use to read and write influence our mind’s thinking as well as we work with those tools to complete tasks. Convenience and technology can enhance and sometimes even give us the ability to express ourselves more fervorently and passionately. I see this occurring with people that blog and post statuses on various social media and blogging websites. More and more the Internet and technology tests the boundaries (if there are any) of the first amendment’s freedom of speech. People are discussing more controversial things in a very open matter, with a no holds bar mentality. Now a days, anyone can post anything that’s on their mind, and it just exists, in internet “space” and people can choose to read it or not read it. But those whose blogs do get a lot of attention from readers and audiences, can tend to get published in a more official sense, i.e. book deals.

“The great danger we face as we become more intimately involved with our computers--as we come to experience more of our lives through the disembodied symbols flickering across out screens--is that we’ll begin to lose out humanness, to sacrifice the very qualifities that separate us from machines,” (Page 207, Carr, 2011). Carr (2011) discusses Weizenbaum’s remedy to avoid this is through exercising your intellectual side of your mind by doing “tasks that demand wisdom,” (Page 208). For me, I think this would include reading literature and discussing and analyzing it with people; talking about my ideas and communicating them orally to colleagues and supervisors; problem-solving through issues and barriers; faciliating face-to-face events with students, staff, and colleagues. I already take part in most of this activities on a weekly basis, and even though I am on the computer and Internet for most of my day for work and school, I think having the social, face-to-face aspect of my job and education keeps my brain from melting.

Overall, Carr’s book was an entertaining read, much more so than Misa’s book. I liked that he had many colorfully written metaphors and examples, but it wasn’t too heavy on the history. It was interesting to read his perspective of Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press. I thought it was also curious to see how Carr believes technology heavily affects culture and society. Carr was definitely a better read than Misa.

Loved Doing Group Presentations

Chapter one was about Leonardo Da Vinci as and Johann Gutenberg as inventors, and huge cultural shift for producing technology during the dark ages as a result of the invention of the printing press. Da Vinci had many technological “dreams” that he could not produce as a result of the lack of technological advances. Once Joann Gutenburg invented the printing press the speed of information dissemination radically changed and allowed inventors to share information. Furthermore, the court system made knowledge assessible to the population with print contracts for  royal bulletin, university texts, and political propaganda, and the royals influenced the general population in receiving the knowledge by creating social trends.Significant impact on technology, vastly more and radically fast and reduced cost of books. In this sense, infromation sharing through the printing press became profitable and technology could advance at faster speeds.

Chapter two is about The Dutch Golden, the expansion of commence and international trading, and capitalism motivated technological change. Louis De Geer (1587–1652) was an industrialist and considered the father of Swedish industry because of his mining and engineering advances in technology. The Dutch revolutized trading with new technology for ships, international trading traffic routes, a self sustaining fish hatchery, sugar labor force in Brazil and Atlantic slave trade, new banking policies with money exchanges instead of a paper promise, and a barter system including pottery, flowers, textiles, and several types of foods and livestock. Dutch capitalism motivation technological advances and in turn revolutionized the world’s society and culture of commerce and utilizing international goods.

Chapter three discusses Great Britain’s industrial economical growth with the start of the first  industrial revolution. Early factories were powered by water, animals, or humans, not steam, until James Watt (1736-1819) invented the first engine powered by steam and it began to run factories increasing production of goods and profits. The first industrial revolution began in England because it rich despoits of iron and coal, reliable source of water, English colonies supplied the market with cotton, and the English had a large market for manufactured goods. The demand of manurfactured goods stimulated industry. As the cost of production rose, manufactures found new ways to meet the increased demands for the manufactured products with new technological advances such as porter brewers, canals transporters, Spinning Jenny, cotton gin, steam boat, road, cement, railways, and trains. Chapter four discusses how the invention of railways, telegraphs, and roads civilzed the British Empire changed it economic, social, and political systems as did the Industrial revolution.

Chapter five talked about the importance of technological advances in the Second Industrial Revolution of 1870. Science based industry created a greater consumer society which was the dawn of corporate market and collaboration of with university research, government agencies, and industries, the second Industrial Revolution created an age of science and systems. With the discovery of the active ingredient in coal and the invention of a dye using the synthetic version of that ingredient, synthetic and chemical science took over from the natural on a massive scale with the help of Jacob Perkins, who was considered the father of the industry of chemisty, and his factory factory. This discovery of creating synthetic chemicals in massive quantities led to the creation of organic chemistry, artificial fertilizers and eventually chemical warfar. Thomas Edison and the Edison electric company, later known as Edison General Electric, began the age of computers with the invention of the light bulb, the electical grid and later on the Network Analyer, an analog computer. These inventions were the birth of organized capitalism by industrials, scientists, and engineers driven by competition and demand for the product. Engineering emerged as a professional and not just an assistant to military. Research laboratories, patent litigation, and capital and science based industries partnered with professionals like the industrists and university scientists working with Inventors, designers,  and engineers on developing new technologies changed the production of technology forever.

My group did chapter six, and it is about Eurrope’s Moderism movement and how it affected home construction and home making as industries. Chapter seven covers 1936-1990

and talks about technological and chemical warfre like the Atomic Bomb that the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and how technological advances such as digital computing helped further technological advances. The US was not the only ones that developed chemical warfare. Chapter seven also talked about computer chips, transitors, and high frequency radars which was invented by the US and English together. As a result jobs were created to build weapons, and buildings and factories were built for warfare. The military played a huge role in the development of technology in this period more so than any other period which resulted in a lot of waste.

Chapter eight talked about globalization of the world and how technology is the driving force of eoncomics and culture. Globalization helped with regulations for workers and brought some third world countries out of proverty. Globalizion is attributed to the lost of diverse cultures world wise and the loss of identity. Fax machines couldn’t communicate with one another until the 1990s and helped diverse companies to operate with one another. Chapter eight also discussed the negative impacts of fast food technologies on people and labor and the World Wide Web and it’s several view points for the creation of the internet. ARPAnet is the prototype of the internet of connecting different networks. Military needed to integrate communication networks and internet was the solution to this problem. Computers progressively got smaller from the 60s to a room size to to the 90s so that consumers could purchase personal computers. With the creation of the personal computer market came electronic mail and the domain name system. Email allowd the sending and receving of data files on the World Wide Web.

Chapter nine covered the years of 2001-2011 and discussed the technology of the World Trade Centers and terrorism. The World Trade Towers were 110 stories with an experiemental design in order for the US to have bragging rights to the biggest building. This chapter also covers unstustainable energy, information networks and global shipping. Unsustainable energy is cheap and abundant energy caused by fossil fuel consumption and gives off harmdul emissions and contributes to global warming. As a result, E-85 was developed but caused more problems with food prices (corn) and led to food riots in Mexico which caused more Mexicans to cross oer into the US. Hackers make information networks more vulnerable causing cyber warfare and security threats for shipping and receiving causing delays. It takes immerse work and substantial creativity to make a secure world and needs a solution to the consantly evolving world.

Chapter ten summed up all the other chapters in Misa’s book adding in his own conclusions and comentaries. He discusses technology’s broad used and flexibilities with varieties of technology changing over time, and how it interacts with societies and cultures. The key idea is that technology influences the future of society social and political understandings. There isn’t a simple on size fits all definition that explains technology’s impact on society. In the modernist view, “science is the machine that propels the modern world” (page 300, Misa, 2011) Misa discusses that science did not drive technological innovations during the eras of industry, commerce, and courts. Misa explains that today, there are numerous interactions between university research and industrial innovation, specifically with the sciences of chemistry and physics. Science is useful, but is not requires for technological advances in society.

Chapter ten also discusses the displacement  of technology and the process of one technology getting displaced for a new one. This is one way culture is affected by technology. Displacement “is how societies, through their technologies, orient themselves toward the future and, in a general way, direct themselves down certain social and cultural paths,” (page 311, Misa, 2011). Many times these technological displacements are met with resistance, and many people or actors in society play a role in either hindering technology, or driving it forward, and rarely is it one single group of people that forces technology through the future. Many dominant and non-dominant actors legitmitze their power and place in society using technology as a tool for success. Dominant actors strive for dominance throught the mobilization of technology.

Technology by itself does not cause change, “it is a mistake to believe that technology by itself “causes” change, because as argued above technology is not only a force for but also a product of social and cultural change” (page 314, Misa, 2011). There is a digital divide between rich societies and poor countries, such as Africa and suggests that the have-nots could struggle indefinitely to catch up the the richer societies. Many countries also experience a disjunction between “their traditional cultural and political forms and the wider world of modern technologies,” such as Palestine and Pakistan.

Misa’s discussions on technology affecting culture are extremely interesting. While these are conversations I have had in classes in the past, I never considered the chain of events and implications of new technologies. In chapter nine, the invention of E-85 as an alternative fuel causing more harm than good was a shocking discovery for me. I knew technology could affect societies negatively, but I never dreamed how far it coulf carry. Overall, the information offered in Misa’s book is interesting, but it doesn’t really help me understand how to use techology in my organization. Although, it is good understand the implications of technology on culture and society. Another interesting piece that occurred in history was the discovery of synthetic chemicals and th invention of indigo colored dye. It was ironic to see how in that case of tecnology it influenced fashion and culture on a more superficial level. However, it was scary to see how such a simple discovery can lead to bigger problems in society, like chemical warfare and the invention of the atomic bomb. In conclusion, I learned a lot reading Misa’s Leonardo to the Internet and watching every team’s presentations. I really enjoyed watching the presentations on Voicethread or YouTube, and I believe his form of presenting was better than watching groups present in class simply using Power Point. I really enjoyed people’s videos that used Prezi and Screencast-o-matic. Thanks everyone for the hard work!

Screencast-O-Matic

Week 5_2. Visual LearningComments

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_texThe most valuable thing I learned in this week’s lesson was the Screencast-O-Matic.com tool. I truly cannot wait to use this is some of my presentations this semester as well as in my freshman Learning Group.

I envision myself using Screencast-O-Matic.com and making videos demonstrating how to find a tutor online, how to use D2L, etc. I think it’s a great way to school freshman how to use new tools and software they have never use before in college. For example, I can record a whole demonstration on D2L and play it in a presentation for my Freshman Learning Group. I can also add Screencast-O-Matic media videos to my “Advising Toolbox” to demonstrate how to use D2L, TitanWeb, TitanJobs, TitanMail, and any other software a student on UWO’s campus might use.

I think visual learning has a great and significant impact on society’s learning. I think you can lecture and discuss and problem solve and read the material all your want, but many people really need two components of instruction in order to absorb the material: visual and verbal. If an instructor can’t “show” a student how to use a tool, it becomes very difficult for them to remember the steps when they are only verbally told to do something. When the steps are written word for word, it helps to go back and follow along the pathway to completion, but sometimes students can get confused or lost when trying to flip back and forth between the written instructions and the activity they must complete.

Overall, while this lesson was hectic, overwhelming, confusing, and stressful, I really see the values in the tools we used and I have many new ideas on how to use them for class presentations as well as in my work organization.

Twitter

Week 4_2. Social Networking

For the online activities for social networking and Twitter, I feel like I didn’t learn anything I already didn’t know. I have both Twitter and Facebook, and I only actively use Facebook. Through this lesson, I still didn’t find anything value in using Twitter. I definitely do not really see a use for it in my organization or in my work. The only thing that came to mind is if students could follow politicians and current events for social science classes. Other than that, Twitter is totally useless to me.

           

 I could really see a use in Facebook, however. I would like to see online discussion on D2L replaced with Facebook. I think Facebook is a great tool to use for facilitating online discussion, especially for younger students that are already actively using Facebook. Many people already use it, and Facebook has many features, like polls, pictures, videos, newsfeed, etc. Utilizing all these features on Facebook will definitely make it a valuable tool in education.

           

 Social Networking impacts the convenience of our learning. We can get updates on our phones and use it as a great way to get quick and important pieces of information to a large amount of people very quickly. Also, it helps for collaborating and sharing ideas. Once an idea is shared, other people that see it can expand and broaden the scope and perspective of the idea. This way everyone is contributing to the analysis of information in the world today.