What are the long-term effects of living in a technological world?
Vasili:
"The long term effects of living in the tech world are that people become more reliant and dependable on technology in the sense that basic tasks and jobs people would do are now being substituted with faster and more efficient pieces of technology."
Yaari:
"The long term effects of living in a technological world is that the relativity of time will change. People will be expected to complete tasks a lot quicker because technology will provide much more efficient ways to complete tasks."
Khalil:
"The long term effects include in person interactions decreasing, and people thinking for themselves less."
Is being able to find information quickly online a good or bad thing?
Vasili:
"Being able to find info online is good because it allows for people to find what they are looking for faster and progress in a more efficient way, but bad because it teaches people to scan the internet rather than read thoroughly."
Yaari:
"I think being able to find info online is a great thing because I'm a student and easily accessing information is imperative to my academic success."
Khalil:
"Being able to find information online is a good thing."
How are technology and social media changing the way we communicate?
Vasili:
"Technology and media have caused people to lean more on network platforms and interfaces as their main sources of communication. Though it has allowed for messages to travel fast it has negatively impacted how humans interact with one another."
Yaari:
"Technology and social media are making us a lot less social than we used to be. Many times I'll find myself in a room with 10 other guys an instead of socializing, we're all on our phones."
Khalil:
"Technology and social media are speeding up the way we communicate, and also enhancing the amount of detail expressed through these communications."
For my three potential research questions, I decided to dig deeper into the realm of technology that I touched on in the first unit. I chose to try them out on some of the newest members at my fraternity. They're names are Vasili Katsarakes, Yaari Magenheim, and Khalil Jean-Baptiste. In regards to the relationships I found between the appearance of the question and the level of engagement I received, I would say that there was a pretty high level of engagement on all of my questions (for the most part) because I left two of them open-ended. The second question was more of a yes or no question, but they decided to be more formal about it I guess. Except for Khalil. An open-ended question like the first or third ones would probably be more fitting for a research paper type assignment, however if you can expand on your thoughts behind the second question then it can be just as effective. What is more important than the research question itself is how well you can answer it.
Monday, February 27, 2017
Sunday, February 12, 2017
2/16/17 Reflect
The fact that you are reading this right now is essentially the focus of my project for this blog. Without technologies advances, it would not be possible. Knowledge is a powerful thing. The fact that we have more of it in a pocket-sized box we carry around with us at all times than in our actual intellect is perplexing when you really think about it. Sometimes I think about what it'd be like to live in a different time period. One where we couldn't just look up anything on Google. One without these screens that control everything we do. Technology has changed the way we live completely. As we have learned, there are pros and cons to this revolution. At a basic level, technology simply makes things easier. And that's great... right? Well, it depends on what side you look from. The way we entertain, communicate, teach, learn and so much more is just more effective with what hardware we have nowadays. This begs the question, what do we truly gain from making all of this possible? I think I was able to, at the very least, analyze this confounding question with the sources I incorporated into the project. I found that the implications of our world of screens and the future of said world are both good and bad, depending on your perception.
Baron taught us that new things like the pencil, computer, and telephone are simply replicas of each other in how they were introduced/how they evolved. This made me harken back to one of my favorite HBO series "True Detective" (season 1, season 2 is a pile of shit). Anyways, the famous line from the show's finale is "time is a flat circle." This is true for a lot of things when you think about it. As Baron said it best, "Whether the computer will one day be as taken-for-granted as the pencil is an intriguing question. One thing is clear: were Thoreau alive today he would not be writing with a pencil of his own manufacture." I do think one day the computer will be taken for granted as much as the pencil is today. Will we be alive to see it? Maybe not. As I mentioned before, we, as humans, are inherently unhappy with what we have. Its the same reason some people who win the lottery become depressed. We're always going to be trying to find easier ways to communicate with each other as we saw with the technologies referenced in the article. We're always looking for the "next best thing" and its been like this for ages. Its why we're here today. Who knows what kind of technology will be around in 10, 100 or even 1000 years. It's dumbfounding when you think about it, especially since the computer was only introduced a couple of decades or so ago.
My next three sources again showed the good and bad sides of technology in society. In regards to one of the most popular forms of expression, music, it has changed the way we listen to and create sounds. This is truly an amazing thing. In the third source, I decided to use a Ted Talk that taught us something we don't usually think about until we see a family at dinner, each of them buried in their phones. Human interaction is how we built this revolution in a way. Without people working together and communicating, the phone wouldn't exist. Its a double entendre in that we have effectively diminished the human aspect. Its pretty ironic. Whatever your beliefs may be, I don't think we were put on this earth to stare at screens. Finally, my last source delved into what this revolution has done to our education system, for better or worse.
In conclusion, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog. It was a great outlet for some realizations/life lessons I've experienced in my time. Not only that, I think this project was an effective way for me to explore my creative mind rather than writing formal papers as with previous writing classes. It was less conventional/structured and more genuine in my opinion. With regards to the topic of technology, I hope that I was able to shed light on not just the benefits, but the dangers. Its kind of a paradox in that we have made ourselves more connected than ever but in doing so, we have made ourselves disconnected on a real level.
Baron taught us that new things like the pencil, computer, and telephone are simply replicas of each other in how they were introduced/how they evolved. This made me harken back to one of my favorite HBO series "True Detective" (season 1, season 2 is a pile of shit). Anyways, the famous line from the show's finale is "time is a flat circle." This is true for a lot of things when you think about it. As Baron said it best, "Whether the computer will one day be as taken-for-granted as the pencil is an intriguing question. One thing is clear: were Thoreau alive today he would not be writing with a pencil of his own manufacture." I do think one day the computer will be taken for granted as much as the pencil is today. Will we be alive to see it? Maybe not. As I mentioned before, we, as humans, are inherently unhappy with what we have. Its the same reason some people who win the lottery become depressed. We're always going to be trying to find easier ways to communicate with each other as we saw with the technologies referenced in the article. We're always looking for the "next best thing" and its been like this for ages. Its why we're here today. Who knows what kind of technology will be around in 10, 100 or even 1000 years. It's dumbfounding when you think about it, especially since the computer was only introduced a couple of decades or so ago.
My next three sources again showed the good and bad sides of technology in society. In regards to one of the most popular forms of expression, music, it has changed the way we listen to and create sounds. This is truly an amazing thing. In the third source, I decided to use a Ted Talk that taught us something we don't usually think about until we see a family at dinner, each of them buried in their phones. Human interaction is how we built this revolution in a way. Without people working together and communicating, the phone wouldn't exist. Its a double entendre in that we have effectively diminished the human aspect. Its pretty ironic. Whatever your beliefs may be, I don't think we were put on this earth to stare at screens. Finally, my last source delved into what this revolution has done to our education system, for better or worse.
In conclusion, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog. It was a great outlet for some realizations/life lessons I've experienced in my time. Not only that, I think this project was an effective way for me to explore my creative mind rather than writing formal papers as with previous writing classes. It was less conventional/structured and more genuine in my opinion. With regards to the topic of technology, I hope that I was able to shed light on not just the benefits, but the dangers. Its kind of a paradox in that we have made ourselves more connected than ever but in doing so, we have made ourselves disconnected on a real level.
Saturday, February 11, 2017
2/14/17 Free
 |
| I chose this free write about my relationship with surveys because of how easy it was to write compared to some of the other free writes, especially the ones where I had to come up with my own topic. I was able to tell a pretty compelling story about my first experience with surveys. An experience which changed my life forever. |
Monday, February 6, 2017
2/7/17 Unit 1 Project Curated Source Collection
1) From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology by Dennis Baron
Source: http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/pencils.htm
The article From Pencils to Pixels by Dennis Baron starts off by discussing the ways that the computer has changed the world’s literacy practices. Moreover, he admits that he too has become reliant on technology. He then explains how a technology becomes integrated into society. It is not easy for people to embrace something new. A new technology, such as the computer or pencil is first exposed to a small group of people, mostly because of its cost, one that not just anyone could afford. Yes, it could be cutting-edge, but the technology’s unfamiliarity makes the general public untrustworthy when it is first introduced. The technology becomes more popular as the prices decrease and “it becomes better able to mimic more ordinary or familiar communications.” If lucky, it really “comes into its own” the technology creates its own unique new possibilities.
The author soon explains his project in this piece. He believes that the computer is not acting negatively on the practice of writing, it is “simply the latest step in a long line of writing technologies.” Suspicion is bound to occur at first as with any other writing technology, even the pencil. Since this piece is an essay from a book called Passions, Pedagogies, and 21st. Century Technologies that is now available online for free on the Illinois English website, it only proves that with the technology of the computer, writing and the works of writers is simply more available to all people, those with a connection to the internet at least. People can communicate much more easily because of this invention. Writing with a pencil and paper has become old-fashioned at this point in time.
Soon, Baron starts to go into depth on the history of the pencil and, while it may have seemed somewhat unnecessary as I was reading it, he was actually effectively drawing parallels between the technologies of the past and present. Not only that, he teaches us how different patterns of communications have shaped before the computer, including the pencil and telephone. Even though it doesn’t seem that groundbreaking to us, the pencil actually has a deep history to it. This goes for the practice of writing itself as well. They go above and beyond the previous literacy technologies in compelling and innovative ways. In fact, the pencil wasn’t even originally invented to be a writing device, it was “designed initially as a way of recording speech.”
In any case, the point that the author was trying to make by going into the tedious history of these technologies is that the computer isn’t some new phenomenon. All technologies, including the pencil and telephone went through the same phases of spreading. I think Baron definitely succeeded in making this point, although he probably could have done so in a few less words perhaps. This project made me think about all technologies, not just computers, that I have seen grow over my lifetime. They all had a similar way of spreading throughout the population, much like Baron explained in his article.
Source: http://mashable.com/2015/01/07/music-tech-ces/
In this Mashable article by Corinne Bash, the author goes through the history of music and how technology has changed both the way we listen to and create it. It reminded me of Baron's piece, just in a different medium. Instead of writing a mini-paper analysis, I decided to create a playlist on the music platform "SoundCloud" to curate this source. The songs in the playlist are made by computers rather than instruments. Not only have computers changed the way we write, they have created innovative and often captivating ways to make sound. They have truly created hundreds of new music genres.
Playlist: https://soundcloud.com/ryancarr27/sets/unit-won
3) How social media makes us unsocial | Allison Graham | TEDxSMU
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5GecYjy9-Q
The latter two sources refer to technology as, for the most part, a positive influence on our society. This Ted talk is by some lady named Allison Graham, who makes the argument that technology and the social media that has evolved with it are detrimental to mankind because they discourage real-life human interaction. I decided to use Prezi to curate this source.
Prezi: http://prezi.com/ruek_c4aqrs9/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
4) How Technology Has Changed Education by Candice Adderly
Source: http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/pencils.htm
The article From Pencils to Pixels by Dennis Baron starts off by discussing the ways that the computer has changed the world’s literacy practices. Moreover, he admits that he too has become reliant on technology. He then explains how a technology becomes integrated into society. It is not easy for people to embrace something new. A new technology, such as the computer or pencil is first exposed to a small group of people, mostly because of its cost, one that not just anyone could afford. Yes, it could be cutting-edge, but the technology’s unfamiliarity makes the general public untrustworthy when it is first introduced. The technology becomes more popular as the prices decrease and “it becomes better able to mimic more ordinary or familiar communications.” If lucky, it really “comes into its own” the technology creates its own unique new possibilities.
The author soon explains his project in this piece. He believes that the computer is not acting negatively on the practice of writing, it is “simply the latest step in a long line of writing technologies.” Suspicion is bound to occur at first as with any other writing technology, even the pencil. Since this piece is an essay from a book called Passions, Pedagogies, and 21st. Century Technologies that is now available online for free on the Illinois English website, it only proves that with the technology of the computer, writing and the works of writers is simply more available to all people, those with a connection to the internet at least. People can communicate much more easily because of this invention. Writing with a pencil and paper has become old-fashioned at this point in time.
Soon, Baron starts to go into depth on the history of the pencil and, while it may have seemed somewhat unnecessary as I was reading it, he was actually effectively drawing parallels between the technologies of the past and present. Not only that, he teaches us how different patterns of communications have shaped before the computer, including the pencil and telephone. Even though it doesn’t seem that groundbreaking to us, the pencil actually has a deep history to it. This goes for the practice of writing itself as well. They go above and beyond the previous literacy technologies in compelling and innovative ways. In fact, the pencil wasn’t even originally invented to be a writing device, it was “designed initially as a way of recording speech.”
In any case, the point that the author was trying to make by going into the tedious history of these technologies is that the computer isn’t some new phenomenon. All technologies, including the pencil and telephone went through the same phases of spreading. I think Baron definitely succeeded in making this point, although he probably could have done so in a few less words perhaps. This project made me think about all technologies, not just computers, that I have seen grow over my lifetime. They all had a similar way of spreading throughout the population, much like Baron explained in his article.
2) Tech Time Machine: Music Technology by Corinne Bash
Source: http://mashable.com/2015/01/07/music-tech-ces/
In this Mashable article by Corinne Bash, the author goes through the history of music and how technology has changed both the way we listen to and create it. It reminded me of Baron's piece, just in a different medium. Instead of writing a mini-paper analysis, I decided to create a playlist on the music platform "SoundCloud" to curate this source. The songs in the playlist are made by computers rather than instruments. Not only have computers changed the way we write, they have created innovative and often captivating ways to make sound. They have truly created hundreds of new music genres.
Playlist: https://soundcloud.com/ryancarr27/sets/unit-won
3) How social media makes us unsocial | Allison Graham | TEDxSMU
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5GecYjy9-Q
The latter two sources refer to technology as, for the most part, a positive influence on our society. This Ted talk is by some lady named Allison Graham, who makes the argument that technology and the social media that has evolved with it are detrimental to mankind because they discourage real-life human interaction. I decided to use Prezi to curate this source.
Prezi: http://prezi.com/ruek_c4aqrs9/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
4) How Technology Has Changed Education by Candice Adderly
To come full circle, I decided to utilize a blog as the final source for my unit one project. I thought it would be apposite given that I just made my own blog. My reasoning also stems from the perception I gave in my reflection. Essentially, the blog post gives us the author's opinion on how technology has changed education. Mainly higher education. She feels that tech makes learning much "more accessible, more personalized, and more meaningful." And I would agree, except for that last one. Is it really more meaningful? In many eyes, the fact that the computers and tablets have enhanced the way we learn is a good thing. As I mentioned in my reflection, we always need to make things easier. What we have now is just not good enough for some reason. Let's keep making new things with screens so that middle-schoolers can play games in class, but let's make it BETTER than the last version! Its great that we can check due dates and what not online, but what are the repercussions?
To curate this source, I decided to post a link to a YouTube video that I recently watched to learn more in fifteen minutes than I did in two hour-long math classes. And it's related to a topic that I will almost indubitably never use again after this semester. Technology has certainly made learning more effective, but its not only the blackboard stuff and online courses (as the author mentioned) that students can exploit nowadays. If I can watch a video like this and learn about calculus limits in 12 minutes, why am I sitting in class for two hours? It kind of made me wonder what I was even doing there. Attendance grades? And when am I ever going to need to know this? Point in case, I'm not saying that college is a scam, its just the significant lessons come from outside of the classroom. Street smarts if you will. Soft skills.
Truth is, we really won't ever need to know most of what we learn in these classes, unless its actually related to what you want to do when your older. And even then, most jobs will literally teach you everything you need to know. Prior experience is not as pertinent as most people think. Anyways, I'm not saying that people should be skipping class. Class is a good place to be, can't hurt to go once in a while. Its more of just a revelation I had after taking notes my entire freshman year. Why write all this stuff down if I'm never going to use it again? So I can pass an exam? It is true that technology has made the way we learn more effective, but it also made me question the entire American higher education system itself. If I'm really paying $100 or $200 for each class, as a professor I had used to tell us in an effort to make students show up, then shouldn't I be learning something useful? Funny thing is, I actually went to class and tried to pay attention to what my professor was trying to teach us, she's just very hard to understand. I had no idea what I learned when I left. When the day of the test came, I thought, hey why not look it up online... what do I have to lose? At first, I felt like a genius finding such a loophole. This was followed by the realization I just explained. That's when my shortcut-finding-pride swiftly turned to sheer disappointment in our class system.
Yeah, it's definitely important for me to know all of the twenty different kinds of microscopes that exist @CHE113. That'll for sure come in handy one day.
All of what was said is strictly personal opinion and was not made offend anyone.
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