Final Technology Essay

This week we are supposed to write a final essay on all of the activities we worked on during the semester in my Technology, Culture and Learning Class. It is really difficult to pinpoint what my favorite activity was because I learned so much in class this semester.  Of course there were some activities that I would have rather not focused on such as twitter and my blog, but I was glad that at least I was able to learn about them and maybe in the future I will have a use for these webtools.

As for the web tools I did enjoy, I was did like learning and using the different visual learning applications such as Pixlr, iMovie, screencast and YouTube.  I was able to upload my personal videos from my trip this summer to Italy to YouTube and share them with my friends and family who did not leave in Wisconsin.  Also, I really love iMovie!  I will definitely use iMovie in the future for presentations and/or projects.

The first time I used iMovie was for our Misa presentation.  I did not realize how easy it would be complete our Misa presentation on iMovie and upload it to YouTube.  Our presentation was on chapter two of Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present, by Thomas J. Misa.      

I enjoyed watching my classmates presentations on the Misa book.  It was interesting to get more background history on Leonardo Da Vinci.  I did not realize he started out as apprentice to Andrea de Verrocchio and worked with Nicollo Machevilla.  I was most surprised to find out that Leonardo’s first job was to work on military weapons and defense.  I was less familiar with Gutenberg and was interested to learn about his contributions to technology, metal casting and printing press.

The chapter that my team worked on was chapter two.  It focused on the Dutch Golden Age and the rise of era of the Renaissance.  The advancement in ship building was prominent in this decade and the Dutch lead the way.  Also, herring and tulips became popular commodities during this era.  They also discussed the beginning of the slave trade in this chapter.  Overall the book was very interesting and was the book I liked the best that we read this past semester.

We read three books for this class during the semester one of them was entitled “What the Internet is Doing to our Brains: The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr.  In the first chapter I loved how Carr explained his first experience with a personal computer.  It was interesting to read his journey through this process and how quickly the technology changed. 

It was interesting to ready how much the internet has changed since it was first established and how Carr discussed that he had only five hours of internet time.  Today, fives would not be enough for one day.  Personally, I use it to stay updated on current events, directions, communicate with family and friends, shopping, and even listing to music or watching movies.  For school and work I use the internet for research and homework, communicating with co-workers and classmates, ordering equipment and supplies.  Just like Carr, I no longer read newspapers.  I also do not use phonebooks, because sometimes the information is outdated and it is much easier to look online for a company’s information.  Plus, their website has much more information than the phonebook provides.  After viewing a company’s website I may not need to contact them, because the information I need may already be on their website.

Another book we read for class was the book “Cognitive Surplus:  Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age” by Clay Shirky.  When I first read the title I had to really think about what Shirky meant by “Cognitive Surplus.”  Basically, what my understanding of this term is the excess amount of free time we have and how we use it.  Shirky discusses several examples of what we do with our cognitive surplus, but one of his main focuses is the amount of time people spend watching TV, which he feels could be used for other purposes. 

My favorite chapter of the book was the first chapter entitled Gin, Television, and Cognitive Surplus Shirky discusses a fascinating history of the “gin craze” that began in London around the 1720’s.  People began moving into the city of London from the countryside seeking work due to the industrialization of society.  Shirky, described how there were major changes in society due to this growth in populations and due to these issues there were several laws passed in order to prohibit the consumptions of gin. 

One of the first web tools we learned about was Google Docs.  Before this class I never used the web tool.  We were able to create a template for a Google site.  We also, created forms and documents, surveys and embedded videos into our site.

I remember being apprehensive at first working on this project, since I had never used the Google sites or Google docs before.  I never even had a G-mail account until I started this class.  I actually enjoyed this lesson very much and learned a lot.  One of my favorite parts of this lesson was creating the survey/poll.  This was much easier than I expected and fun too.  Another aspect of the survey that I found interesting was being able to see the results of your survey and generating a user-friendly results report.

I will be able to work on my documents from any computer.  I will also be able to share my documents with co-workers and students.  I think it’s great that I can collaborate with others and have the ability to work with others in real time.  I can also use it to post powerpoints for people to view.  This is a great free resource that can be used for work, school or personal projects.  It allows you to share confidential information as long as you have a private page.

I have already started utilizing this tool at work to post training materials, schedules and common forms for employees to use and review.  There are so many things to work do in google docs.  I look forward to working with and exploring google docs and google sites in the future.

All these applications or web tools are very intimidating when you first work with them.  I was glad we had a hands-on class where Dr. Kim was able to go step by step through these web tools and show us how to use.  If it was not for these classes I would have been lost trying to navigate through all of these applications and it would have taken me hours to figure them out.  This class was a beneficial in showing me how to use different web tools and learning skills that I can and have already incorporated into my work environment.

Cognitive Surplus

This week for my Technology, Culture and Learning Class, we read the book “Cognitive Surplus:  Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age” by Clay Shirky.  When I first read the title I had to really think about what Shirky meant by “Cognitive Surplus.”  Basically, what my understanding of this term is the excess amount of free time we have and how we use it.  Shirky discusses several examples of what we do with our cognitive surplus, but one of his main focuses is the amount of time people spend watching TV, which he feels could be used for other purposes. 

In the first chapter entitled Gin, Television, and Cognitive Surplus Shirky discusses a fascinating history of the “gin craze” that began in London around the 1720’s.  “The Gin Craze was a real event-gin consumption rose dramatically in the early 1700’s even as consumptions of beer and wine remained flat” (Shirky 2). 

People began moving into the city of London from the countryside seeking work due to the industrialization of society.  There were major changes in society due to this growth in populations, “with predictable effects on living conditions and public health, and crime of all sorts was on the rise.  Especially upsetting was that women of London had taken to drinking gin, often gathering in mixed-sex gin halls, proof positive of its corrosive effects on social norms” (Shirky 2).  Due to this issues there were several laws passed in order to prohibit the consumptions of gin.  Although parliament would pass law after law trying to prohibit gin, there were always ways around these newly passed laws.  One such example of circumventing the law was when, “Parliament outlawed flavored spirits; so distillers stopped adding juniper berries to the liquor” (Shirky 3).  According to Shirkey, it wasn’t the laws that eventually decreased the consumption of gin and the issues that accompanied it, but the changes made due the industrialization and creation of the modern city.

Certainly, all our societal issues were not resolved with the decrease of gin consumption.  We still encounter change in population trends such as urban growth, and increased suburban density, and an increase in educational aspirations.  According to Shirky we just transitioned into a new addiction, “During this transition, what has been our gin, the critical lubricant that eased our transition from one kind of society to another?” (Shirky 4).  It was one I mentioned in the first paragraph, television.  

Although I thought the book was very interesting, there were some parts I felt dragged on a bit too much.  In Chapter 3 “Means”, Shirky’s description on how the Grobanites (hard-core fans of Josh Groban) started their own charity organization on behalf of Josh Groban, was interesting at first but I felt he spent way too much time on this example.   I understand that his point was to show how the internet allows you to connect, produce and contribute.  However, have we not always been able to connect, produce and contribute without the internet?  People organized and influenced society in the past, more than likely through political groups, churches, schools and other community organizations.  So, without modern technology what did our society do before the internet?  One could argue that it took more time and energy to get organize, so did people have more cognitive surplus then we do today?  Reading this chapter, just made me think and ask a lot of questions. 

I did find Edward Deci’s 1970 study on the soma puzzle where participants were instructed to solve a puzzle and then left alone for eights of free time interesting.  It showed what can motivate people and what happens when take away that motivation.  In Deci’s first experiment he studied participants during their free time to see they continued to work on solving the puzzle, he found they continued to work on puzzle for half of their free time.  In the second experiment he offered half the group money to solve the puzzle and again during their free time he observed that those participants that were offered money worked on the puzzle longer than those who were not offered money.  This is not surprising; I think we all know that money is a great motivator when it comes to accomplishing tasks.  In his final experiment Deci, did reverted to his initial experiment and did not offer anyone money to complete the puzzle.  What he found was that those that were offered money in second experiment spent less time on the puzzle during their free time.  This reminded me of the day care experiment mentioned in Chapter 5 entitled Culture.   Some of the day care centers implemented a fine to the parents who were late in picking up their children.  The study showed a dramatic increase in the number of parents who were late in picking up their children.  In essence because these parents were paying a fine, they felt it was alright not to follow the 4:00 pm pick up time.  They felt that the fine was enough punishment for them not to follow the rules.  However, once the fine was removed the numbers did not decrease, they remained the same.

Shirky’s most interesting chapter is the final chapter entitled “Looking for the Mouse,” where he offers his observations and provides lessons on how we can harness our cognitive surplus.  The three main categories are Start, Growing and Adapting.  In the first category start, Shirky states, “You can never get complex social interactions right first crack out of the box, but you can get them wrong.  The key to starting well is to understand how the initial launch of social media is special.” (Shirky 193-194).  So how do you start?  You start small, ask why, behavior follows opportunity and default to social.

Growing which is the second category Shirky feels it’s “one of the great challenges of such systems, especially in their early days, is to manage the dynamics of growth.” (Shirky 197).  The four sub-categories consist of A hundred users are harder than a dozen and harder than a thousand; People differ, more people differ more; intimacy doesn’t scale; and support a supportive culture.

In regards to the final category adapting Shirky says, “If successful uses of cognitive surplus required designers to get it right the first time, you be able to count the successes on the fingers of one hand.  Instead, the imperative is to learn from failure, adapt, and learn again.” (Shirky 203).  The four sub-categories are the faster you learn, the sooner you’ll be able to adapt; success causes more problems than failure; clarity is violence; try anything, try everything.

This book showed how beneficial the internet can be when used in an informative and entertainment manner.  For example when women were attacked by a group of men from the Sri Ram Sene, video of these brutal attacks were uploaded on the internet and the group said they would commit future attacks a group of women started a facebook page of support for each other.  The internet can be a useful tool and can provide an opportunity for those who otherwise, may not be heard. 

Works Cited

Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. New York: The Peguin Press, 2010.

What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains The Shallows

This week for my Technology, Culture and Learning Class, we read the book “What the Internet is Doing to our Brains: The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr.  In the first chapter I loved how Carr explained his first experience with a personal computer.  It was interesting to read his journey through this process and how quickly the technology changed.  I especially enjoyed when Carr said that he “grew fond of the sound of my modem connecting through the phone lines to the AOL servers.” (Carr, 14).  I used to dread the sound of the modem connecting to the internet servers because it would take so long. 

Also, the idea that AOL allotted only a certain number of hours, five hours to be exact, to surf the web is unbelievable.  I use the world wide web for all sorts of things.  Personally, I use it to stay updated on current events, directions, communicate with family and friends, shopping, and even listing to music or watching movies.  For school and work I use the internet for research and homework, communicating with co-workers and classmates, ordering equipment and supplies.  Just like Carr, I no longer read newspapers.  I also do not use phonebooks, because sometimes the information is outdated and it is much easier to look online for a company’s information.  Plus, their website has much more information than the phonebook provides.  After viewing a company’s website I may not need to contact them, because the information I need may already be on their website.

Carr’s description of Michael Merzenich’s post doctorial work on brain mapping at the University of Wisconsin Madison was quite insightful.  I found Merzenich’s work on the brain’s reaction when the peripheral nerve system is damaged and then how it heals interesting.  How the nerves grew back haphazardly and signals were crossed but later after some recovery time this confusion has been cleared up.  This contradicts what was mentioned in the earlier part of the chapter in Santiago Ramon y Cajal’s (Spanish physician, neuroanatomist, and noble laureate) belief that the brain’s virtual path once laid out cannot be changed, regenerated, or rerouted. 

I do agree with Carr in how we have changed the way we use technology.  It has changed from just information based to more of enhancing conceptual thinking.  In the Chapter entitled “Tools of the Mind” Carr, this discusses this very idea, “Our ancestors didn’t develop or a use map in order to enhance their capacity to conceptual thinking or to bring the world’s hidden structures to light.  Nor did they manufacture mechanical clocks to spur the adoption of a more scientific mode of thinking.” (Carr, 45).

Technological determinism, a term invented by sociologist Thorstein Veblen, is a theory that a society's technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values.  On the antithesis instrumentalism is the belief that “tools to be neutral artifacts, entirely subservient to the conscious wishes of their users.  Our instruments are the means we use to achieve our ends; they have no ends of their own,” (Carr, 45).  I think both of these theories are true and Carr gives great examples in his book.  In regards to instrumentalists, we do make decisions on how and when we use our technological tools.  “The Japanese, looking to preserve the traditional samurai culture effectively banned the use of firearms in their country for two centuries.” (Carr, 47).  On the flipside determislists believing that technology drives our society provide a great example of how clocks changed the way society worked, “bells sounded for start of work, meal breaks, end of work, closing gates, start of market, close of market, assembly, emergencies, council meetings, end of drink service, time for street cleaning, curfew, and so on.” (Carr, 42).

Carr insists that the negative side effects of the Internet outweigh its efficiencies, stating that we are only getting fragmented information from the web. “We don’t see the forest when we search the Web…we don’t even see the trees. We see twigs and leaves.”   I do not necessary agree with this point of view.  The good thing about the internet is that we have much more information at our fingertips then we without the internet.  For example, if I was reading an article and I was not sure what the definition of a certain word meant or who a person mentioned in the article was, I could be missing important information that could help me understand the article better.  However, if read the same article online, I could pause look the word up or even “Google” the person and find out some background information on the person to help me better understand.  Now, I understand that this is one of Carr’s points when he talks about being distracted, but in this particularly case I think it is enhancing my learning and not distracting from it.  “We want to be interrupted, because each interruption brings us a valuable piece of information.” (Carr, 133). 

“Studies of office workers who use computers reveal that they constantly stop what they are doing to read and respond to e-mails.” (Carr 132)  As a person who works in an office, I chose whether to check an e-mail notification or not.  Usually, if I check an e-mail it is because I am waiting on a response for a question or project I may have.  However, this is not the only interruption I have throughout the day, I have phone calls, meetings and people constantly stopping me to ask for assistance or ask me a question.  Unfortunately, multitasking is in every workplace and is something we must be able to adapt to in order to do our jobs.

Another point can be made is that are we limiting the information we receive?  One of Carr’s arguments from a study on over 34 million academic articles published between 1945 and 2005 by James Evans, a sociologist at the University of Chicago.  Found that after analyzing citations from published online articles, scholars cited fewer articles.   Also, mentioned in the study that older issues of articles were not being cited as much as newer articles.  Now, this point I can understand.  We do want the most recent information when we are researching, the information in an older article could already be outdated and no longer useful.  “automated information-filtering tools, such as search engines, tend to serve as amplifiers of popularity, quickly establishing and then continually reinforcing a consensus about what information is important and what isn’t.” (Carr 217). 

I can also see some validity to Carr’s ideas on the internet and how it is changing our thinking process.  Take for example Carr’s own description of his concentration, “I used to find it easy to immerse myself in a book or a lengthy article.” Carr writes, “That’s rarely the case anymore.  Now my concentration starts to drift after a page or two.  I get fidgety, lose the thread, being looking for something else to do.  I feel like I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text.  The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.” (Carr 5-6). 

Another point I found interesting was when Carr spoke about the change in our reading, and how this would also impact a change in our writing style.  He mentioned how Japanese women begin writing stories as text messages on their cell phones and uploaded them to a Web site.  These stories were later published as books and became very popular.  One reason given by one of the author’s on why young readers have abandoned novels “They don’t read works by professional writers because their sentences are too difficult to understand, their expressions are intentionally wordy, and difficult to understand, and the stories are not familiar to them.” (Carr 105).  I found this comment to very discerning, but if you put it into context these type of stories were love stories, which I would view as purely entertainment.  If this was a research based article or book then I would be even more concerned.

Our society is always looking for the latest and greatest ways to improve and make things more efficient.  It seems like with every new technology we have had in history we have always had people who are going to adopt this new technology or people who feel with new technology comes new problems. 

Misa Presentations

This week for my Technology, Culture and Learning Class, we worked on our online presentations using various visual learning tools such as Pixlr, iMovie, screencast and YouTube.  Our presentation was on chapter two of Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present. By Thomas J. Misa.  For our team presentation we primarily used iMovie and posted it via YouTube.    

It was interesting to get more background history on Leonardo Da Vinci.  I am familiar with his work but did not realize he started out as apprentice to Andrea de Verrocchio and worked with Nicollo Machevilla.  Also, he was well connected with the famous families during that time such as the Medicis, Borgias, and Sforzas.  I was most surprised to find out that Leonardo’s first job was to work on military weapons and defense.  I was less familiar with Gutenberg and was interested to learn about his contributions to technology, metal casting and printing press.

In chapter two the focus was on the Dutch Golden Age and the rise of era of the Renaissance.  The advancement in ship building was prominent in this decade and the Dutch lead the way.  Also, herring and tulips became popular commodities during this era.  Unfortunately, another aspect of this era was the slave trade.

It was interesting to find in Chapter three that the industrial revolution and changes begin in London with the steam engine.  It was interesting to note that Misa discussed beer as part of Britain’s industrial revolution.   With the rise of the second industrial revolution in 1870-1930 science and systems, chemistry was used to change technology and the creation of synthetic dye was one of the innovations of this decade.   

I thought one of the most intriguing chapters was chapter 7, which was the destruction era.  The chapter talked about the advancement of Military technology, weapons and the Manhattan Project.  Misa discussion of how McDonald’s is an innovative technological system and global commerce as a fast food chain was interesting.  Misa’s final chapter discusses his thoughts on some of the technological problems we face today.  Especially, in regards to issues technology creates with privacy and the environment.  I enjoyed all the chapter presentations and enjoyed being able to see different applications used in team presentations.

Visual Learning

This week for my Technology, Culture and Learning Class, we learned how to use visual learning tools.  We used several different visual learning applications such as Pixlr, iMovie, screencast and YouTube. 

The Pixlr application is a photo editor, similar to Photoshop.  There are several ways to fix, adjust and edit photos and images.  You can edit photos from your photo library or take a photo on your webcam.   This online application is free to use and the best part is you do not have to sign up a username and password.  You can filter a photo, lighten or darken and put different frames on photos.  I used the brightness and contrast option on one of my vacation photo.  In the photo I was unable to see my friend in the lower corner, but I applied the brightness and contrast option I could see everything that was previous in a shadow.  I was able to also rotate, flip and crop all my photos.  You can also assign some interesting effects to your photos.  The only thing I was unable to do was remove a glare in the photo.  I really enjoyed working with Pixlr and have continued to use this program.   

Screencast and IMovie are both video editors.  In screencast you are able to upload or create your video and use the application to edit your video.  In Screencast you are able to record yourself explaining how to do something.  Screencast records you viewing other websites, which is a great tool if you are trying to teach someone how to do something online.  This is perfect for trying. I use a number of different software programs at work.  If we could up videos as tutorials to use these software programs, it would allow someone to use this tool as needed.  For example, I get a lot of questions on how to use the new version of excel.  If I were able to set up different tutorials, I could direct co-workers to these videos.  IMovie allows you to import video footage and edit these videos.  You can add music, titles and different frames to the video clips.  You can create transitions, color correction, and fade in and fade out screens.

Prior to this class the only reason I used YouTube for, was to view videos posted by other users.  I never thought I would be one of those people posting videos on YouTube.  Posting videos on YouTube was much easier to use than I thought.  This could be a great application to use when you want to post educational videos.

All of these applications are great tools to use to explain how to use different programs.  However, they should not be the only tool used.   I do believe that these visual learning applications could be a great supplement for teaching. 

Social Networking and Bookmarking Tools

This week for my Technology, Culture and Learning Class, we worked on social booking and social networks sites.  I was able to create an account for Diigo and Twitter.  I added friends, groups and interests to these sites.  I have never used either of the sites before and it was a little difficult to navigate.  I found myself going back and forth between the class website for instructions and the actually Diigo or Twitter page.  It took me a little longer than I expected to create my pages and get them working correctly.  Also, every time I tried adding my name and user ID to the class page I kept getting a “denied access” message which was a little frustrating. 

The Diigo website was very interesting. I have never heard of Diigo or social bookmarking before this assignment.  As I previously mentioned creating my page was a little stressful due to the fact that I had no idea such a site existed.  Once I was able to understand and navigate through the site it went a little smoother.  I really enjoyed working on Diigo.  I was able to add classmates to follow and also joined groups.  The most interesting part of this website was creating and saving bookmarks.  This is a great way to communicate information to students, co-workers, family and friends.   Also, you can meet other users who are interested in the same topics and bookmarks and create open discussions with them.  This will be a great resource to discuss and learn about current education trends and best practices in education and training.  I was also able to add the Diigo offline reader app to my iPhone and have already begun using it.

Some other social bookmarking site I looked into was Delicious.com and Digg.com.  Both of these sites were very informative and I could see using them as a well to get provide important or relevant information to students and co-workers.

The second part of this week’s assignments was social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  Before this course I decided that I had no use for a twitter account.  I already had a Facebook account that I was barely utilizing and I figured I had no need for another social networking site!  Well, thanks to Technology, Culture and Learning 755 I have a twitter account and begin “tweeting”.  I will probably use my twitter account, much like I use my Facebook account, just to communicate with a group of friends and family.  Keep my groups updated and following them on their accounts.  This type of account would be prefect for a college advisor or teacher to communicate important information with to their students.  Also, they can create a group to discuss relevant topics just like we have on our message boards in D2L.

Google Docs

This week in my Educational Leadership Class Technology, Culture and Learning we learned about Google Docs.  We were able to create a template for a Google site.  We also, created forms and documents, surveys and embedded videos into our site.

At first I was very apprehensive working on this project.  I have never used Google sites or Google docs before.  I never even had a G-mail account until I started this class.  I actually enjoyed this lesson very much and learned a lot.  One of my favorite parts of this lesson was creating the survey/poll.  This was much easier than I expected and fun too.  Another aspect of the survey that I found interesting was being able to see the results of your survey and generating a user-friendly results report.

I will be able to work on my documents from any computer.  I will also be able to share my documents with co-workers and students.  I think it’s great that I can collaborate with others and have the ability to work with others in real time.  I can also use it to post powerpoints for people to view.  This is a great free resource that can be used for work, school or personal projects.  It allows you to share confidential information as long as you have a private page.

The best way to use this for my work environment would be to help with training.  This would be a great way to have training materials posted online for co-workers to review at their leisure.  I could also incorporate a survey to see if having training presented this way beneficial to the employees.  We could even videotape presentations and/or trainers and post these videos online for all employees to review. 

There are so many things to work do in google docs.  I look forward to working with and exploring google docs and google sites in the future.