Monday, January 30, 2012
Top 3 Influential Technologies
The three most influential technologies in my life are cell phones/texting, Facebook, and YouTube. Texting allows me to stay in contact with loved ones throughout the day as well as quickly exchange small bits of information with friends, class mates and coworkers. Because I do not always have my computer with me, I consider texting the most efficient way of communication. Facebook is also very important because it allows you to get in contact with everyone even though you may not have their phone number or know them extremely well. It is easy to find a classmate on Facebook and send them a message asking a question about class or homework or a project you may be working on together. YouTube has been very helpful to me in many of my math classes because many times there are teachers that post videos on YouTube on how to use a specific formula in math and it has made doing my homework so much easier because even though I have the book for the class it is easier to understand when someone is doing an example in front of me. Like the students from the two videos, I can not picture my life without my phone or my laptop; however I do not let technology consume my life. Olivia listens to music constantly and spends hours on the computer in the basement of her apartment complex. This is why technology can be harmful because she is not getting any exercise, nor is she spending quality time with her family. The children in the second video seem to be using technology in a more constructive way but one boy admits to not being able to go to class without tweeting about it because he considers twitter such a big part of his life. I'll admit that I am biased because I see no need for twitter, but I consider it unsafe to be posting your every move on the internet. I see no educational purpose for twitter, but if anyone can give a valid argument for tweeting i would like to hear your opinion.
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I think your top three most influential technologies are interesting, yet very true and realistic choices. Usually you expect people to put things like/see people putting things I did or like the students in the video in the more generic form with a cellphone, computer and ipod or something else of that nature, but I really like how you went more specific with your choices of a cellphone, facebook and youtube. Like you, I also use facebook a lot and my cellphone a lot, youtube is pretty up there too on my list of sites. They are all really useful and reliable, as you said. I also like how you put yourself into the students scenario's and compared the two, and very true on the lack of exercise and quality time point. Most kids today sadly lack those two things. I also agree with the twitter comment you made. I have a twitter, just to have one basically I really don't use it and I don't think people should be posting every single move they make, what they eat and so forth on anything especially not twitter. I'd like to see the argument also, if anyone could actually have one.
ReplyDeleteSarah, in regards to your view on Twitter, what do you think about this article?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/21/08twitter_ep.h29.html?tkn=LS[FEE2sLZvk5Udzj5IQYaWWPqrJPydeJ1kx
Let me know if the link doesn't work.
I do understand where the author is coming from. It could potentially be used in classrooms and businesses as a great collaborating tool. However, more often than not, that is not what it is being used for. I think in cases such as classroom projects and discussions it is easier to make a private facebook group. That way once you are added to the group you can exchange messages with your classmates on the page you don't have to even be friends with the other people in the group which is nice because it allows the rest of your information to be private. A big group of students including myself actually did this for one of my classes last semester and it worked out beautifully. I do think that technology is often very useful, I just feel that many young people are abusing it.
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