The Impact of Techne....

After glancing over the previous posts it looks like we've had some good ones that summarize the thoeries and main points of the readings, so I will attempt not to be repetitive and share some key real-world talking points that jumped out to me( and I am mentioning them in my post so those of you that read the posts can start to formulate some ideas and bring them for discussion tomorrow:)

There were a few areas of discussion that stuck out to me in the Hillis article.

1)..."communications technologies are tools partake of a logic under which they extend our range, but only human agency within specific contexts determines their value."

This poses a good discussion topic in the eduction field. More and more college are going to web based learning, on-line classes and last year when I was on vacation a woman mentioned to me that I should get my Phd on-line! Although this "extends our range" of education and the ability to get a degree wherever there is internet access...is it really as high of quality?

We had a discussion in our Intro to Grad studies last year that there have been studies that show that employees do not look at on-line degrees as highly. Therefore, employers have determined the value--an on-line degree is not as valued in the workplace...but do you think that it is just too new and in 10 or 20 years an on-line degree will be just as common and accredited? It's something to think about with the costs of college skyrocketing!

The Digital Sensations article also talks about how "technology constrains and enables--yet it can't be used for just any purposes." What can't it be used for? This made me think about the work that is being done with robotics---can emotion ever be technologized(I really hope that is a word!) Ferre says that the " human mind is a computer," so does that mean that we can construct technology to process things like emotion? Determine right and wrong?

On p. 33 Rothenberg says that, "with new technology we can turn the scenery in to whatever we wish it could be." What are the ramifications of that? There is a company called Second Life which really allows you to do just that. You can re-create your life and make it what you've always imagined it to be. How is this dangerous when we have to communicate in the real-world? Do you think that humans can safely differentiate between the technological world and then transfer back to reality? If anyone has an avatar and has created a world on Second Life it would be awesome if you could share with us in class!

Here is a link to find out more about it: Do you think this is cool or a scary way for society to head?
http://secondlife.com/whatis/

Also an article that discusses it:
If Second Life isn't a game, what is it?
Many have struggled with how to characterize 3-D online virtual world
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17538999

Another interesting point to ponder is from We May Hear Too Much

The article discusses that when confronting a new technology there is a "sense of loss" coupled with the fact of "meaninglessness of the new." I thought of my 90 year old Grandma. She refuses to try e-mail. Her sense of loss would be missing her coffee chats with friends and phone chats with her grandkids away at college. She sees us at family dinners texting and saying we have to leave early b/c she doesn't have the Internet and we just have to e-mail work, make a post like this, or some other virtual committment.

This poses a problem in family communication. We have to print or make sure someone is assigned to share with her if we have a group e-mail about family stuff..thus leading to another point...if most people haven't "jumped on the bandwagon" can technology really be effective or create more work and hurdles?" Does the majority of the society using it make it the main reason that it is so effective?

Ex:IPODS--the more society has started using them the more places you can hook them up and use them...i.e. UNI installed them over the summer in a lot of the classrooms for teacher and student use b/c it was of the the most popular requests b/c everyone has one...something to ponder...

Check out this article: IPhone and iPod: Learning tool or distraction?
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/20/business/phone.php