Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Why Reliance on Technology is a Bad Thing

In this article the author John M. Grohol, PsyD, believes that the way people rely on technology is a bad thing. He wrote this article to inform people of humans growing relience on modern technology to put a stop to it so we can go back to our old ways.

This article reminded of an article I read read earlier about how technology is making us lazy because Grohol gave an example of the stockmarket and how it will be completely automated soon. This makes me wonder whether or not making people lazy is just a form of it being bad. 

There was also a lot of conflicting evidence. "Computers are great, don’t get me wrong. They are wonderful tools that help many simplify their life, get more information, and in the end, hopefully make better, more informed decisions." There are many spots where he talks about how good computers are. This may mean that either he can't make up his mind or technology can't be that bad.

Monday, January 23, 2012

The Ten Fundamental Reasons for Technology in Education

 In this article the author John Page believes that technology is necessary for the purposes of education and learning. Page wrote this article to inform people that technology isn't bad but instead it is vitally important to education and learning. He shows this in many ways, ten to be precise.

1.Expansion of Time and Place; you can contact your teacher even when you're not in his/her class for help
2.Depth of Understanding; you can learn much more with interactive simulations and illustrations
3.Learning vs. Teaching; you can learn things on your own and not need a teacher
4.New Media for Self-expression; you can make a PowerPoint presentation, make a video,or create a blog
5.Collaboration; you can work with others who may not be sitting right next to you
6.Going Global; you can communicate with people around the world to understand new cultures
7.Individual Pacing and Sequence; you can repeat difficult lessons like with a private tutor
8.Weight; your textbooks and binders could weigh 25lbs. but a laptop only weighs 5lb and holds more data
9.Personal Productivity; you can get more done with a laptop than non-electronic tools
10.Lower Cost; your textbooks can cost $120 and decent laptop costs $399 and can hold multiple books

  With all these reasons that seem perfectly valid, Page does acknowledge that there may be conflicting evidence because he gives contact information in case you disagree. There is a possibility that there may be slant/bias in this article because the author has a website entitled "Math Open Reference" and this article could easily have been a way to get more people on his site. There may also be a little in how there is a good chance he is a teacher and simply wants new tools for his class. That would definitely slant someones opinion.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Technology is Making us Lazy



In the article Technology is Making us Lazy by Erica Bradley, she believes that technology has made people incredibly lazy. Bradley wrote this mainly to share that a very popular newspaper; Rocky Mountain News, has gone out of business because of technology. She used the article to be a wake-up call to people that if technology can cause 200 people to be unemployed it has to be bad.

Bradley supported this with many examples of how technology has taken over the work that humans had to do. One example is the Internet. She states that instead of going to the library to research for a project people can just look it up on the computer and get results. Ironically, I used the computer to search and find this article and anyone else she was hoping to agree with her but have to do the same ,but her point was clear.

This was a good article because Erica Bradley gave many examples and reasons why she believes that technology does make people lazy. It also help me realize that people really don't go to the library to research or walk outside to get their paper. I appreciated having all this input on how technology is taking over our everyday lives.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Technology Blog Introduction


Hello, and welcome to my first blog post. Over the course of this assignment I will be taking a close look at how old and new technology has affected and may affect humans in the future.
     I chose this topic because I find it very interesting how much technology has changed humans and peoples different viewpoints on the topic. I expect to find articles where people think that technology has caused people to be lazy. I also expect to find articles where people think humans need technology and also articles where people believe that having technology has had a negative affect on humans.
     After I post my analyses of these articles I hope to find that you develop your own opinions of how you think technology has changed humans.