In the chapter, titled
“Digital School” of Clive Thompson’s Smarter
than You Think, he discusses specific ways in which technology benefits us
and some nuances of social interaction brought to light by the different
technologies that we use.
The section on the Khan
academy was pretty interesting because, actually, one of my my professors last
semester recommended that people use the Khan academy if they needed more
practice or a better explanation of the material and couldn’t meet with her.
She also tried the method described in the chapter “Digital School” of creating
videos to watch as homework and doing “homework” in class in order for us to
get more practice and help. Even in college, this seems to work. Although I
didn’t really have too many problems with the course, this method was
beneficial when I really needed it. As was stated in the first chapter, instead
of being replaced by them, we should work in conjunction with the tools that we
create. And once again as in the first chapter, a heavy emphasis is placed on
the need for more writing in the school systems.
In the same chapter,
Thompson explains one of the reasons that we blog so much in classes focused on
writing. Writing for a large audience forces one to write with a purpose and
with a focus because the professor won’t be the only one reading what is
written. According to Thomas, blogging teaches students how to “conduct themselves
online” (Thompson 188).
For once, it’s nice to
see an author writing positively about emerging technologies and the blogging
example is first evidence I’ve seen in a while of real-world application of
material learned in high school. They are learning at a very young age how to
interact with people from different cultures, and walks of life which is what
will take place once they enter the job market. One other point that Thompson
made was his point about motivation. As a student, (or anyone for that matter)
talking to the author of a book that you wrote a blog about is inspiring and it
definitely gives a nice motivational for further writing. Although it shouldn’t
be done with all types of writing, as he stated, I definitely think that it
should be done in more high schools and middle schools in the U.S.
Education from
un-educational video games, now that’s a hard point to prove. Although, many
people would probably immediately dismiss this claim, he did weigh some of the
positives and negatives of gaming which was...nice. And of course, “historical”
video games can be good but the facts must be accurate, and strategy games are
good too but of course a rebuttal can be made to the argument because time
spent playing strategy games could be spent doing strategical-thinking
with a real world application. But…at least they’re games that require thought
and strategy, and I definitely agree with idea that “interest does matter”
(204).
Lastly, Thompson’s
idea of ambient awareness. ABC actually had a story on Thompson's article about ambient awareness which might be helpful with understanding the idea. According to him its
basically knowledge of another’s thoughts, actions, or whereabouts according to
a series of information snippets, and it really makes sense. If I read enough
of the junk that some of my friends post online daily, I could probably guess
what they’re doing, or what they might say. And the big thing that got me as
mentioned by Thompson was striking a conversation with a friend and knowing what
they’re talking about without them actually telling you the topic of
conversation. There have been plenty of times when a friend came up to me and
just by saying, “that was a cool video wasn’t it,” we were able to strike up a
conversation about something posted a day ago on Facebook. And… all in all I
agree with Kranzberg’s idea that tech is neutral (225) and that it’s really
just bringing out the side of us that wasn’t evident in our daily lives.
Questions: Have you experienced ambient
awareness? Did the internet “create” the idea of ambient awareness within us,
or did it just bring it to light?
I agree with you, Keon, about the section of the Thompson reading about ambient awareness because I too found it to be very interesting. I think it struck me so much because I have always been the type to keep more of my life private on my social media sites, while others enjoy posting about every single detail of theirs. When reading these frequent posts, I would always think to myself, "Who cares? No one needs to know this." However, Thompson's section about ambient awareness actually made me change my mind and think differently. I agree with him that we actually learn a lot about our friends by reading their statuses because we can learn about their schedules, what's going on with their jobs, and many more aspects of life. We no longer need to call someone and ask how they are doing, we can usually now just jump right into the conversation with them since we learn more about them from their updates. While I would still rather find out these things in person, I still do agree with Thompson's claims on this subject.
ReplyDeleteKeon, thank you for writing about “Digital School." I actually wrote an opinion piece in the Grizzly this week about this after reading the chapter. I agree with you that the concept of online learning assistance sounds hugely beneficial especially for those who are struggling. I know the class talked about online classes being less beneficial than in person classes but I believe that personally people who struggle in non conversation based classes would find online courses better for them.
ReplyDeleteI actually really liked the section about video games promoting education. I wouldn't dismiss the claim, people learn in different ways. Like you said, the games as least spark interest. The example from the history class in the book demonstrates that it could allow people to become more interested in the subject matter and therefore they educate themselves.
Thank you both for commenting on my blog. Jordan I agree with your point as well and yea I also prefer actually speaking with a person to find out whats up rather than having to find out from a third party website. And yea, Caroline, it also really surprises me when people argue the benefits of education using video games as an example. Thompson's claim was probably the first one that I really agree with, resonated with and the first one that I really liked.
ReplyDelete