I highly recommend that everyone watch the PBS documentary Digital Nation that just aired recently. It's an examination of the effects of digital technology on our lives, both in positive and negative ways. It asks several profound questions that I think we need to seriously think about.
I say it asks questions, rather than answers them, because there really aren't any concrete answers to be had. As the piece mentions in one of the beginning segments, it's almost impossible to study digital technology in traditional ways. The pace of technological advance is simply too fast for the research. The technology is obsolete before the results from the study can be assessed. And so we, as a society, are forced to move blindly into uncharted waters.
There is just no way to have an objective measure of whether or not this infusion of technology is a good or bad thing. But either way, it seems to be agreed that the technology is here to stay, and that continued innovation is inevitable. Even ignoring all of the futurist predictions of transhumanism and the singularity, technology is changing nearly every aspect of our lives. Our only choice is to adapt or to be left behind.
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7 comments:
Note my restraint in ignoring the meta-issues of watching (and telling you about) this program through the internet.
Ok, Ok, one meta-issue. Note that my writing style for this post, and most of my other posts, is the "paragraph chunk" style mentioned in the program.
I like to think I'm a decent enough writer that I can express a cogent thought and my paragraphs aren't completely unrelated. (Thank you Research Sem!)
But technology definitely lends itself to this "chunk" style of writing and after a while it becomes so ingrained that it's difficult to write in any other way.
90 minutes!? Sheesh. I'm interested, but not interested enough to sit at my computer for that long! Although we are supposed to get another 12+ inches of snow this weekend...maybe I will watch.
And Research Sem is probably the greatest course I have taken, high school or college. Although it sucked writing all those papers.
The 90 minutes is broken into segments - each about 10 minutes long. If you don't want to sit at your computer for 90 minutes straight, maybe watch 1 or 2segments per day?
Research Sem is like taking really bad-tasting medicine. It sucks while you're taking it, but the benefits are worth it.
Or maybe just watch segments 4 and 5 that relate to technology in education?
I would be interested to hear your thoughts about whether or not computers in the classroom are worth the distractions.
Meta-issue #2 - 90 minutes is seen as an unbearably long time. Has technology reduced our attention spans? Or increased our workloads to the point that we have no free time? Both?
Neither. I just don't like watching it on my computer for that long. I have a very uncomfortable desk chair (I am too cheap to buy a new one) and I just don't like being a foot and a half from my screen for that long. If it were on TV, I'd watch. And yes, I know, hook up the computer to the TV...but I'm too lazy, haha.
This weekend I will try to watch segments 4 and 5. Just finishing my Masters in technology and education, I'm interested to see it.
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