Comments on: What Is Technology?

By: Ryan Griffin

Ryan Griffin — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 18:54:15 +0000

Dear Mr. Whitby,

I really enjoy reading your blog and in particular the article, “What is Technology?” really struck me as interesting. I very much agree with your idea that when teachin the your generation, one must utilize that generations technology and try to force education through means of outdated technology. My name is Ryan Griffin, I work with StraighterLine. We’re higher education innovators and are interested in sharing some content between our sites. Blogs, articles, etc. If that is something you would be interested in doing please let me know. Check out some of our coverage here: http://www.straighterline.com/press/news.cfm. Even if you’re just interested in a one-time piece we’d be happy to share our opinions with you on the future of higher education. We think education is poised for some real changes because of the financial aid crisis, rising tuition, and increased use of online tools.

Sincerely,

Ryan Griffin

By: kjkaufman84

kjkaufman84 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:26:27 +0000

The question posed, “what is the goal of education,” is an interesting and important one of which I began my recently accepted article to Kappa Delta Pi Record fostering the question “what is the purpose of school?” Agreed that each teacher and respective individual concerned with education will have a different answer. As highlighted, I do believe teachers have a responsibility and an increasing expectation to provide their students with learning opportunities that reflect the use of technological tools in the classroom. More specifically with the flood of software applications, touch screen technologies, smart phones, etc. that students should be utilizing the tools of greater society inside their classroom walls and not just outside of them. The issue of teacher training always arises when talking about technology. I think it is becoming more evident that teachers have another responsibility when teaching content – to be able to leverage such with relevant technological tools and not just use technology for technology’s sake but to guide students’ learning with the tools that are greatly impacting society.

By: Matthew Roberts (@mmcr)

Matthew Roberts (@mmcr) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 18:40:34 +0000

I agree that technology, even if most people don’t realize it as such, is exceptionally broad and encompasses everything from rocks to iPods. I like to describe certain technologies—i.e. the ones that already exist in our formative years—as becoming “transparent.” We use them without question; their technologicity (if I can invent a word) has receded into the background.

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 11:25:33 +0000

I enjoyed your article and plan to share it with my peers. I have to say that the video did not prove that a magazine was broken. All you saw was a darling one year old interacting with her environment and learning that objects are different. It would not be wise to read more into that scenario. She liked the object that moved and flashed because she was not capable of reading or connecting thoughts to the pictures in the magazine.

By: Aaron Carpenter

Aaron Carpenter — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 00:20:16 +0000

A discussion along the lines of “What is technology?” came up in a class this year – they weren’t very happen with an unplanned comment I had made about ‘rocks being the first technology’ or something like that … they were also not very convinced by my pointing out ‘it’s called the “Stone Age” for a reason or pulling up the wikipedia on technology to help make my case … that aside over, I appreciated the gist of this one as it’s one of the big lessons I learned from my students that I learned this year: I’m officially old (embrace it). They were born when I was in high school and have no concept of the pre-computer, pre-mobile phone days. As soon as they get a little bored or even stop making the intentional effort to focus in some cases, out comes the phone as entertainment and/or escape is carried in the pocket of almost every high school student now. Remember when we had to write notes (the illicit kind) or doodle … well now you text or “Draw Something”

By: wtpowers35

wtpowers35 — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 01:04:03 +0000

Can’t disagree with you at all Tom. My 3 year old uses our iPhone and iPad regularly with no help from his mother or I. Amazing to watch him use these tools the last 2 years.

By: Miss W

Miss W — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 07:47:58 +0000

Hi Tom! I am a 4th year education student at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada. I am currently enrolled in an Introduction to Computers in the Classroom course where we are encouraged to experiment with all kinds of technology that we may or may not decide to use in the classroom. I often find it mind boggling when I stop and think about the ways technology has changed, just in my lifetime. And the things that are new and fascinating to me that are common place to my 5-year-old sister. If you have time, you should check out my blog. It is all about my experiences with technology as I am introduced to new, and repurpose old, tools.

By: Janet Abercrombie

Janet Abercrombie — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 00:13:35 +0000

A heated Christmas conversation began with my father-in-law saying, “We don’t need technology. It’s a waste.” Rather than point out his x-box habit, I asked him to define technology. We finally got him around to a definition that would encompass pencils as technology – and he needs those.

“How do you define technology” is a powerful question. Thanks for the reminder.

By: Mike Lubelfeld

Mike Lubelfeld — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:45:55 +0000

Great, thought provoking blog post, wonderful video clip!

By: What Is Technology? « harmonteach

What Is Technology? « harmonteach — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 23:39:56 +0000

[...] on tomwhitby.wordpress.com Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]