Post due March 31st

Blog post due March 31^st “Always on Panopticon”:

Summary

            This article continues both Carr’s and Barone’s discussion of the definition and impact of intellectual technologies.  Rheingold discusses the “smart mob” technologies of the 21^st century and their potential impact upon society as a whole (p. 184).  He discusses how these technologies not only impact the way people use technology, but the fabric of how our society is structured.  For instance, these technologies have erased lines demarcating what is work and what is home life.   In addition, these technologies also affect our sense of time by allowing us access to information that is uninhibited by needing to be at a formal office.  In addition, the uses for technology and the consumer are discussed with these technologies increasing the power of the consumer.  However, Rheingold discusses that this power is contingent upon the Internet remaining open and unregulated and cautions against the increasing regulation of the Internet, similar to how television and radio eventually came under federal control.

Critique

            This article was interesting to me because I am usually dismissive of alarmist cautionary articles about the harm that technologies will wreak upon unsuspecting citizens.  However, I found the sections about Internet regulation interesting.   I liked his discussion of the advantages of keeping the Internet regulated and how this increases the power of the consumer in regards to having access to unbiased, uncontrolled information.  Rheingold discusses the harm of regulating the Internet by comparing it to technologies of the past: “Recent legal and regulatory actions are the first sources of a thus far successful campaign to lock down the formerly freewheeling Internet and return to the days of three television networks and one telephone company, when customers were consumers and no one sliced into profits with their own businesses or challenged old technologies with new ones” (p. 204).  These discussions reminded me of Carr’s discussion of Google and other discussions we have had this semester of how information is always curated for us, whether by people, media outlets, or computer algorithms and that it is important to be aware of such mediation.

Connection

            The panopticon chapter reminded me of Carr’s last chapter in that they remind the reader to consider both the advantages and disadvantages of technology not only upon the individual (emphasized in Carr), but also upon citizenry and society (emphasized by Rheingold).  Carr (2011) states, “Every tool imposes limitations even as it opens possibilities” (p. 209).  Rheingold focuses on the benefits of an open information system, such as the Internet, but warns against how the freedom provided by technology also comes at a price.  For instance, he reminds the reader of how the boundaries of home and work have disintegrated, making people feel like they are “always on.”  Similarly, Carr discusses the increased access we have to technology, but the shallow thinking and distractedness this constant stimulation may cause.

Carr, pages 115-176

Blog Post due Monday, March 24^th, Carr, pages 115-176:

Summary

            In Chapter Seven: “The Juggler’s Brain,” Carr discusses the connection between the Internet, multitasking, and a loss of deep reading.  He discusses that the Internet has made it easy to multitask; subsequently, people are constantly encouraged to move from page to page, reading more words than ever before, faster than ever before, but absorbing and reflecting less.  He connects this back to his history of intellectual technologies by connecting web reading with scriptura continua by stating that reading on the web, with all of its distractions, is taxing our cognitive load in much the same way that reading a continuous script did in the past (p. 122).  Reading on the Internet is not the same as reading words on the pages.  We read web pages in an “F” formation and read maybe 18% of the content provided by web pages (p. 135). 

In the Chapter titled “a digression,” Carr discusses the argument some may make in order to defend peoples’ intelligence in the modern era.  Some cite the Flynn effect, that IQ scores have risen steadily, as an argument that our intelligence is increasing, not decreasing.  This chapter summarizes several ways in which the Flynn effect does not necessarily mean that our intelligence is greater than those before us. 

In Chapter 8: “The Church of Google,” Carr discusses Google’s origins and their attempts to digitize the written word.  In this chapter, Carr reviews how Google started, how it made money (through AdWords), and its means of continuing to make information available at the lowest possible cost (its digital book effort).   

Critique

            One of the reasons I like this book is Carr’s connection of seemingly disconnected topics from the Flynn Effect to the rise of Google, he hammers away at his theme that we are reading more words with less depth—we are superficial thinkers.  However, I find that although Carr often presents both sides of an argument, he often makes unsupported overstatements such as the following: “The intellectual technologies it has pioneered promote the speedy, superficial skimming of information and discourage any deep, prolonged engagement with a single argument, idea, or narrative” (Carr, 2011, p. 156).  I know on the whole many people skim web pages at a fast pace, I and others spend many hours researching online, reading articles thoroughly, and using the Internet to probe those ideas deeper.  Thus, I find these overstatements skewed.

Connection

            I am interested in studying how to get students to use digital tools for deep reading and creative writing to further their academic literacies.  I appreciate Carr’s arguments, but I also find that they lack evidence.  How many studies have looked into whether or not students can use technology for deep thinking if taught how to do so?  I’m excited about the opportunity to research this question, and Carr’s book seems like good justification for the need to teach students to use technology for academic as well as social pursuits.

Carr, pages 1-57

Blog Posting due 3/10, Carr, pp. 1-57

Summary

            Carr opens the book discussing whether tools are inanimate objects that we control or whether they play a role in shaping our literacies and our thoughts.  He seems to suggest that although some may think that we are in total control of the technology we create; technology has a history of having unintended consequences that go beyond its creator’s vision, and the technology impacts us in ways that we never intended and seemingly could not control.  Carr quotes Langdon Winner as saying, “it is that technologies are not merely aids to human activity, but also powerful forces acting to reshape that activity and its meaning” (2011, p. 47). 

            Carr makes a second point throughout these chapters that while man tries to control the medium, the medium often, unintentionally, takes hold of the man.  Part of this hold has to do with the chemistry of our brains.  Carr explains that throughout history we have though of the brain as a machine; however, our brains may not have the rigidity of a machine, but the flexibility of plastic instead.  However, Carr makes a point of highlighting that although our brains seem to have a plastic makeup able to stretch to accommodate learning, they are not elastic, meaning they do not go back to their original form once they have made these accommodations.

Critique

            Typically I am hesitant to belief those who take a “gloom and doom” approach to technology, suggesting it will run our lives and ruin our minds.  However, I like Carr because he seems to give an evenhanded evaluation of how technology has impacted our lives and that technology will affect our lives in ways that are unpredictable and uncontrollable.  I thought his discussion of the brain chemistry and its interaction with technology is interesting, but rather than be discouraged by this, it seems to suggest that technology must be dealt with because it affects us in ways that we may not even understand.

Connection

            Last night I watched the Steve Jobs biographical movie in which Ashton Kutcher plays Steve Jobs.  This movie has interesting parallels to the book.  For instance, the movie begins with Jobs dropping out of school and exploring new technologies with his computer club friends.  At first, there is an innocence and fun in their drive to create new technologies.  However, once Jobs has success with building one of the first home computers, his invention not only progresses in a way that he didn’t foresee and can’t control, as buyers demand items he didn’t create and his future board members of Apple make decisions without his authority, the technology also affects his physical, emotional, and intellectual characteristics, seemingly in unforeseen ways.  For example, as Jobs success grows in the movie, he becomes more and more dedicated to pursuing the ideal that the machine will eventually be an extension of the person.  However, he becomes obsessed with the machine or product to the point of alienating himself from all of his friends and family, and this quest for the technology changes his personality, turning him from a fun, loving innovator, to a man obsessed.  Thus, I thought this movie illustrated Carr’s point about control and technology.  Does man control his invention, or do inventions always surpass man’s intentions affecting him in unknown ways.

Baron, Chapters 9-12

Blog Posting Due Monday, March 3, 2014:

Summary

            Chapter 9, “Everyone’s an Author” discusses the saturation of authorship as the Internet has made writing easier and an audience for that writing always present.  Baron discusses that writing has changed from the scribes’ role of replication to the modern quest for originality.  To explore modern day publication, Baron uses the blog as a case study.  He discusses that blogs are mainly written by teenagers, but also have been upheld in courts for politicians and reporters.  Schools, keeping the tradition of trying to exclude technology, often censor blogs, and this censorship is upheld in courts.

            Chapter 10, “A Space of One’s Own,” discusses the proliferation of MySpace and Facebook as a new type of public, personal space.  Baron also discusses Wikipedia and the issue it represents of whether truth is best maintained by open content or closely guarded content.  Baron uses Wikipedia as an example of how digital spaces are reinventing the roles of writers and readers: “The very existence of multiple, ongoing authorship—the essence of the wiki text—forces us to rethink the roles of reader and writer” (p. 206).

            Chapter 11, “The Dark Side of the Web,” discusses the negative aspects of the web such as hate groups and censorship.  For example, Baron discusses the irony of Google being a free disseminator of information in the United States, but agreeing to censor that information in China in order to tap into their seemingly boundless Internet audience.  He uses this point to demonstrate that although the Internet is often seen as a limitless source of free information, this information is not neutral and is curated for us, whether by censors or by algorithms. 

            Chapter 12, “From Pencils to Pixels,” Baron sums up his book with a few cautions and questions about where the current digital writing revolution will go in the future.  Baron discusses some ironies of the information age.  For instance, although information seems more freely accessible than ever, companies maintaining proprietary information closely guard this information.  In addition, this information, even though it does not tax resources for paper or pencils, still requires natural, finite resources-specifically, all those digital tools run off of electricity and “server farms” (Baron, 2009, p. 240).  Finally, Baron ends with a question of where this digital writing and reading will take us next.

Critique

            The theme from this reading that most interested me was the theme of curation.  This theme was discussed in Chapter 11.  I think that most people think of the Internet as a tool for democratizing information-information there is perceived as free to all, searchable as long as the user types in the correct search terms.  However, most users rarely think about this information being curated for them.  They are only seeing information that algorithms deem worthy.  In places like China, where government dictates and filters that information, users only see what the government and companies such as Google have contracted to reveal.  The interesting and, perhaps unnerving, side of this is that I don’t think people understand that information on the Internet is filtered in any way.  The perception is that the Internet is freely distributed information.  I think this is an important issue to be educated about because we need to be mindful of what information is available and how this information is being censored or curated.

Connection

            I am currently working on a project in which I help students build websites to be advocates for a chosen social issue.  This project is more important to me than ever as I think it teaches students to use the Internet for more academic, socially important issues.  I value this time to teach students about writing in these spaces especially as Baron points out that schools have traditionally tried to censor or ban students’ online writing.  I think one of the issues that Baron points out is teaching students not only how to find information online, but also teaching them how this information may also be filtered.  I don’t think this is something that average students are aware of.