Phones, and TVs and Computers... Oh my!

This chapter of the book served as a great introduction, an overview of the roots of technology and a glimpse into its future.

For many of our generation, the babies of the 80’s, the idea of being away from communication for more than the duration of a plane ride is a whimsical idea.

In the Trendspotter’s Guide to New Communications I became shocked by the reality of many of the predictions: daily we see improved connections, increased mobility, the inversion of home and office, loss of privacy and rebirth of cities (I see this in Houston!)… just to name a few.

I continued reading in 1-2 and stumbled upon a particularly interesting part saying “ because technology defines the limits on what a society can do, technological innovation might be expected to be a major impetus to social change…” (13). I see the ramifications of this in our changing and developing techo-world today. Our society is able to peace talk over nations, have families communicate clearly and doctors can discuss medical strategies at the moment advice is needed.

Maybe Google IS Taking Over the World...

I found this news article online; Google owns more than 70 percent of the online search market. Wow!

Swiss Police Find Marijuana Field with Google Earth

I know it's Friday, but I thought I'd share this story with you since we talked about google last time.

here's the link: Swiss Police Find Marijuana Field with Google Earth

Google, so called 'evil' by technology critics, has uncovered evil this time. To me, this news was hilarious after what we've read for the last week. Maybe we should take more advantage of Google rather than accusing it of spoiling us.

Video Cassette? What's that??

I actually found out about this article on a Web site specialized in film and Hollywood news.
The era of the VHS, that tried-and-true, must rewind after every viewing, film medium that we were brought up on, is officially over. The dawn of the DVD has all but made the poor video cassette obsolete. The last major retailer that still sold VHS tapes had its last shipment ever this past holiday season.
I can't say I miss the VHS. I mean, the rewinding on its own was annoying. But when it first came out, it was as innovative as the DVD was when it first came out not too long ago. I don't know about you, but I don't really even remember the last movie I bought on VHS. I also don't remember when DVDs starting coming onto the scene. Was I astonished? Was I like "Oh wow how did they think of this?" What was the first movie I bought on DVD?..did it seem like this newfangled, space age technology?
I ask you to think back....to your VHS days. Watching Power Rangers, Barney, whatever it may be. Think back to your first DVD days...and do you honestly think in 50 years kids from the new generations will even remember what a VHS was? Or that it even existed?

So long my plastic friend. It's been real.

Self-Publishers Flourish as Writers Pay the Tab

Interestingly, Mokoto Rich, the author of the reading: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? also wrote this New York Times story. It talks about how there will be more people publishing books than those reading books. This is because there are more people who resort to self-publishing than going to mainstream publishing houses.

"Meanwhile, there is one segment of the industry that is actually
flourishing: capitalizing on the dream of would-be authors to see their work
between covers, companies that charge writers and photographers to publish are
growing rapidly at a time when many mainstream publishers are losing
ground."

Information-processing in the digital age

1. In the following typology, where are the authors, and where are you?

	Critical	Not Critical
Tech-savvy
Not Tech-savvy

2. Regarding disallowing students to use Google, why not ask them to use both (online and offline sources)?

3. Regarding whether Google is making us stupid, a recent article How Google is making us smarter provides the counter-argument:

The ominous warnings feed on a popular misconception of how the mind works. We tend to think of the mind as separated from the world; we imagine information trickling into our senses and reaching our isolated minds, which then turn that information into a detailed picture of reality. The Internet and iPhones seem to be crashing the gate of the mind, taking over its natural work and leaving it to wither away to a mental stump. As plausible as this picture may seem, it does a bad job of explaining a lot of recent scientific research. In fact, the mind appears to be adapted for reaching out from our heads and making the world, including our machines, an extension of itself.

But this author also made lots of assumptions about how our mind works. Let's move toward a more techie direction by asking the following questions about these tools:

1. I suppose you use Google, Wikipedia, or dictionary.com a lot. But what's the easiest way to access these search engines/services?

2. What are the most effective search strategies?



3. How much do you know about these sources of information when they literally shape your worldview?

The latest version of a Google bomb story in NYTimes.com

4. Are you in control?


Then comes the question about reading. The NYT article "R U Really Reading" raised some more questions. But which ones do you think are really important?

1. Kids don't read as much in print any more.

2. The Internet is not an effective learning tool.

“Learning is not to be found on a printout,” David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, said in a commencement address at Boston College in May. “It’s not on call at the touch of the finger. Learning is acquired mainly from books, and most readily from great books.”

3. What is reading after all?

Some literacy experts say that reading itself should be redefined. Interpreting videos or pictures, they say, may be as important a skill as analyzing a novel or a poem.

4. How about this:

Some simply argue that reading on the Internet is not something that needs to be tested — or taught.

“Nobody has taught a single kid to text message,” said Carol Jago of the National Council of Teachers of English and a member of the testing guidelines committee. “Kids are smart. When they want to do something, schools don’t have to get involved.”

5. I like this one:

“I think they need it all.”

Hyperspace vs. Hemingway

I am a lit chick i.e. a female who loves reading. As a little kiddo, I thoroughly enjoyed the nights spent with my Mom, reading little golden book stories about Farmer Joe and his rabbits. Soonafter, I progressed into an avid reader of the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine. And after those got repetitive, I upgraded to Christopher Pike's more "post-pubescent" plots (there were some sex scenes and bad language.) Those books and many others that included topics about aliens, ghosts, and vampires, helped me to become the reader I am today. However, growing up, the only experience I had with online reading was in the yahoo chatrooms that my cousin and I would visit in order to talk to crazy people from Denmark.

I understand that I am an exception. Most of my friends had little to no interest in reading. Getting children to have an interest in reading books has been a problem for a long time, before the access to the internet was as available as it is today. In my case I think my love for books and reading was probably due to the positive attention I got from my mother and teachers for being so interested in literature.

There is no question in my mind that online reading affects literacy in a positive way. I agree with the notion that internet reading could be an avenue toward book reading because they are similar in some ways, but the issues around why kids are not reading books is more complex and should not simply be blamed on the distraction of the internet.

The internet and books are inherently different things and should be treated as so. Books, novels, literature, offer you a window into a drawn-out context of history or situation and allow for more detail, explanation, which in turn offers a chance to reflect on themes and build on imagination. And the internet is a whole different animal. Different medias are plastered together: video, audio, text, to form a story that will communicate information more quickly. But it's a different story altogether, a different way of learning. With the internet, you can receive tons of information in a matter of minutes because of media-combination and the nature of the internet. This doesn't mean that it's better, just different.

In the end, books and internet reading are both beneficial; they just produce different benefits.

The Curious Case of Seongbae

I will be honest. It took me more than 50 minutes to finish reading Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? As a non-native speaker of English, I am a slow reader for English texts but the real reason it took me nearly an hour to finish this article lies behind the true nature of internet: DISTRACTIONS!

Here’s what happened. When I started to read this piece, I suddenly remembered that books I ordered from Amazon have not arrived yet even though it should have by now according to the shipping schedule. So, I checked my e-mail to get the tracking number and visited UPS.com to see if the estimated shipping date has been changed. When I logged in to my e-mail account, I saw an important e-mail notice from my advisor, so I had to write a reply, which probably took about 5 minutes. Then I returned to nytimes.com to continue reading the article. I barely managed five paragraphs before I opened a new window to check my blog simply because I am sort of addicted to blogging. A couple people left interesting comments, so I had to leave replies. This delicious moment took about 5 minutes. I thought I was finally ready to concentrate. But my desperate hope was scattered when a friend of mine messaged me on MSN messenger.

So, this is my typical adventure when reading stuffs online. The shocking thing here is that all of these distractions came from internet itself, not my dogs, roommate or cell phone. If these external distractions are added while I read online, the activity is going to be a massive chaos.

As I’ve expressed so far, I find myself extremely distracted when reading things online, so whenever I have to read important documents, I always print it out. Otherwise, I basically read multiple Web sites at the same time going back and forth from a window to another window. Oddly enough, this works better for me as long as the contents I am reading are not scholarly journal or difficult-to-swallow-readings. I guess jumping back and forth from a web site to another makes me less boring, which ironically end up helping me focus better.

Online Games to Teach Math

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/start-up-uses-online-games-to-teach-kids-math/

I thought the first line of this NYTimes blog was interesting and sort of related to the last page of the "Online R U Really Reading?" article, which discusses the potential educational uses of the Internet.

I barely read – offline

I know how hard it was to beat the urge to watch television and read a book instead. I come from a family of voracious readers, so reading was not an acquired taste, but a covertly enforced characteristic. I was not forced to read a book per se, but since everyone at home did, I followed suit. Not many of my friends did, but I wouldn’t call them dull or worry about their intelligence.

I have always considered myself an avid reader. I still am. But online. Until recently, I used to read two books simultaneously (I have ADD). I don’t like reading one book at a time. I could blame my ADD or a lack of time when I started grad school, but I’d be lying. I could also blame Google – just for lack of anything else.

But honestly speaking, I think it is my inherent dislike to read long passages of text from one source. Ironically, I could barely get by Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? without going to other links every three pages.

There are also others who would want to do something else instead of read a book. Mokoto Rich spoke of how the Internet is curbing teenagers desire to read books. I don’t quite subscribe to this opinion. Even before the advent of the Internet, there have been several people who akin books to eating vegetables. So in my opinion, it is somewhat unfair to blame Google and its cohorts or even the Internet for teens disinterest in reading books. However, I do agree that such technology does reduce interest in reading books. But how come we’re not considering the fact that people read more online?

I read more online than I do offline. I get to interact with people who have similar tastes, help re-write books the way I like it on fan-fiction sites and have access to Google Books and other similar sites that offer books even in PDF file formats. So why would I not read online? And for now, since I can’t think of many libraries with as many users with similar tastes, I’ll stick to reading online.

PS: I’m still a romantic when it comes to reading books. There’s no software that can take the place of the smell of old paper, the scent of fresh ink in new books and even the fact that I can stick a fancy bookmark where I last left off.

Literacy Debate

For me there is nothing like curling up with a great book or magazine in my own bed. Touching the pages of an interesting novel, connecting with the characters, or learning an in depth piece of information about a celebrity I admire. While the internet satisfies many desires, there is a different experience in actually consuming the material. The feeling is so personal with a magazine. I cannot fall asleep with a computer laying in my bed, I might burn myself from the heat!

In some ways I feel I belong to a generation who lives on the net, but also who still appreciates a great piece of paper that I can personally hold and enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8u3OfKG3tI

White Bread

I found this article to be extremely interesting. As a student and a person who uses the internet often, information is readily available at my fingertips. At any moment of the day when I am near a computer, I can look up absolutely anything I want. For example, in my Magazine Management class I was able to learn about saving money on magazine subscriptions through alternate outlets. I used the Google search engine to explore websites.

Although I understand the thinking behind the professors ideas, there is plenty to be learned from the internet. We have moved into a new age. With everything good comes something bad. For example, one may use the internet to look for frivolous information, or use it to gather a new perspective on old ideas. For myself it has helped me grow intellectually, and also entertained me. I look at youtube all the time to watch something vital I've missed or just for laughs.

One should not limit themselves to one form of education, but explore different sides as well. In keeping with the old there is room for the new too.

Don't disrupt the natural evolution of technology

I can see how people are making the assumption that Google and the Internet are allowing us to be lazy and somehow incapable of separating quality information from garbage, but I disagree.

In this information age, although information is easier to access and find in a matter of seconds because of search engines, quality researchers and writers have to find the truth and decipher what information is credible. By arguing that Google is dumbing us down, or stunting out intellectual minds from research, you are disrupting the natural evolution of technology and information. If anything, the easy access to information should be helping students create new ideas for future work and where the Internet can take us in the future. By not allowing students to use these resources, you are not allowing them to find out for themselves what information is credible and essentially you are taking steps back in technology.

Great minds and great writers are able to use all of these resources and pick and choose what information is credible and what information has a substantial amount of worth in papers, research, etc. What should come from the overload of information is a new system or database that only allows professors or respected minds to contribute.

Readings // Eva

All the three texts brought up very interesting points, some of which had never crossed my mind before.

I was stuck, however, when I read Is Google Making us Stupid?. Like the author, Nicholas Carr, I also often find myself struggling to read longer pieces, such as novels or research articles. Indeed, it used to be easier for me to read these longer pieces a few years ago. I had never realized, though, that my brain could be changing because of how much I use the Internet -- for leisure, work and school. Yes, I must agree that "the Net is becoming a universal medium," as Carr said.

I'm not saying these changes (to Internet users' brains) are good or bad. If they are true, which science will tell us sooner or later, everyone should be aware of them, because then we'd have the need for two kinds of literacy: an offline, and an online. And both would be equally important. That is, it is important for kids, for instance, to be able to effectively read (print) novels as much as it is for them to be able to effectively read online. And this thought refers me to Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?.

The Internet shoudn't be the enemy of reading in print. It should complement reading and add to the users' knowledge. Parents and schools need to find a way to teach their kids to appreciate books and libraries as much as the Internet and all the wonderful resources it has to offer.

Carr says: "Research that once requires days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes." I do agree with him. What I don't agree is that one excludes the other. The Internet is here as a research aid, but it does not substitute books and periodicals in libraries. The Internet should serve as a guide to those in search of information. It is important for these people, if they have access to libraries (like we do at UT), to go after other sources of information. It is important for parents, teachers and professors to teach their kids and students that the Internet is just ONE of the resources available out there, that what they see online is not always true, and that it is important to question and not just accept what you see first. Kids need to be able to recognize what information is reliable and what isn't online. I know there is a lot of junk, but there also is a lot of good, useful information and articles written by scholars online. That's why I say that, when doing a research, the Internet can and should be the starting point, but definitely not the final one. These would be some of my answers to Alexandra Frean in White bread for yound minds.

There aren't answers, however, to all of the questions posed by the readings -- perhaps none of those questions has exact answers. This week's readings were extremely worth it in the sense that they've made me think about such a debatable topic (the Internet and its consequences to the society).

The Google mind

I like how in the "Is Google Making Us Stupid" article, he starts out saying his attention span does not last as long as he used to, them he writes a multi-page article.

I feel our reason for reading has changed, and therefore where we go to find our information has changed. With the growing popularity of the internet, people have began to rely on it for reference or "how to" information. This not only puts stress on professionals because amateurs can learn how to do their craft in a matter of seconds, but it also reduces the amount of reading for pleasure. With the appeal of endless information, it is apparently harder to focus on something that is just for pleasure.

Personally I do enjoy reading for pleasure, but my attention span does not carry over to what I'm reading for other reasons, probably because I know I could get a synopses somewhere else and not really be worried about losing the story value like in a novel.

Mountains and Technology: Reading Week 2

A few summers ago at about 4 a.m. you could find me ascending the peak of a mountain in Colorado. The sun had just risen above the horizon. Shades of pinks and yellows consumed my vision. The air was crisp at the dawn of a new day.

Those few days will never escape me, because there is something strangely intimate about being out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing. There were no cell phones ringing to the latest music hit, no internet around to distract my mind for brief, fleeting moments. Technology was nowhere to be found. Interestingly enough it is always times like those in Colorado that I have been the happiest.

We live in an age where you have to drive for miles upon miles just to escape the realm of technology. Because people have inundated themselves with information and "easy access" through Google and other search engines, minds seem to lose grip when it comes to actually reading and enjoying articles and books. I completely agree with the comments about skimming information that is more than a few paragraphs long and not absorbing it made by Bruce Friedman in "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" I can honestly say that I do the same thing. My attention span has become shorter and shorter through the different outlets of the internet. At any one moment I could be reading an article from The New York Times, and then switch over mid-sentence to Facebook to look through newly posted pictures of my friends. It amazes and scares me how quickly my mind seems to shift gears, and not truly soak up the information at hand.

As much as I am distracted, I will never stop loving the act of reading a great novel I can hold in my hands as I turn the pages one at a time. I know this because every time I finish a book I always want to know more. I become so overwhelmed with the sensation of actually feeling like I am a part of the story, witnessing every scene. To me, that will never fade. No matter what sociologists and academics say about losing touch due to technology, that feeling when a book comes to a close is so much stronger. It is like reaching the peak of a mountain, overlooking everything else in sight.

Great pieces of information and beautifully written articles or books will always be there. It is just filtering through the falsities to find them that is the hard part.

Online reading, Google, Internet reliance(1)

In response to the "White Bread" article, I have to say I didn't really care for it. I know the author did not set out to imply that our generation is lazy or incompetent in deciphering fact from fiction, but that's the feeling that I got when I read it. Just because in the last 10 years or so our generation has began to rely on Internet resources like Google and Wikipedia, everyone knows those are not the only research tools out there. And, as I'm sure some of you have, I have sat through a class or seminar specifically designed to teach us how to research "correctly" on the Internet at least once in my life. :(
I don't think our generation necessarily needs to be bombarded with what not to do on the Internet when it comes to researching (anything for that matter)--I feel as a college student I can pick for myself what I think is true or not. And any good student knows that much of what you can find online you can find the same stuff in print and vice versa.
I feel patronized when elders look down on us and say we young people are relying on the Internet to much, or using particular Web sites without caution. I get most of my news with what is going on in the world online, and if someone honestly thinks Wikipedia is their best line of defense, then that's their problem. I don't feel like it should be some sort of blanket generalization for our generation. The Internet has caused us to think differently, because it has caused us to function differently and handle situations in ways that we could not in past. And what's wrong with that?

Also, for the "R U really Reading" article, I thought that was sort of comical. And all I will say is Yes, always, all the time, and I am thankful that in my lifetime we have something so beneficial as practically limitless information and texts online. :)

Just Google It

Technology is starting to make its footprint in every realm of our lives - no longer can we sit frustrated at a dinner table, trying to remember who wrote a certain book from high school. Nope. Now we can find the answer in a matter of seconds in a variety of ways: for the less civilized of us, question-answering text message services like CHACHA or for the more mobile world, using the Internet on the phone to simply "google" the answer.

To the younger generation, Wi Fi phones are not a new techno-craze; the phones are the norm. Although Google is a trademark, it is certainly making its way into the younger vernacular as a verb meaning "use a search engine on the Internet to find the answer."

I see the constant use of the Internet to answer our questions as an overall positive direction of investigation. Armed only with Internet connection and a question, one can find an endless supply of previous articles and varying points of view on the subject matter; therefore, people nowadays seem more inclined to investigate and to figure out answers ... because it IS easier.

The problem comes from ignorance of what the Internet holds - any child, professional or jokester's two cents on a topic. I think schools need to address the growing use of the Internet for research and implement classes on how to research critically online. Although I can see some of the negative side effects like a lower tolerance for long stories that the article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?", talks about, I think people are learning the efficiency of skimming articles and that reading long novels will never die out due to too much Internet. Just check out J.K Rowling's sales or the Twilight series.

Things Are Still Groovy

My parents have these old friends from their UT/Austin days who moved to Kerrville several decades ago. They are possibly the last surviving genuine hippies. I mean real hippies. They are "off the radar," vegan, don't have "real" jobs or cell phones - or the Internet. They aren't consumers of mainstream media. They come to Austin once a month to shop at Wheatsville and travel to a tiny, remote town in New Mexico a few times a year to stay at their cabin.

You'd think they're behind on the times; stuck idealizing an era when young people were political activists out in the streets protesting Vietnam and "exploring" their intellects by dropping acid.

But these people are the most informed, intellectually curious individuals that I know. They hunt for information, find and order obscure books through the book exchange and make a daily telephone call to who-knows-where to listen to the day's headlines and news stories. Their living room is full of books and article clippings. Sometimes they call my parents to look something up on the Internet, but it's rare.

They say they won't get the Internet because it would become an obsession. They have so many questions and so many interests that it would take up all their time and destroy their tranquil lifestyle. Maybe they're afraid of what Nicholas Carr referred to as his deteriorating attention span because of the way he's been consuming information on the Web for the past decade. But if my parents' friends had the Internet, would their attention span dwindle? Would they no longer be able to read hundreds of books a year? Would it cause them to lose their interest and their curiosity because they would eventually take for granted easy access to information?

From the perspective of a philosophy major, it is an anomaly that the modern phenomenon of easy access to information would result in the drop in quality of education and proverbial hunger for knowledge. It seems to be somewhat the case, but I wouldn't have it any other way and I don't think the Internet or Google are the only factors contributing to today's kids being more stupid or intellectually incurious or illiterate or bad spellers. I must agree with Nicholas Carr, though, in speculating that it may have begun chipping away at our attention span. I've noticed the same thing happening with me, but I can't tell if it's senioritis or if most New York Times articles really are too long (yes..).

Maybe my parents' friends are so curious because they have to work to get information. They certainly have the attention span to read voraciously. Maybe it is because they are from a generation where kids cared more about learning and weren't used to consuming information like jet skiers like Carr says.

While kids may have less of an attention span, I refused to believe we are any less interested in learning. Perhaps it's a psychological condition: We want what isn't easily available to us and take for granted the things that are. In my opinion, that doesn't mean that Google or the Internet is a bad thing and I would never want to go back to a time without either.

There are many factors that contribute to Tara Brabazon's "University of Google." The biggest one that comes to my mind is our mediocre (and even failing) public education system. Students' inability to discern online information seems to be more a failure of our education system than the existence of tools that put a world of information at our fingertips. But like the dwindling attention spans, if the Internet really is posing a problem for information judgment, I believe it can be fixed or even harnessed to make things more efficient, positive and better.

Brabazon admits that the if students were taught to interpret what constitutes quality information and what constitutes fluff, things would be better. From the perspective of a journalism major, increased access to information can never be a bad thing and I completely disagree with limiting student use of Google or Wikipedia during the first year of study. Why can't we teach students to "interpret" information without limiting access to information?

As for the attention span problem, I'd like to think it's senioritis, but I'll admit that Nicholas Carr's theory seems fairly accurate.

reading week 2

Since the Internet became a part of my life, my way of thinking and lifestyle have changed. There was a moment that I got shocked becuase of how I thought at that moment.

I don’t remember exactly what I was doing, so I’ll just pick an example.

Let say, I was carrying five glass of water on a tray, heavy and unstable. Somebody was passing by me. By mistake(by the wind or somthing), I staggered and a glass fell. “Clank” followed.

Glass pieces were scattered here and there. There were puddles of water on the floor. At that moment, I wanted to click the hyper-link “go back to the previous page” on the web." I tried to convey my feeling and thought in English, and I hope this works to you all.

Anyway, at that moment, I realized that computer and the Internet really became a part of my life. Alas! Even it was shocking that I confused the reality with the virtual world. I thought it only happens to young child.

The moment that I wanted to click "go back to the previous page" on the web popped up my head because of the line "Bruce Friedman, ..., also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits" from Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Really, the Internet has changed our life and our way of thinking. I cannot imagine the world without the Internet. Now, I can just go to school with only my laptop; I don't need a heavily armed with books, notepads and pancils to get in the classroom. Almost everything is possible if I have only a computer and the Internet connection.

But I'm not sure about the auther of Is Google making Us Stupid?, Nicholas Carr's comment that "The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing." For me, I like computer and the Internet, but I still like to scribble on the recycled brown paper and to read old hard-copy of John Steinbeck's books.

Well, sometimes I don't print and just read online because if I print it, it becomes of 5 to 7 pages to read and it seems it takes more time to finish the reading.

I don't know which is right and which is not about how we absorb information. Google is not the god and not all right and correct information, but Google provides us pools of the information. And I think it's our human's work to sort through the right information with critical thinking.


-----
There were nobody's posts. I wonder what I posted is right or not.

I hope everybody's having a great Sunday!!! See you all in class!

http://www.googleityoumoron.com

Okay, I admit it. Google is now my answer to everything. Don’t judge me, I know it’s the same for you too.

Excellent! Maybe. Or maybe our ability to retain and process information has pretty much come to an end. I was an avid quizzer till my undergraduate days. I was ranked among the top three in my state and used to be an encyclopedia of ‘unwanted’ information. The problem is, during grad school in India and while working, I started getting hooked to search engines. They sure did make fact checking easy! Considering I can’t check facts or learn new things without going to my online Mecca, I can safely say that the part of my brain that remembers things has started to rot. I can now barely remember my appointments for the day without my Google Calendar or the name of George Bush’s dog, let alone its breed! This from a person who remembers the name of the referee during the Hand of God goal – and I don’t even like soccer!

But then again, we live in an information society and we know and have access to a lot more information at our fingertips than ever before. So how are we supposed to remember anything, let alone trivia, when we can access Google from pretty much anything that has the capacity to go online? Why use a typewriter when you have a computer? Why remember possibly inane things when you have Google?

Carr observes that with the Internet, we are progressively used to skim through and jump from link to link, a habit he suspects that may have a negative effect on our brain, alienating us from serious and focused reading. In his book Digitopia, Richard Degrandpre, talks about a generation that is allowing the digital media to completely take over their lives. So much so that it is hard for them to do anything for a long period. I personally take offence to the generalization that we are a generation who won’t be content to sit through a three-hour epic or read an 800-page book. People do what they want with technology. In the same way as you choose what to write in an MSWord document, you can choose what you look for on Google. Also, with a dishwasher at home, why would you do dishes the traditional way?

Maybe I’m paranoid, or I’m just plain cynical, but there will be day when we’re going to sit at a bar and have a conversation about: Remember books? Those were the things we read before e-mail, Web browsing, and Facebook.

Humans are good at adapting, and with luck, this question too shall pass: Is Google making us stupid?

Let's blog! - Guidelines for Online Assignments

Online assignments account for 30% of your grade in this class. Here are the guidelines:

1. Respond to readings BEFORE class:
Starting today, you are expected to post response to assigned readings at least once a week (the more the better). Please label your posts using both "readings" and "your screen name."

Please respond to assigned readings by posting a message on this blog by 5 pm, the day before class. The purpose is to make sure you read the readings as well as to provoke analytical/critical/creative thinking on issues to be discussed in class.

You should first read through the assigned readings. Then provide your own thoughts about the reading(s), share examples relevant to the topic -- if you find an online example, that's great, please include the link in your posting. If the reading is from the textbook, you may use the questions in the beginning of each article to organize your thoughts.

Although your insight will receive the most attention, the quality of writing and the way you present it online also are important. It doesn't have to be long, and feel free to come up with an interesting title for your post.

2. Share Information Technology News:
Once every two weeks, please provide a link to a news story on information technology published during the past 7 days. Explain briefly why you think this story is of significance. Due: The first Monday of Week 3, 5, 7, 9, etc. Please label your posts "news" and "your screen name."

3. Other exercises:
From time to time, the instructor may call for items relevant to the topic being covered during the semester.