Since we worked quickly through the Diffusion of Innovations lecture, and I made time for continued work in that topic in week2 (and we don’t need the extra time), I’d like to spend two weeks of Tuesday classes looking at and discussing the following programs from PBS. In lab on Thursday, we will continue to work on our WordPress sites. (There will be an additional post with materials related to Thursday’s lab, stay tuned.)
The first program we will look at is from PBS’s Frontline, called “Digital Nation.” This program raises the question of whether this generation is the ‘dumbest generation’ (based on a book of the same name) and challenges what criteria we use today (in contrast to the past, traditional definitions of…) intelligence. This program is 90 minutes, and we should be able to see the entire program in class. If you are absent or would like to re-watch this on your own, it is available here.
Next, we will look at another PBS program called “Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century,” which challenges the role technology plays in education and the impact it has. Major concepts covered here include the concept of play, gamification and non-linear learning. Watch it online here. Again, we will likely be screening this in-class, but feel free to look at it on your own, since I know you just can’t wait!
See you Tuesday.
COM 120: New Communications Technologies 
My children can not even carry on a conversation at the dinner table without worry about getting back to their games.
I think that this topic is extremely interesting. I think that for me, I never grew up with major technologies. For instance, we were only allowed to have a computer, before that, the last “game console” that we owned were our Game-boy Advances. So for me as a college student, where I can go and purchase my own techy tools, I find my perspective on how to use technology different than many of those who have been saturated with it all of their lives.
So for me, I feel caught in the middle when it comes to technology being positive or negative. I think that no matter what we use/do in life, there needs to be a balance.
I agree with a lot of what this video was about. While most of the video dealt with the negatives on technology with humans, there were some positives to some of the new technology that i thought is very beneficial. The new planes that the US Air Force have adopted have allowed them to navigate plains across the world via computer. This innovation is very helpful to the Air Force and it helped show that some new technology is very productive and useful after all.
What i also thought was interesting from the video was the studies done on MIT students and how multitasking is a lot more disruptive than people think. This shows that even some of the smartest college students in the world have a difficult time multitasking and it is showing in their papers and other work.
What I took away from this documentary was that we have a very powerful tool in technology and internet and with that said we have to be careful with how we use it. It can create a lot of problems if not used correctly. We have to ask ourselves is what we are losing worth losing for what we gain out of this technology?
This was a pretty well-made program, I think. It did a good job addressing the multiple benefits and issues which technology brings up. Young people today are definitely saturated in so many new advancements that it’s hard for anyone to keep up, and it’s hard to slow down long enough to weight the consequences of these new developments. Technology has spread and taken over to the extent that even the people who aren’t very tech-savvy or don’t like using technology have been forced to adopt it simply because it’s become the standard that everyone is expected to meet.
I don’t think we are the dumbest generation. We are more a step forward. People view us as dumb because the generation before us is scared of what is to happen. Just as with the book, radio, and TV before. At first it seems we are relying to much on new technology but in fact we are learning to express ourselves through the new tools available to us.
I really liked the documentary, even though the woman was clearly on the technology is potentially evil side of the debate, she still had some really good points. I was surprised to see that America is in some ways not the worst afflicted by technology. However (even if this wasn’t always the point of the program) I was enamored with all the new or otherwise unknown to me technology shown here. I do not believe we are the dumbest generation, that was coined by adults who don’t understand the technology.
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Yeah i don’t believe we are the dumbest generation, we were just born in a era were there were more resources and technology. We understand technology a lot more and the older generation. They may say we don’t talk face to face with people or we may pay more attention to our phone more. Some of it may be true but it isnt all black and white.