Reflection 1: Technology Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles

Blogging is one of the relatively new ways people are using to transmit ideas and thoughts to others across the world. I , personally, do not have a blog.  However, I am a follower of four of my friends blogs. They discuss issues in agriculture and show how agriculture influences everyone.

The technology blog was a different topic than I have looked at.  It was interesting to see how many technology and school articles tagged on this blog.  I read through 4 of the articles  and learned about the technology issues and how funding and students effect them. There were two which really caught my eye.

The first was “Can e-books bridge achievement gaps” by Nora Carr.  One of the neat facts I found was “a 500 book home is as good as having university educated parents”.  This is something that hit home for me.  My parents did not go to a four year university.  They went to a technical college.  My dad went through diesel mechanics.  My mom went through basic business program based around accounting.  However, my parents were very dedicated to their children in providing a huge book selection.  When, I was growing up we went to the library once every two weeks and had a huge library consisting from children's books to full length novels and encyclopedias. Now, I am a 4.0 student at K-STATE and looking at master's programs in animal science.  However, the advancements of e-books have made books easier to attain and take up considerably less space.  By having books on the Internet, families can get books for less money than buying a $20 plus hardback book that ends up collecting dust on the shelf.  Families can get more books to provide for there children and students will be able to reap the rewards of further learning.  The only problem I see with e-books are the big initial investment.  Parents will have to buy a lab top, desktop, kindle, or other technology.  This can be very expensive for some middle or lower class houses.  I question whether e-books can be used in every community for all students.

After reading about technology advancements, I decided to take a step back in time and read “ Should schools go back to 1983 technology” by Liz Dwyer.  This was an experiment students did in a classroom. 90 percent of students took part in giving up all there technology that had been created after '83.  They couldn't play PlayStation 3 or Game boy Advanced.  However, one kid got an Atari to play.  This for me is a very interesting thought.  When I go into some classrooms, I sometimes question whether students depend to much on technology to do activities for them.  Some high school students actually struggle with basic math and have to get a calculator out for simple things like adding and subtracting.  It poses the question of  “ Have we become to dependent on technology”.  For  me I find this very scary.for the world's population.  If a natural disaster would happen, would people be able to function and survive without there microwave or cellphone?  I am doubtful on many people's abilities.  I, personally, hate keeping my cell phone on me.  My favorite activity is to go fishing, hunting, camping or play with my livestock. Technology has been a benefit in some ways, but I often wonder how far is to far.

After reading this blog, it has gotten me more curious about other blogs.  Also, I am excited about learning to create my own blog.  I would like to dedicate mine to people understanding production agriculture and all the great things that come from it!