7 things I’ve learnt from Wednesday’s symposium :

1. Knowledge and technology go hand in hand in assisting educational systems

Right now, schools use technology primarily as a tool for developing students’ computer and Internet skills. This is important, but technology proficiency is simply the point of entry to the digital world—and it is only a small sliver of the far-reaching utility of technology as a powerful enabling tool for a full range of essential knowledge and skills.  The assumption that education already is using technology widely is unfounded. Despite federal, state and local investment in technology and Internet connectivity, most schools still use technology sparingly, rather than as a critical component of all educational operations. To a wireless nation, which relies on technology for ordinary tasks and extraordinary achievements, it is shocking and inconceivable—but true—that technology is marginalized in the complex and vital affairs of education.

2. Yes we are dependent on technology to simplify our lives, but there’s a likelihood to complicate things as well.

Take the iphone as an example. Apple has introduced icloud – a system where it stores all your information including pictures, videos, music and apps into a “cloud” where it makes sharing easier and transferring information to your other apple devices. I’m a sucker for apple products, I’ve basically have everything in the chart below which makes things confusing. I like how icloud does all the backing up for you, but i find it rather annoying when icloud syncs everything from my ipad to my iphone. Thus eating up all my memory space, leaving me no space for my music. Each time I sync my phone into my macbook pro, the same thing happens all the time. I find myself constantly going back and forth from my ipad and my iphone deleting the apps. Icloud, I knew you were trouble when you walked in.

 

3. There’s no sense of urgency in the computer field, there is also a community of people who do not enjoy such a field.

I fall under the latter, sometimes it’s best to stay away from technology for awhile.
I found this interesting article in The New York Times – Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain. It talks about how a primitive trip that came with a goal : to understand how heavy use of digital devices and other technology changes how we think and behave, and how a retreat into nature might reverse those effects can change our views on how technologies have affected us in coming out with new ideas.  Everybody should go read this, it’s really a good read!!!

4.The way in which you remember something, evokes a certain stimuli that brings about a memory or a thought.

We remember experiences and events which are not happening now, so memory differs from perception. We remember events which really happened, so memory is unlike pure imagination. Yet, in practice, there can be close interactions between remembering, perceiving, and imagining. But technology does it for us, with the use of hypertexts, you can’t escape them. If you’re thinking of getting a dress from a fashion site, but you dont have the money to get it right now, but you click it anyway just to check the dress out. The computer remembers it for you, 2 mnths later, if you’re still intending to get it, the dress that you clicked the last time, will somehow appear in your search history. Sometimes it even appears on your facebook newsfeed. It’s scary, but… it helps!!

5. The different types of behaviour portrayed online and offline
I often use this as an excuse to be anti social.
Like what i said in my previous post, users tend to exaggerate their personas because they have much more time to revise and calculate the content they present than in spontaneous face-to-face interactions. Majority of us have the tendancy to alter our the way we act to suit different settings, what more can you say about being offline?

6. Twitter
“News feed” is important because Twitter has clearly changed the way news is gathered, disseminated and consumed. Social media has transformed newsrooms, speeding up newsgathering and enabling recourse to wider ranges of sources and material. The corollary of the ubiquity of Twitter is that journalist’s roles have changed significantly. Twitter never sleeps and neither does the modern journalist, who is scanning updates 24/7, posting and retweeting.

7.Knowledge exist beyond yourself
We can do SO much research on the World Wide Web, but experiences, thus far are the best learning experiences. Our response to situations, and events in our lives are all shaped by our experiences. Your thought process, our mind set, attitude, aspirations, expectations, and social behaviour are all altered or shaped by our experiences. We are nothing but a mind over matter that is a product of our experiences under specific circumstances in our lives. This is why I love travelling!!!

Check out Venessa’s blog post on information load aka DATA SMOG.