As I had predicted in my previous blog post, the second half of 'The Life Story of Technology' is all about how personal computing has made its way into the lives of everyday people. There are so many contributing factors to how computers evolved to what they are today. Rather than discussing the importance of the computer hardware involved with getting to this point (like in my last post), I will be using this blog to discuss some of the social implications that technology brought with it. Chapter 7 brings forth some really important issues that were created in light of the presence of personal computers and the Internet.
A huge issue, starting in the mid 1990's, is the Digital Divide. The Digital Divide is essentially the split between people that have access to technology and people who are not using or cannot afford technology. The issue was emphasized the most in schools. The claim was that students who had access to information technologies (such as the Internet) at home had an advantage over students who did not. Also, that schools which had computer facilities were tracked to produce more graduates seeking further education than schools without computers. Here in lies the controversy behind the Digital Divide. Yes, computers and Internet access are amazing tools that, when used to their fullest potential, can produce an incredibly efficient learning experience. The fact of the matter is that there are a few things standing in the way of that. The first thing most people bring up is that computers are as much of a distraction as they are a tool for education. Many of us have some experience in this claim. Right now, for instance, I'm doing a bunch of other things while periodically coming back to this blog. I've been working on it for an hour (and counting) and I am only this far in. It is really amazing that I could have 6 tabs open at once, each allowing me to do something different, but there is a time where multitasking increases to a point where productivity actually goes down. We also have to take into consideration the learning curve associated with computing. You cant just stick a computer in front of a kid that has never seen one and expect them to be able to extract information from it. It takes time, effort, and willingness to learn. The last topic ill address regarding this issue is information overload.
Information overload is a pretty strange idea. It's very similar to walking into a huge library with millions of books and walking out not finding the information you were looking for. The difference now is that people who probably wouldn't go to a library are still likely to have a computer and are even more likely to use it for information gathering. Many people, including myself run into a problem with information overload and it can be a truly nerve-wracking experience. It is not that the information doesn't exist, it is just that there is so much of it and its often very difficult to find a starting point. Practicing web searching skills is best way to combat information overload, but like learning anything it takes some effort.
So now, at the end of the first decade in the new millennium, we can start to see a shrinkage in the digital divide. Personal computers have now become so inexpensive that most anyone can afford them and everything in society is starting to digitize. Yet, for some reason we are not all geniuses. More and more people are going to college, but that's because of the pressure put on them by society claiming that they are unlikely to succeed otherwise. I am personally torn between the two sides of the Digital Divide controversy. In theory it makes so much sense that someone with a computer has an advantage over someone that does not in a learning environment. Like the one guy that forgets to bring his calculator to a math exam. At the same time, however, now that computers are on their way to standardization, it doesn't seem like they are making a drastic difference in peoples willingness to learn and I feel that this was an issue often over looked in the earlier years of the Digital Divide.
No comments:
Post a Comment