Tapscott Part One

The book was very enjoyable to read especially considering my future career will be dealing with technology. One thing I found hysterically funny was some of the things the "oldsters" did. When Tapscott was talking about them and then I thought will this ever happen to me? I think my favorite one was when I read that someone was trying to delete something off a disk using white-out. I do not even see where the logic was in that due to being raised with CDs. It just makes me think that if there is a when that happens to me then I really need to catch up.

Later on Tapscott talks about people he calls "Net Geners" and how they can process information much faster than their parents would. I never really thought about whether or not I did before reading this section. Later I realized it is true when a event such as scrolling through some pictures on my computer to delete as to make space occurred. My mom wanted to go through them with me to make sure that I did not delete any that either she wanted or did not have. As I was scrolling my mom kept telling me to slow down or asking "Woah, what was that?" I thought it was strange and that maybe it was just cause they were older than me. Tapscott caused me to think differently which I do fully agree with.

Tapscott Part Two

The second part of the book made me think that I wasn't crazy when I was in high school or college for liking teachers that taught differently than most. In this part of the book Tapscott talks about how the "Net Geners" learn differently compared to what others are used to. Which completely explained why I would enjoy a class that was more engaging than one where the teach just spouted words to memorize. After reading this I had wished that all my teachers from the past had read this book before and learned from it before teaching me. It may be selfish, but I am fine with being selfish on this topic.

Something I did notice was that after coming to college is in most of my classes I am learning more and easier than I did in High School. I think the main reason for this is due to the fact that I myself am pursuing a major that is based on technology itself. Therefore, any professors I have to teach my a technology must be themselves familiar with all types of technology. This causes the teachers to teach different than the simple take notes while I talk method.

Baron part 2

The book now talks about how even though we ask for things to be in writing form. We still are very suspicious of it. One example the book gave of why we are suspicious is counterfeit money. Due to once we see how it so closely resembles the real thing we do not question it. Without the proper knowledge of identifying the real from the fake many people have been ripped off.

Next the book talks about the appearance of the World Wide Web along with the other inventions that have appeared due to the web. An example that the book gave was email and how when it first came out people would not really have any etiquette as with talking to one another. Then finally some people set some rules of email and netiquette which are similar but slightly different. With the invention of blogs more and more students and children in general prefer blogs on the computer to writing them down. Which I do not truly know because I did not keep a blog until one was required.

The last part the book focuses on is about Google and others putting books online. The fact that now even older texts and newer ones are put online is a wonderful thing. The ability to look up a text whether it be Shakespeare's plays to the Twilight series has made the internet even more invaluable to the world. I can not wait to see how the internet will change the world.

Baron Part 1

The book first starts by stating that there was a time when society did not like writing. one of the largest people against writing be used was Socrates. He thought that writing would weaken memory for all who used it. After some of the other readings and thinking about the topic myself I do agree that it has (most likely) weakened the human's memory who use it. The book later talks about how we went from being suspicious of writing to actually valuing it over speech. The day and age I live in I true fully understand that statement because for almost anything to be official now it needs to be in print and signed. Most things will require that rather than simply "Oh you can take my word for it." I can not think of any technologies that have been released within my life that was seen with such skepticism then suddenly used by almost everyone.

Next the book talks about one of the most commonly used utensils today for writing, the pencil. It states how the pencil went from just being a hunk of graphite to a thin strip surrounded by wood with an eraser on the end. In the last section of reading the book talks about how a teacher had students write on clay tablets to show them how writing was done in the very beginning. Then later speaks of how type writers were also looked at with suspicion then widely used. The final part of the reading deals with how the human race's technological progression and how each new invention has changed how we do things in our lives.

Achebe second half

They so do not judge a book by it's cover. The title however is completely true about the story. Okonkwo's life truly did fall apart. Not only did he loose the people closest to him, but also banished and upon returning he found that many things have changed. All thanks to the "white man" that had come to his village. They had the people converting to their religion and causing his people to loose their culture. Then after hearing and experiencing some of the things that changed in his village he decided to fight back. Yet even when he kills the messenger his people are confused onto what is happening. Then he finally came to the realization that his people are beyond changing back to the way they were.

Achebe

Okonkwo lives in an oral only culture. In his village much knowledge is passed down through proverbs that many people can interpret in different ways. I for one have found some confusing and believe that may be due to having writing being such a major part in my life. That writing has caused me to not fully understand the impact and thoughts that the words in some proverbs can give. When i was younger and heard proverbs I usually thought things along the line of, "There must be a better way to put what the proverbs means." In "Orality and Literacy" Ong talks about how people of oral cultures talk in proverbs in order to pass down knowledge and to make it easy to remember.

Ong second half

While reading “Orality and Literacy” I was surprised to read how Plato basically disliked writing. I never truly thought how writing might “destroy memory.” It makes me wonder if that is true due to being taught that writing things is to improve my memory of the subject. I write every single day to help improve my memory of something I am learning. Yet if writing is destroying my memory then does that mean had I been born into an oral only society would I have almost photographic memory? I can understand how that works because they only have their memory to teach each other or learn from what they do. Yet has our brains truly lost capacity for memory cause of the fact we were born into a society with writing. The topic just gets even more interesting with the advance technology today that enables us not to memorize so many small details such as meetings, where someone lives and much more. Whether it be a cell phone, a pad of paper or a computer they all are able to hold the information for us rather than out own mind. Which begs the question of have we lost even more memory capability due to the technology of our time?