Week 3: Information Agencies and Ecologies
Nardi and O'Day Information Ecologies
Overall, I have truly enjoyed reading this book. I find the authors’ tone and writing style to be not only informative and fresh, but also inviting and optimistic, full of encouragement for establishing a means to control the path of technological development in our future. I agree completely that people have the ability to form critical, reflective thoughts about their own information ecologies and therefore play an active role in shaping and maintaining a healthy system of information exchange. This can happen regardless of the level of education or affluence of the individual members; everyone has thoughts and opinions they just chose not to share them sometimes. The goal is now to create awareness and provide a way for people to interact with technology even when they feel like they are too small or insignificant to have an effect.
I find Langdon Winner and Jacques Ellul’s perspective that technology is its own autonomous force pessimistic and suggestive of a world where computers and technological innovations will weed out human contribution. To believe technology needs to be invented because it is inevitable, like J. Robert Oppenheimer says of the atom bomb that “when I saw how to do it, it was clear to me that one had to at least make the thing” (p. 37) is creatively open-minded yet irresponsible in the greater scope since one is not considering the impact said innovations will have on all of our global society. Does this make anyone else think of the doomsday war between man and machine of the Terminator movies? Not to suggest that technology will develop its own living force someday, but the consequences could be debilitating instead of beneficial if technology is allowed to run rampant for the sake of technology and not actively harnessed and directed by its users.
Nardi and O’Day contest this “rhetoric of inevitability” (p. 17) with multiple examples. I found one of the most interesting case studies from this book to be the Pueblo virtual world of the Longview Elementary School (Phoenix, AZ), the Xerox Parc research group (Palo Alto, CA), and the senior community of ‘grays’ (p. 127, also Phoenix area) as they are called. Not only was the experience technologically enriching for the children, teachers, and seniors, but also it was building a strong sense of community between all the users. Shy children found a comfortable medium for expressing themselves in both topics related to class or in terms of building social skills while seniors felt the human connection that they sometimes lack as they age. I know this to be true of my own grandparents, and I try to make connecting with them a regular part of my schedule. Though it was inconclusive at the time, I would not be surprised to see the literacy rate improve for these children as they learn to type, write, read, and organize their thoughts will actively engaged in the topic aspect of this technology. Nardi and O’Day point to the children’s interest in creating this virtual world as a central component of why the program was succeeding, like the students’ interest in photography motivating them in the digital photography course study of chapter ten; almost as a side effect, they learned to use new technology since the focus of the course was not centered on the technology itself, which can be a turn-off for some less tech savvy students. These fresh ideas supported by the findings of the authors’ research leave me with a feeling of empowerment that I can in fact influence the future in terms of integrating technology efficiently into my life, and I strive to make sure that is the outcome.
Overall, I have truly enjoyed reading this book. I find the authors’ tone and writing style to be not only informative and fresh, but also inviting and optimistic, full of encouragement for establishing a means to control the path of technological development in our future. I agree completely that people have the ability to form critical, reflective thoughts about their own information ecologies and therefore play an active role in shaping and maintaining a healthy system of information exchange. This can happen regardless of the level of education or affluence of the individual members; everyone has thoughts and opinions they just chose not to share them sometimes. The goal is now to create awareness and provide a way for people to interact with technology even when they feel like they are too small or insignificant to have an effect.
I find Langdon Winner and Jacques Ellul’s perspective that technology is its own autonomous force pessimistic and suggestive of a world where computers and technological innovations will weed out human contribution. To believe technology needs to be invented because it is inevitable, like J. Robert Oppenheimer says of the atom bomb that “when I saw how to do it, it was clear to me that one had to at least make the thing” (p. 37) is creatively open-minded yet irresponsible in the greater scope since one is not considering the impact said innovations will have on all of our global society. Does this make anyone else think of the doomsday war between man and machine of the Terminator movies? Not to suggest that technology will develop its own living force someday, but the consequences could be debilitating instead of beneficial if technology is allowed to run rampant for the sake of technology and not actively harnessed and directed by its users.
Nardi and O’Day contest this “rhetoric of inevitability” (p. 17) with multiple examples. I found one of the most interesting case studies from this book to be the Pueblo virtual world of the Longview Elementary School (Phoenix, AZ), the Xerox Parc research group (Palo Alto, CA), and the senior community of ‘grays’ (p. 127, also Phoenix area) as they are called. Not only was the experience technologically enriching for the children, teachers, and seniors, but also it was building a strong sense of community between all the users. Shy children found a comfortable medium for expressing themselves in both topics related to class or in terms of building social skills while seniors felt the human connection that they sometimes lack as they age. I know this to be true of my own grandparents, and I try to make connecting with them a regular part of my schedule. Though it was inconclusive at the time, I would not be surprised to see the literacy rate improve for these children as they learn to type, write, read, and organize their thoughts will actively engaged in the topic aspect of this technology. Nardi and O’Day point to the children’s interest in creating this virtual world as a central component of why the program was succeeding, like the students’ interest in photography motivating them in the digital photography course study of chapter ten; almost as a side effect, they learned to use new technology since the focus of the course was not centered on the technology itself, which can be a turn-off for some less tech savvy students. These fresh ideas supported by the findings of the authors’ research leave me with a feeling of empowerment that I can in fact influence the future in terms of integrating technology efficiently into my life, and I strive to make sure that is the outcome.
posted by lwinkle at 9:15 PM
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