So long! (...but for how long?)

The Fall 2010 semester has come and gone and taken Information 3.0 with it. It's almost nostalgic looking back at my blog posts and tweets over the course of the semester. Fun and education don't generally intertwine for me, but this I-series course was as fun and educational as I've had in recent memory. Coming into the semester I considered myself to be a rather tech savvy individual, capable of talking about most innovative technological trends and the like. Not to say that I wasn't, but there were definitely a number of things I didn't really ever think of too deeply that have certainly made me wiser over the course of this last semester.

In the very beginning of the class, we had an assignment where we had to post our thoughts about technology on the main class board. On September 2nd, I said:

"Technology is tricky. While it is generally used to make our lives easier, I feel like technology is advancing at a much faster rate than the people who are capable of using it are. By the time the average user figures out and comfortably uses a certain device, there is something completely new coming out. Endless cycle."

There isn't anything that I learned in the class that really swayed my thinking about this statement, and I still stand by it, but now I know there's much more to it than just what I wrote. It's not so much about new things coming out and having to re-learn everything all the time. Technology is about how we adopt it and use it to fit our lifestyle. It could be the most helpful, life-enhancing tool you've ever encountered, or it can be the complete opposite- the most disruptive (and destructive) distraction you'll ever find. It's all about your approach and whichever way you choose to take it.

There were too many things learned in this class worthy of reminiscing about in this blog post, but I particularly enjoyed our unit on mobility. It's unbelievable to think how far we've come technologically as a society. Watching SciFi YouTube clips from the 1980s, they thought we'd have cell phone wrist watches with a built in television and such. We have the technology nowadays, it's just not be the most convenient thing in the world. It's no longer about carrying that portable cellular phone in your pocket and being able to make phone calls from anywhere. It is now about carrying that computer in your pocket that allows you to watch movies, order food, pay your bills, start your car, run your business, and turn the lights out in your house. Oh, and it also makes phone calls. The evolution of the wireless world has been something amazing. If we have come this far in 30some years, I can't wait to see what kind of technology I'll be using 20 years from now.

Wimba. The mixed course. That was pretty awesome. I had never actually used Wimba in any of my classes previously, so using it in the classroom with Professor Yaros made for a great experience. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why other professors don't use it as well. There is really something to be said about being able to vote on certain polls and voice our opinions and have a computer gather all the data and interpret it in a matter of seconds. I can't help but think back to my days in grade school when the teacher would ask a question and we'd raise our hands to vote with some kids putting their hands down as the teacher counted or raising their hands twice in some instances. Wimba was quick and efficient...and it worked. I was able to attend class from home when I was feeling under the weather and I didn't miss a beat. It is hard for me to see how this is not implemented in a larger percentage of courses moving forward. Great tool.

Lastly, to anyone who didn't get to experience this fall semester with us, the one thing I will tell you is that there is no such thing as "too safe" on the Internet. The Internet is a public domain, and if you're not careful about your privacy, you may really grow to regret it. We've all read about identity theft and how easy the practice has become for cyberthieves nowadays, but all of these things are preventable if we just spend a bit more time thinking about the kinds of things we make available to complete strangers on the Internet. This is one of the things I became particularly conscious about over the course of this class, and something that I will keep in mind with me any time I'm inputting any of my information into a computer. It is most definitely something to think about.

This is my last blog post of the semester. I would like to thank Professor Yaros and the rest of my Info 3.0 classmates for helping to make this such a great experience. I feel like I got to know a few of you more than I got to know people in other classes and it really was unlike any other course I've ever taken. I will certainly recommend it to other friends and classmates. I plan to continue posting on this blog beyond Info 3.0 as I've had a blast doing it and I have a legitimate interest in the topics of economics and technology. This is goodbye but it shouldn't be for too long. Thanks, everybody.

Technology in the Classroom + the Internet as a Supplement to Print Media?

After conducting an interview with Professor Grinath this morning, a few of my ideas were confirmed while a few others were challenged. It was an interesting talk, and I really wish I had more time. I began by asking Professor Grinath about his use of technology in the classroom. Having taken one of this Economics classes in past semesters, I really enjoyed the interactivity of his lectures and the way they were organized in PowerPoint presentations with various illustrations and clips along the way to help the economics non-enthusiasts digest the seemingly never ending demand and supply curves!

image courtesy of home-schooling.org

Aside from his typical classroom sessions, Professor Grinath teaches a few blended courses. In our own Information 3.0 class this semester, we experimented a bit with the blended course setup and it seemed to garner rather positive reviews. In retrospect, the period of time when we decided to experiment with the blended course may have had a little to do with the positive reviews (as everyone counted down the minutes until Thanksgiving break) but a few other things came to mind in regards to the differences between my limited experience with the blended course setup and Professor Grinath's thoughts after some time teaching them. For starters, Prof. Grinath believes that the individual who joins a blended course needs to be a little more motivated (or at least more organized) than the average student in your typical classroom course in the sense of keeping up with lectures, discussions, etc. In your regular classroom setup, the instructor is able to repeatedly remind students about upcoming deadlines and other course assignments. In the blended course, the dedication is required from the student to keep up with all the important dates on his/her own. Another thing that came to mind in the way of the contrast of my experience with blended courses in comparison to Prof. Grinath's account was the technology used to teach these courses. Although I didn't ask during my interview, I'm almost certain that Montgomery College uses WebCT as their primary client for distance learning courses. In our Information 3.0 class this semester we have been using Wimba which is a bit more modern and includes some more features than what I remember WebCT having. Regardless, my Info 3.0 classmates and myself may have enjoyed our limited time with the blended course format simply because it was a one time thing and something different than what we'd been accustomed to the whole semester. The response may or may not have been different if we had spent the entire semester using Wimba. 

Moving over to the economics side of things and in the context of this course, I asked Professor Grinath about the effects that the Internet has had on print media and the newspaper industry. In recent years we've seen the site traffic of online outlets like The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast skyrocket while the demand for print newspapers has dwindled. As he explained, the new substitute (the Internet) has brought down the demand for print media leading to a decrease in price and production of print materials, but he does not expect a complete elimination of these in our society as there will "always be a place for them." As both Professor Grinath and Judith Rosen explained, online media is not a necessary substitute for print media yet, but it can be thought of as a type of complement. The online availability of print media does not necessarily replace the handheld demand for the product, and although the levels of demand may fluctuate from time to time, the This is the same case as applicable to online retailers and their apparent dominance over the retail sector. Over the course of the past few months, I've been finding myself more and more drawn to buying all of my necessary items online. Whether they're textbooks, games, or music, I can't remember the last time I visited a brick and mortar store (except, of course, going to physically see what I would later order online). Just like with print media, there will seemingly always be a demand for brick and mortar stores simply from the viewpoint of being able to see and hold things physically. Professor Grinath can foresee partnerships forming between the typical brick and mortar stores and online retailers in the near future. For big box retailers who haven't done so already, this seems like the logical next step.

As I mentioned in my very first blog post, economists have grown to associate long term economic growth with steady technological progress in a society. Although it is hard to predict historical technological breakthroughs, it is hard not to see how the ease of accessibility to online media sites and online retailers are changing our lifestyles on a daily basis. This is a trend that should only continue to grow as technology becomes more accessible and we (hopefully) face periods of economic prosperity in the near future.

Sources:

Peters, Jeremy. "Longtime Washington Post Writer Heads to the Daily Beast." The New York Times. 5 October, 2010. 

Rosen, Judith. "Gazing Into the Crystal Ball." Publishers Weekly. Volume 247, Issue 20. Page S9.