Author: mbowie3

Education for the Future

Just speaking hypothetically, what if it was a possibility to put some lenses on your head and to be able to see with your own two eyes, child birth? Or specific instructions and procedures to a heart surgery? Or even the simple, yet amazing concept of our solar system? Now that all sounds great, but what is I told you that is all already happening? With modern technology, we are now able to see, hear, or in the rarest cases, feel things without us actually being there. This is due to Virtual Reality (VR) technology. Things like Google Glass, Oculus, and other VR systems make it possible to do these miraculous things, all while staying in your seat, home, classroom or any place of convenience. This level of advanced technology can be used in a multitude of ways. VR through focused education (specific to major, subject, etc.) is a prime example of how Virtual Reality technology can create an entirely new aspect of learning, exploring, and discovering. It needs to be integrated into the school curriculum, as it can take education to an even higher level than years past.

Starting at the lowest level, going all the way up to post-secondary education, grade- schools and all forms of post-secondary education are already adapting to the “new wave” of VR learning and exploring. According to an article by Kelly Walsh, writer and educator, titled “Real Uses of Virtual Reality in Education: How Schools are Using VR”, teachers and other educators around the U.S. are taking full advantage of the ascendancies that VR learning has over traditional learning. A prime example of this are Virtual field trips. Educators are providing students with VR experiences and  in order to give them the experience that some have not, or possibly will not have the pleasure of doing so themselves. Students may now go to the zoo right from the comfort of their classroom. Expanding it further than just the zoo, the aquarium, or some other cliché field trip that can be seen with their own eyes, students are being taken on a trip to the solar system. According to the article, students use “Titans of space”, an app available for the oculus Go or the Samsung Gear VR, that allows you to see the solar system, which is both a privilege and an experience in itself (“Real Uses of Virtual Reality in Education: How Schools are Using VR”). This is only one example of how educators are placing students in the experience so that they may not only see it, but hear it as well. Another example of this is taking students back to the Jurassic Age, through a various number of apps, where these students can see, hear, and experience a time much before all of us. Virtual field trips are just the surface of what VR’s can do for education.

In addition to the virtual field trips children and adolescents alike may indulge in, VRs can also be used within the college education system. In the article by Kelly Walsh, he explains in a multitude of ways how VR through education can assist college students in grabbing a real-life experience while in class. In the article, he mentions college students on job sites pertaining to their specific field, they identified hazardous content, which in turn removes students from an actual job site filled with hazards, and prevents being in a potentially dangerous environment in order to learn (“Real Uses of Virtual Reality in Education: How Schools are Using VR”). Another prime example of college students getting a real-life experience through VR for education would include medical purposes. Colleges and institutions like UCLA are using VR to train neurosurgeons to perform surgery. Another location such thing takes place is Chu Angers University Hospital in Europe using VR to simulate stimulating a patient’s brain during a medical procedure.

All of these examples, from field trips, to medical procedures are amazing examples of ways VR can be effectively used in education. Referring to my personal experience with a VR in a classroom environment, I got the opportunity in my English-151 class to use Google Glass in combination with my iPhone and the NYTVR app to go through experiences of war and hardship. An informational VR experience titled, “The Displaced” guided me through an experience of a family, as well as other families, being forced to move out of their homes due to a brewing battle within their hometown, only to comeback to nothing but rubble and destroyed homes. This experience, seeing the rubble beneath me, drew a certain level of sympathy for that particular family, and the dozens of other families in the same situation as them. The educational part of using the VR is an amazing step forward in the direction of the age we live in, but being able to share an experience and feel sympathy or even empathy, is an entirely different aspect of it.

Not only does this VR through education help us learn and grow intellectually, it lets us share feelings with others without actually being there. In a TED talk presented by Christopher Milk titled “How virtual reality can create the ultimate empathy machine”, he talks about how VR through film making and education can draw people together. He makes a powerful statement just before he closes his presentation. He states, “So, it’s a machine, but through this machine we become more compassionate, we become more empathetic, and we become more connected. And ultimately, we become more human (“How virtual reality can create the ultimate empathy machine”). This really signifies the different aspects of education that the VR can bring, not attributing just the educational side of things, but the psychological and emotional side of things as well.

The VR should be and needs to be integrated into the educational system and you should highly consider using it when instructing your class, it can open up a new world of learning never experienced before by possibly yourself, and the students that have the privilege of experiencing such an thing. It draws students closer and can create a level of sympathy and personal connection possibly never achieved before.

Insight

My character’s name is Insight. He has blue eyes and that specific hairstyle because I wanted to model him after the Marvel character Vision. I also chose this style of clothing due to the fact that it looks like a cape. The name insight and vision go hand in hand, and he would have the ability of telekinesis.

Digital Age Adaptation

When you kick yourself out your shoes, take the VR lens off your face, and take a step back out of the now technology-driven world, just allowing yourself a few seconds, you can see so much that has evolved. Everything from using a wood-made abacus vs now using a TI-84 CE, to having the same amount of computer power in your lap today that you could barely fit in an apartment 60-65 years ago. Our “smartphones” are now so smart you can practically tell them what you need done in the morning, they create a sequence of events and run themselves along throughout the morning, just like you (iPhone Xs). Often times as we see technological advancements such as the ones that flash before our eyes, weekly it seems, we ask ourselves—is this change for the better? Or will it further cripple us?

The technological evolution the 21st century has witnessed is just one the many blessings the 21st century has experienced, especially the immensely increased efficiency at schools—elementary, middle, secondary and post-secondary. We see that universities are taking the next step in integrating more technology and interactive learning and filtering more ways to connect the pathway of education and technology.  With each passing, month, year, and decade, we witness the world taking big steps forward. We should continue this course. Not only does the age we live in make everyday life easier, it makes reading, researching, and things alike easier as well. Research done particularly through this medium (online reading) have shaped my opinion and drawn me to this conclusion.

Reading several essays, articles, and even a select few pages from a book have given me many perspectives as to how the “digital age” so to speak has morphed the way we read and write, and whether we should welcome this change, or if we should revert back to more traditional style of reading. Through the 5 readings I’ve read, which include, “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens” by Ferris Jabr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, “The Deep Space of Digital Reading” by Paul La Farge, “Neuroscientists say multitasking literally drains the energy reserves of your brain” by Olivia Goldhill, and the introduction of Now you See it (1-21) by Cathy Davidson, have all given critical input as to how the digital age affects us—whether it be positive or negative.

Both Carr’s and La Farge’s readings pertained to the topic of online reading. Carr’s  “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” goes in depth as to how online reading is particularly cancerous and it strips our ability to analyze text and comprehend readings as good as we would if were reading traditionally. He said, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski” (Is google making us stupid?). This implies that before the concept of online reading came about, he was deeply engaged, analyzing the texts he read. Now, however, he skims across articles or “speed reads” as he jumps from article to article (Is Google making us stupid). La Farge’s reading in comparison to Carr’s is quite the opposite, whereas La Farge believes that the concept of reading online is rather compelling, and it not only takes our mind on a deep journey, it gives us a unique experience, one that cannot be attained reading traditionally. He states that “Naumann gave a group of high-school students the job of tracking down certain pieces of information on websites; he found that the students who regularly did research online—in other words, the ones who expected Web pages to yield up useful facts—were better at this task (and at ignoring irrelevant information) than students who used the Internet mostly to send email, chat, and blog” (“The Deep Space of Digital Reading”). This doesn’t just apply to alone proves that the more you use it, the more you grow accustom to it, and can adapt along with it. From my own experience with technology, specifically technology in school, there has been nothing but success. I work more diligently, produce more quality work, all while moving more efficiently. With this, both myself and millions of others will move in the direction towards a more technologically advanced future.

At times, I sit, and I ask myself, “With all the craziness that goes on in my life, I always find myself multitasking. How can technology help manage all this?”. Technology has recently become so advanced that multitasking is almost done for you. Now you can work on your 5-page paper for English while organizing your spreadsheet for your business class, all due to the multitasking and processing capabilities of technology implemented into our digital age. This makes for more effective reading, writing, and researching. While I and many others believe multitasking is beneficial to an age filled with people that often find themselves in need to multitask, some others would disagree. In Olivia Goldhill’s “Neuroscientists say multitasking literally drains the energy reserves of your brain”, Goldhill goes in depth as to how multitasking might be quite hasty, but often can lead to error and/or fatigue. In the article, Goldhill references a professor at UC San Diego that states, “If you’re doing something on autopilot, such as the laundry, then it makes perfect sense to read a book at the same time. But attempting to do two challenging tasks at once will lead to a drain in productivity. “You can’t do two demanding, even simple tasks, in parallel” (Goldhill, “Neuroscientists say multitasking literally drains the energy reserves of your brain”). This may make people weary of the advancements in technology and the ability for ourselves to multitask (let alone a PC).  On the other hand, you have people such as Cathy Davidson who believe that multitasking is a gateway more efficiency, which is why the digital age should continue to flourish. Early in her book, she mentions “You can’t take one twenty-first century task with twentieth century tools and hope to get the job done” (Davidson, 7). This referred to our obsession to focus on one thing when there’s so many things happening around us. If we are to only focus on one thing in the workplace, at home, or most importantly, at school, then we would miss out on the next thing that comes flying past our head.

Every aspect that comes with evolution of the digital age should be welcomed. It should be attained and used, for the world is only going to get even more advanced. It’s mostly important to incorporate this into schools and colleges, for the near future will be the prime of this digital age. If acceptance starts now, you can only imagine how much this generation would flourish.

Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis on “Is Google making us stupid?”

The article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is a rather persuasive piece written by Nicholas Carr. It focuses on the praiseworthy aspects and shortcomings of online reading. He discusses how, although online reading presents a gateway for newfound aspects of reading not attainable when reading traditionally, it poses potential crippling of the human mind due to lack of traditional-style reading, and therefore deters effective use of concentration and comprehension. He uses a variety of historical sources from recent past and distant past in his essay in order to fortify his argument, which in turn makes for a credible source for a unique aspect on online reading in a technology-driven age. (Carr, “Is Google Making us Stupid?”). Starting with the author, Nicholas Carr is a writer, who has written quite a few books, articles, essays, and even has a blog, all pertaining to the theme of technology and business. Specifically, he’s written 6 books, all of which are about not only technology, but how it’s evolving and how it will affect future generations, whether it be hindering, or immensely prospering. His first piece, Digital Enterprise: How to Reshape Your Business for a Connected World, was published July 1, 2001. It magnifies the evolution of the wonder that has become the internet and how it is changing the world of business, specifically the strategic side of business. Within the book there is a chapter titled “The future of Commerce” (Carr, “Digital Enterprise”) which goes in depth as to how buying and selling through the internet opens new opportunities for business. Carr’s next published work titled Does IT Matter? is in fact an expansion of his Harvard Business Review article “IT Doesn’t Matter.”. It accentuates the importance of information technology and gives it a bigger role in the world of business. A case in point about Carr’s books and essays is that he often using historical evidence as a foundation for his claims. It’s shown throughout all his books and articles, and he even incorporates it in some of his blog posts. A few published books later, Nicholas Carr released what has come to be his most recent book, Utopia Is Creepy: and Other Provocations. Carr speaks on the greatness of technology and what it has done for us. He talks about the advances that technology has made and how it has impacted both the U.S. and the entire world, however, he also expresses that technology isn’t the 2nd coming for a better and brighter future. Keeping all this in mine, Carr’s take on “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” reflects all of his publishing previous of this essay and following this essay.

When talking about the audience, one may ask, “Who is this for? Who is this made for and tailored towards?” You may start by looking at where this was published. The article was published in 2008 on The Atlantic, a magazine well known across the U.S. Being published both in a magazine and online, there has to be a certain income level required to have the excess funds to either purchase the single magazine, subscribe to the magazine, or have access to the internet. It would be fair, at the least, to insinuate that the income level of this audience is middle to upper classed. Another thing you could view to suggest what audience this is targeted to is the vocabulary used in this essay. Nicholas Carr uses an assortment of vocabulary in his essay, and his vocabulary shows that a certain reading level or level of intelligence is required to not only follow along well, but to extract something and comprehend what’s being said and the point that’s being made in this essay. This presumes that most of Carr’s audience has post-secondary education. With that comes age. Granted, this is an essay that assesses online reading, therefore a generation familiar with reading online compared to traditional reading should be the primary focus audience. Anyone who has any amount of post-secondary education is 19+ years old, therefore a good primary audience would be 19-25 year-old, middle to upper class men and women who have post-secondary education. Now of course a good majority of 19-25 year-olds aren’t middle to upper class men and women. However, the family they associate themselves with are. A good secondary audience could be attained looking at the “The Atlantic” website. In the “sections” tab you see the different sciences that The Atlantic magazine contains. They contain all the different sciences such as social sciences, computer sciences, etc. An accurate secondary audience would be either scientists or researchers.

Taking a look at this essay, Nicholas Carr has clear cut purpose. His purpose is to warn people of the dangers that come with online reading. He diversifies his claim with different types of evidence, which includes historical evidence, research evidence, and even his own experiences with technology and its crippling capabilities. In Carr’s essay he states, “media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation” (“Is Google Making us Stupid?”). This shows the level of understanding that Carr has of the internet’s powerful influence, however as influential as it may be, the heavy influence is doing more harm than good. A sub argument to Carr’s main claim is that the new way in which information is being delivered is skewing not only the amount we have to process, but how fast we have to process all of it. In the same paragraph as the example previously mentioned, Carr says “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski”(“Is Google Making us Stupid?”). This expresses how people often dived deep into readings in the past, but now we skim over the articles we find and rid of them.

It’s worth noting that where this essay was published and when it was published play a big role in the effectiveness of the entire essay. Being posted to The Atlantic is a big deal, being mindful of how popular the magazine is across the U.S., not to mention the credibility and history of Nicholas Carr. Nicholas Carr specifically writing this essay makes for a better argument due to the fact that he’s written a vast combination of books, articles, essays, and blogs specifically about technology before. The year being 2008, it’s the year filled with up and coming waves of new technology that could make the human population go crazy over the ease of mind technology gives us day to day. However, Carr uses his essay to warn people of the potential threats–both physical and mental–that online reading entails.

The medium in which this information is delivered is quite crucial to the message it’s trying to send. It being in both a magazine and online, Nicholas Carr provides multiple ways for his main purpose to be analyzed, therefore reinforcing the theme of his entire essay–online reading vs. traditional reading. He chooses to publish this specifically in a magazine and online, rather than publishing it in a rather diminishing medium of received information such as the newspapers.
Nicholas Carr uses aspects of rhetoric in order to develop an effective and strong argument against online reading. He uses his history as an author, his audience, as well as context, genre and purpose as the driving force behind his essay. Carr also uses a series of historical evidence and research-based evidence to support his claim. A combination of all this contributes to concisely written piece.

Interface Analysis

There are many examples of how reading an article online that is particularly about online reading that can change and affect your view or your experience of the essay. The first of few examples include the hyperlinks. Hyperlinks will take you to another website, usually to get more information on a person, place, or item that was referenced. This changes your experience because now you have more knowledge and it makes it easier to comprehend ideas that might be necessarily easy to follow:

Another thing to look at is font. The rather simplistic format of the website is tailored around their articles being somewhat formal. Color also matters. The predominantly black and white is fairly “plain” or basic:

The last thing to analyze is the website itself. The website has many different categories and an assortment of sciences. This gives people looking for something else on that site a chance to come by this article, or vice versa:

                                                     

Learn to read and right…. write?

Learn to read and right…. write?

 

If someone asked you “how/where did you learn to read and/or write?”, a question one would ask is “well where do I start?”. There is an eternity of factors that go into when you learned to read and write, where you learned to read and write, and how! Everything or everyone from books, pens and pencils to parents, teachers, siblings, and tutors. Even the little things such as reading street signs or reading labels at a grocery store contributes to the expansion of your knowledge and reading comprehension skills. The factors that stuck to me most were books, teachers, parents, and public readings (street signs, labels, etc.). Reading books increased my reading comprehension and expanded my imagination, while teachers were taking what I knew, and walking me a step further in reading and writing from year to year. Parents laid down the foundation for all basic reading and writing. Although these skills are very broad and general, they are core.

Teachers are truly a wonderful tribute to our everyday community. They take the time out of their own lives to teach what they know so you can prove what you know. They’re often parents of their own children, but while teaching, it’s not so hard to grow a bond with them that lasts an eternity. Date back to the beginning. Ms. Cull’s class, Kindergarten, 5 years old. I could still remember walking in to an ever-so-warm “Hello! Welcome to kindergarten!” with the sincerest of smiles. She was very short but at my age she was tall. The best learning experience one could experience is the feeling of knowing that you’re learning something and that you’re growing intellectually, and at the age of 5, all you’re doing is learning! Everything from learning the alphabet and learning numbers to learning cursive. Those are the few things that lay down the foundations of reading and writing. Skip a couple years to 2nd grade, where you have the foundations of reading and writing, you start to learn to form paragraphs and put a multitude of thoughts into a–what we thought at the time was–a good piece of writing. Hearing the “good job” or “good work” is motivating and it’s another great attribute that teachers have, and it’s a prime example as to why they’re great at teaching to read and write. Middle School. Middle School. When you get to this level of learning, it’s a lot different than elementary school. The teachers are slightly stricter than their 5th grade and below counterparts. They expect more out of you as you are getting older. Paragraphs get longer. Readings and books get longer and filled with much more complex vocabulary. Therefore, the teachers have to do more teaching. I can remember being in 6th grade coming into my first class and not feeling exactly the same aura from my teacher as would’ve in 5th grader or earlier. You start to go more in depth with your paragraphs, as they teach you what to include in your paragraphs, and eventually they turn into essays. Fast forward all the way to high school, and teachers are teaching you to read and write in preparation of a higher level of education. Whether it be college–community or a university, or some trade/schools of arts, it’s what they prepare you for. Now, here I am writing papers the way I do, primarily because of teachers.

Ah, books. Each one is vastly different from another. Everything from the cover of a book to the chapter structure, to the synopsis on the back! The great thing about books is that as before you even read one page of it, you have no idea how you’re going to feel about it after you finish. Not to mention the fact that you’re learning. With each unknown vocabulary word, with each old, Shakespeare-level difficulty language and/or jargon, you’re expanding your knowledge and opening up your mind to new things. Something as simple as Dr. Seuss’ Cat in the hat or Green Eggs and Ham had an effect on you as a child that you didn’t realize then, but when you look back on it, you see the long-term effect. Reading Christmas stories such as The Grinch who stole Christmas on Christmas eve with my mom or dad, smelling the snicker-doodle cookies and hearing “A Christmas story” play subtly on the TV in the background. Those moments that books create not only create family memories or childhood memories, but expand your knowledge exponentially. Only other thing that could do that is being in school itself! Books even in recent years can take you into another world you may have never thought of before. Just 2 years ago in 10th grade I recall reading Lord of The Flies and feeling my mind go into an entirely different world with the plot of the story, the characters, the setting, and most importantly, the dialogue! Seeing the things you see in books often made my writing more creative and more whimsical, rather than just writing or typing words on a paper in a bland, rather “vanilla” type fashion. Even dating before that, in middle school I read The Giver and coming into middle school reading that, it opens up your vocabulary practically 10-fold. This helped me progress as a writer and as a reader. In Elementary school, you’re at the relatively basic level of reading, where you’re given a reading and you’re simply asked, “well what does this mean?” It’s simple but important. In 3rd grade I can vividly picture my 3rd grade teacher doing a read along and my mind going deep to the book. Granted, you weren’t being asked to go so in depth that it was to the point where you were analyzing the text, looking for multiple forms of rhetoric like you may have in high school. Nevertheless, as you read more challenging books, your reading comprehension increases and so does your reading level. Books are easily one of the foundational aspects of reading and writing.

Parents. The rather “tricky”, per se, part about parents when it comes to reading and writing is that their contribution is relatively heavy when you’re very young and not-so knowledgeable, and slowly dwindles or often drops off dramatically as you get older. At the most basic level possible, parents teach their kids to read and write starting from a few months old. Usually parents start off simple by teaching “ABC’s 123’s” or by just starting off with your name. My earliest memory possible memorable is me sitting on my mother’s lap at the age of 3, seeing her write out my name with all letters of the alphabet written out above my name, and hearing her say, “say Hi, my name is Marcus”. That meant a lot to me because even though it’s something we say every day without thinking about it, at that age it’s often a childhood milestone. When I was 4, I would always go to the bank with my dad every Saturday and every time I pronounce a word right on the roads as we drove there, I would be granted a lollipop from him when we actually got to the bank. This was small, yet important. It vastly increased my reading skills at a young age. Now, as you get a bit older, you require less help from your parents in terms of homework, learning, and intellectual growth. At the age of 11-14, they realized that sooner or later, I’ll be on the road just like them. They started teaching me what the different signs and warnings represent. Signs like “ROAD WORK AHEAD” were explained, as you can hear the jack hammers, construction trucks, and other tools/utilities gradually getting louder as you approach the road work. Trivial things like this weren’t pivotal per se, but they increase reading comprehension. Parents help set a foundation for everything you learn thereafter.

There are in fact a million other factors that contribute to the growth and expansion of your reading and writing, such as other relatives, friends and peers, and also smaller, often unnoticed things. Things like pen, pencils, paper, notebooks are needed in order to learn to read and write. However, teachers, books, and parents are the 3 core things that built up my reading and writing skills. Parents carried us through the grass field and dropped us off at the beginning of the forest of literature. Teachers guided me through the forest of literature, while books were the flashlight needed in order to see in the forest. So when people ask “where/how did you learn to read and write?” I would say “Well my parents, teachers, and books were a big chunk of the reason I can read and write the way I do.”