• The Education Threshold of Technology
    117 replies, posted
The Education Threshold of Technology. So we’ve entered a day and age where technology is literally all around us, we use it on an everyday basis and in some cases it’s even inside of us, keeping us alive or just tracking our health. However when do we have too much technology, and specifically, when is there too much technology mixed in with our education? I’m 20, have failed the 12th grade (Final grade of secondary school) and did not go to University, I went onto TAFE and studied a few IT courses which got me nowhere. I’m almost 21 and I still don’t have a career or any outstanding skills that will get me employed over the next person. But I don’t blame any of this on technology at all. Back when I was in high school, or even primary school for that matter, each student got a basic calculator, it wasnt till year 9 when I got a scientific calculator and I didn’t bother with a graphic one. Back then I asked myself “Why bother learning how to work out math problems when the calculator does all of this for you? shouldn’t we be learning how to use the calculator instead?” Oh I forgot to mention, I’m very outspoken, so when I asked myself this, I asked my numerous teachers this too, to which they replied with various different answers like. “Because back in my day we couldnt afford calculators” “Beacuse you wont have one on you all the time” “Because you use math everyday” However, none of them gave me the real answer, which is ‘Because if you don’t you’ll be dumb’ and it’s as simple as that, If a child growing up never learns how to solve problems itself then it will never be able to solve any problems when he/she grows up and enters adulthood. Now heres where the issue begins… When I was in school, everyone had a calculator so if you were clever enough, you could cheat your math test’s, later on in high school when I got a basic Phone, I was stoaked because that itself had basic calculator functions, not only that but I could txt nearby friends for help on any questions that I was stuck on. Yes I know, it was cheating but it was so easy to do it, but lets look at what technology we had back then and what we have now. In Primary school some children had basic calculators. In High school every Teen had either a Scientific Calculator or a Graphic Calculator, or both. Oh, we also had Watches back then too. However, now-a-days almost every child in primary school has a basic mobile phone, and even more so, over half of them would have some sort of iPod or Multi purpose/MP3 device, Some of the lucky ones will have Internet enabled phones if not Smart Phones… this means that pretty much every child can cheat any math test, for the children with internet enabled devices and/or smart phones, they can cheat ANY test by simply searching for the answer. These are primary school kids that will loose the ability to solve out a simple problem and instead seek out the answer elsewhere. So whats going to happen to these kids or even the current teens that are in high school now? If Primary school children have mobile phones and a large portion having internet enabled phones and/or smartphones, how many teens in high school will have a smart phone and or internet enabled device? I’m betting most, if not all Today finding an answer is merely a Google search away, but its becoming more than that. We already have software that can identify a song, even if it’s muffled, far away, or blended in with background noise or a crowd, and it will return with the name of the song, the artist, the album, their touring information, where to get tickets and a whole bunch of other information. and all this requires is a device that has a microphone and access to the internet. Every phone has that, however they also have cameras, and what does this mean? It means that all it will take is for a small group of intelligent developers to produce a simple ‘answering’ app, one where you just take a photo of the problem and the app searches for the question and the answer online. This may sound far fetched but I can assure you, one or many are probably being developed right now. Google has created a program that solves Sudoku puzzles instantly, at the moment you have to input the numbers into the grid yourself, however they are working on one where you take a photo of it with your Android phone and there you go, the answer. Same thing with crossword puzzles, so now, when your frustrated about a puzzle, instead of using your brain, you can just find out the answer with a simple photo. And this is exactly what I’m talking about. Developing kid’s should not have such mobile devices at all as they provide an excellent distraction with social networking and games, but it provides them with all of the answers at their disposal. This is where the Education Threshold of Technology is, the point where answers are easily obtained in the palm of their hand. If you want to throw your childs intelligence away then buy them that shiny new iPad 2, but your not doing them any favors and you’ll just end up watching your child grow into an unemployed bum.
Ok lets go back to using sticks And instead of smartphones let them use abacuses and telegraphs
And then we reach technological singularity and download all the data we need into our brains. Whoa no more school!
Technology doesn't necessarily make people dumber, maybe you should have graduated from highschool instead of been a dumbass
It's merely an opinion.
That's interesting. I'd like to hear more from you on this subject. Hopefully you make another thread like this one day. And I love your writing style. It makes it so easy for me to read your post.
They let you use calculators in grade school? I had to work out problems myself all the way up until 9th grade..
Same here, could not use calculators for the most part, until high school.
[QUOTE=lulzbocksV2;29100209]That's interesting. I'd like to hear more from you on this subject. Hopefully you make another thread like this one day. And I love your writing style. It makes it so easy for me to read your post.[/QUOTE] Cheers, man. I type the way that I would speak to someone in person. It makes life for me and the reader alot easier in my opinion. And don't worry, I'm full of these sorts of controversial things.
I don't agree with your main argument, but you have some good points in there. We have all the information that we need right at our fingertips. Some of our education is becoming antiquated.
[QUOTE=Bellminator;29100213]They let you use calculators in grade school? I had to work out problems myself all the way up until 9th grade..[/QUOTE] I probably should have rectified that it wasn't often that we could use them, however alot of us had calculators in our pencil case's, allowing us to cheat with ease
Well shit, maybe the teacher should pay more attention to the class if the students are cheating.
youd be surprised at how mischievous one can be.
I detect the presence of scum.
i'll take your poorly written post and raise you one khan academy
[QUOTE=Lazor;29100802]i'll take your poorly written post and raise you one khan academy[/QUOTE] I love that website. I spent like four hours there yesterday, doing various math sets. It was surprisingly fun.
I'm pretty sure, the problem isn't technology itself. Its your lack of self-control and knowing when to use technology appropriately. I've had a smartphone for two years now. I've had plenty of opportunities to use it to cheat. But I haven't once. Mainly because I would rather take a C or a D, than flunk it completely, and lose my phone for week if I would get caught.
The problem I see with technology is the expectation to gain information instantly. Why do children have focusing issues in school? Well because the world around them is not like it was even 10 years ago. Everything now has flashing, blinking lights that will give you whatever information you need in an instant. Why read a text book when you can get an excerpt of specific information on Google? We are moving away from "allowing technology to work with us" and more "letting technology work for us." Is this a bad thing? Maybe. Maybe not. The good it brings is new advances in science and medicine. The bad is if something happens, such as a global energy crises, or mass EMP destruction, whether man-mad or extra-terrestrial (i.e. the Sun, not aliens [which could happen at some point]). If our electronics are wiped out, a lot of people who are on this planet will fail to survive long-term. The biggest curse of technology is that it allows global population densities that were unfathomed even 100 years ago because the Earth just could not handle it. When it fails, the Earth won't be able to handle the population and people will die.
[QUOTE=Master117;29102137]The problem I see with technology is the expectation to gain information instantly. Why do children have focusing issues in school? Well because the world around them is not like it was even 10 years ago. Everything now has flashing, blinking lights that will give you whatever information you need in an instant. Why read a text book when you can get an excerpt of specific information on Google? We are moving away from allowing technology to work with us and more for us. Is this a bad thing? Maybe. Maybe not. The good it brings is new advances in science and medicine. The bad is if something happens, such as a global energy crises, or mass EMP destruction, whether man-mad or extra-terrestrial (i.e. the Sun, not aliens [which could happen at some point]). If our electronics are wiped out, a lot of people who are on this planet will fail to survive long-term. The biggest curse of technology is that it allows global population densities that were unfathomed even 100 years ago because the Earth just could not handle it. When it fails, the Earth won't be able to handle the population and people will die.[/QUOTE] I completely agree, and with the population, we are at 3bn population, and the world is expected to be able to handle up to 9bn and thats when we wont be allowed to reproduce as freely as we do now, I'n my opinion, if we have people that are starving now and living miserable lives, then thats a clear indicator that we shouldnt continue to expand as rapidly as we are. right now we have too many people. perhaps we could fit, but there wont be much space left for the rest of the animals and crops etc, not to mention that something like 4% of the water on the entire earth is fresh water and the rest is salt water, and yet earth is expected to support triple the population that we have now?! please..
[QUOTE=TBleader;29100140]And then we reach technological singularity and download all the data we need into our brains. Whoa no more school![/QUOTE] yeah lets get on this please
[QUOTE=Demache;29101882]I'm pretty sure, the problem isn't technology itself. Its [b]your[b/] lack of self-control and knowing when to use technology appropriately. I've had a smartphone for two years now. I've had plenty of opportunities to use it to cheat. But I haven't once. Mainly because I would rather take a C or a D, than flunk it completely, and lose my phone for week if I would get caught.[/QUOTE] I'm not worried about me, I was using myself as a comparison and example. Yes you may be good enough to not cheat but I'm talking about the majority of kids and young teens, I'm sure that you would agree that kids and teens can be little shits and would not hesitate to cheat if it get's them good grades, it's their nature to take the fast and easy route rather than the path that requires more energy and effort.
[QUOTE=Ignyte;29102217]I completely agree, and with the population, we are at 3bn population, and the world is expected to be able to handle up to 9bn and thats when we wont be allowed to reproduce as freely as we do now, I'n my opinion, if we have people that are starving now and living miserable lives, then thats a clear indicator that we shouldnt continue to expand as rapidly as we are. right now we have too many people. perhaps we could fit, but there wont be much space left for the rest of the animals and crops etc, not to mention that something like 4% of the water on the entire earth is fresh water and the rest is salt water, and yet earth is expected to support triple the population that we have now?! please..[/QUOTE] The current world population is approximately 7 billion, not 3. Food shortages and limited resources are a genuine concern though. Isolating children from technology isn't the answer. What you really want is to teach self-control and the drive to succeed. You clearly lacked both and that is why you have failed thus far; be man enough to accept that technology is not a valid excuse for the failures of children in classrooms including yourself.
Quite the reverse is true for your argument: technology is making it possible for anybody with an internet-connected phone to have instant access to the entire wealth of combined human knowledge--effectively meaning that anybody can learn about anything at any time. For instance, take websites like [url="http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page"]Wikiversity[/url] or [url="http://www.khanacademy.org/"]Khan Academy[/url]. This is study material at your fingertips, and it's free and available to everybody. You say that the ability to look up anything you need to know about an academic subject is akin to cheating, but I call it problem-solving. If I were building a fish tank, and needed to calculate its volume but could not remember the correct formula, I'd be shit out of luck unless I just happened to have a math whiz or the proper textbook nearby. In this day and age, I can simply look up [url="http://www.helpingwithmath.com/by_subject/geometry/geo_volume.htm"]"calculating volume"[/url] and I'm good to go. Perhaps proper long division skills and an encyclopedic memory of formulas and principles is a lost art, but is it really a necessary one?
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;29102631]Quite the reverse is true for your argument: technology is making it possible for anybody with an internet-connected phone to have instant access to the entire wealth of combined human knowledge--effectively meaning that anybody can learn about anything at any time. For instance, take websites like [url="http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page"]Wikiversity[/url] or [url="http://www.khanacademy.org/"]Khan Academy[/url]. This is study material at your fingertips, and it's free and available to everybody. You say that the ability to look up anything you need to know about an academic subject is akin to cheating, but I call it problem-solving. If I were building a fish tank, and needed to calculate its volume but could not remember the correct formula, I'd be shit out of luck unless I just happened to have a math whiz or the proper textbook nearby. In this day and age, I can simply look up [url="http://www.helpingwithmath.com/by_subject/geometry/geo_volume.htm"]"calculating volume"[/url] and I'm good to go. Perhaps proper long division skills and an encyclopedic memory of formulas and principles is a lost art, but is it really a necessary one?[/QUOTE] This is completely true. But let's play devil's advocate. What happens when everyone has the ability to access information instantly, whenever? I'm talking some time in the future, when we have implants of some sort. It will happen. But when it does, how do we create a competitive job market when everyone will be able to literally know anything? What would happen to schools and universities? Why go to school for foru years when you can download your major and every other major in a few minutes? Why would anyone ever do a low-pay, demeaning job such as a fry cook when they can be an astrophysicist with just a brain implant? This brings another point. If and when brain implants become a reality, then the future of cloud networking would not be with computers, it would be with humans. We would be the cloud. We would share and pass information as easily as thinking about sending a message. It would be akin to a hive-mind, but with more autonomy and free will, or will we even have any of that? Who's to say that someone with a lot of power or influence, or even anyone with an agenda and a little ambition, to hijack the human cloud? But even further. What about machines? Why use humans when we can use machines? Sure at one point, you need human intervention, but that is just the thought of today. Eventually machines won't even need humans. There are movies like this and the downfall of the machine "race" ends up being that they are too cold and calculating, leaving no capacity for emotions. For some reason our species seems to be fixated on the thought that you need to have emotions to be effective and to thrive as a race. I mean, in some cases, yes, but in others, emotions do get in the way. Robots may make amazing engineers, however they may not make good doctors. But how long is this going to stay true for? What happens when machines completely replace humans because they are more efficient than their organ-sack analogs (pun unintentional)? While technology brings massive advances in our society and our general well-being, there is no doubt that it brings a strong curse as well.
I'm more than capable of cheating on any of my tests, but I choose not to because I know that I won't learn anything that way.
[QUOTE=Master117;29102754]This is completely true. But let's play devil's advocate. What happens when everyone has the ability to access information instantly, whenever? I'm talking some time in the future, when we have implants of some sort. It will happen. But when it does, how do we create a competitive job market when everyone will be able to literally know anything? What would happen to schools and universities? Why would anyone ever do a low-pay, demeaning job such as a fry cook when they can be an astrophysicist with just a brain implant? This brings another point. If and when brain implants become a reality, then the future of cloud networking would not be with computers, it would be with humans. We would be the cloud. We would share and pass information as easily as thinking about sending a message. It would be akin to a hive-mind, but with more autonomy and free will, or will we even have any of that? Who's to say that someone with a lot of power or influence, or even anyone with an agenda and a little ambition, to hijack the human cloud? While technology brings massive advances in our society and our general well-being, there is no doubt that it brings a strong curse as well.[/QUOTE] You converted the OP's words into something readable, concise, and educated. Also, this sound like it could be an interesting plot for a novel, your writing style really brings the idea to life.
[QUOTE=Master117;29102754]This is completely true. But let's play devil's advocate. What happens when everyone has the ability to access information instantly, whenever? I'm talking some time in the future, when we have implants of some sort. It will happen. But when it does, how do we create a competitive job market when everyone will be able to literally know anything? What would happen to schools and universities? Why go to school for foru years when you can download your major and every other major in a few minutes? Why would anyone ever do a low-pay, demeaning job such as a fry cook when they can be an astrophysicist with just a brain implant? This brings another point. If and when brain implants become a reality, then the future of cloud networking would not be with computers, it would be with humans. We would be the cloud. We would share and pass information as easily as thinking about sending a message. It would be akin to a hive-mind, but with more autonomy and free will, or will we even have any of that? Who's to say that someone with a lot of power or influence, or even anyone with an agenda and a little ambition, to hijack the human cloud? While technology brings massive advances in our society and our general well-being, there is no doubt that it brings a strong curse as well.[/QUOTE] By the time we're able to download information directly into our heads, we wont have artificial constraints like jobs, school or economy. We'll all freely share what we have, hopefully machines will do all the rest, everyone will work together on a single level to better the rest of humanity. If we reach the level of a 'human cloud' and still have capitalism, then humanity truly has no hope.
[QUOTE=Lust;29102916]By the time we're able to download information directly into our heads, we wont have artificial constraints like jobs, school or economy. We'll all freely share what we have, hopefully machines will do all the rest, everyone will work together on a single level to better the rest of humanity. If we reach the level of a 'human cloud' and still have capitalism, then humanity truly has no hope.[/QUOTE] But you would have to ask yourself what the point of that would be. What is the point of living if you can't better yourself? My opinion on the purpose to life is that well, since we are here, we might as well make the best of ourselves and our species as a whole. Being able to instantly have information beamed into the brain on a whim would be a curse. It would take all the wonder out of the world. Sure there would still be new information to learn as a collective species, but the fun in the current system is trying to gain as much knowledge as you can and using it to better not only oneself, but the world as a whole. It's what we spend our entire lives doing. When a child can learn it all the day they are born, then what will they spend the rest of their life doing? Sitting on a beach somewhere sipping a colada? Why even do that when you could download the experience of that in a minute and it would feel exactly the same?
[QUOTE=Lust;29102916]By the time we're able to download information directly into our heads, we wont have artificial constraints like jobs, school or economy. We'll all freely share what we have, hopefully machines will do all the rest, everyone will work together on a single level to better the rest of humanity. If we reach the level of a 'human cloud' and still have capitalism, then humanity truly has no hope.[/QUOTE] Yeah, no. I'll believe it when I see it.
[QUOTE=Master117;29103000]But you would have to ask yourself what the point of that would be. What is the point of living if you can't better yourself? My opinion on the purpose to life is that well, since we are here, we might as well make the best of ourselves and our species as a whole. Being able to instantly have information beamed into the brain on a whim would be a curse. It would take all the wonder out of the world. Sure there would still be new information to learn as a collective species, but the fun in the current system is trying to gain as much knowledge as you can and using it to better not only oneself, but the world as a whole. It's what we spend our entire lives doing. When a child can learn it all the day they are born, then what will they spend the rest of their life doing? Sitting on a beach somewhere sipping a colada? Why even do that when you could download the experience of that in a minute and it would feel exactly the same?[/QUOTE] Haha no they'll be using their creativity and intelligence to build, create, and learn new things that can be beamed to other peoples brains. Civilization will expand, new technologies, elements, laws of physics will be found and clarified upon, life will get better and better as humanity learns as a whole, not constrained by the boundries of simple physical thought and religion and differences of opinion. [editline]11th April 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Chernzobog;29103010]Yeah, no. I'll believe it when I see it.[/QUOTE] Well you'll have to wait 5000 years for that (??? what the fuck are you trying to say ???) Did I miss something and we already know everything? Just because everyone will immediately know everything that humanity as a whole knows doesn't mean there isn't an infinite wealth of knowledge out there that we still havent gained lol. Like wtf do you think billionaires do, that's like going WELL BILLIONAIRES MUST JUST SIT ON THE FLOOR AND STARE INTO EMPTY SPACE ALL DAY BECAUSE THEY'VE ALREADY BOUGHT A HUGE MANSION AND DONT NEED A JOB AND HAVE MADE TECHNOLOGY. Gosh you people are so uncreative. [editline]11th April 2011[/editline] IMPROVE UPON PERFECTION
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