kcharris's blog

What?

The history teacher at my placement is a huge supporter of technology. She even has her students bring in their personal laptops to class everyday because all of their work is online. At my last visit, she was encouraging her students to use their school email addresses to communicate with each other instead of using Facebook as a means of communication because not everyone has a Facebook. Her point was that it isn't fair to use social media when communication via that means isn't accessible to everyone. However, she proceeded to tell her students that they should take out their smart phones and sync their school email to their phones.

So what?

This stuck out to me because I found it to be odd that this teacher was willing to accept that no everyone has a Facebook but she then made what seemed to be a generalization about smart phones and the ability to sync email. It made me think about how we think about Facebook now. In class, I recall we marveled at the fact that everyone in the class had a Facebook or at least enjoyed it. My placement teacher applauded those who didn't have a Facebook because they are off the grid and colleges/employers won't be able to see anything about them online. I just found it to be interesting that she was happy that not everyone has a Facebook but she made the quick assumption that each of her high school students had a smart phone.

Now what?

Watching the TED Talks lecture in class yesterday made me think about Siri, the greatest and worst function of the iPhone 4s and 5. We were talking about how men who weren't great at chess worked with computers that weren't top of the line and how they beat the best computers and the best men. I have to admit that I got really distracted and started thinking about man's attachment to and reliance on technology. So for the sake of this discussion, let's take Siri. Apple essentially created a pocket secretary. Siri's great. You can dictate things to her, you can have her call you by a different name, and you can have her remind you of things. The iPhone 5 has expanded on these functions so you now can have her tell you results of sporting events and I think she might be able to translate things for you. The best attribute that Siri possesses is that she is immensely entertaining. I could ask her ridiculous questions all day and never get bored.