Did You Know
I watched a pretty cool video in one of my other classes tonight, and I just thought I’d share it with the class just incase there are those of you who are like me and had never seen it. Here is the link:
This video is all about statistics of the modern world. It focuses on globalization and the question, “where we are going from here.” It was created by a group of teachers in response to the changing needs of education to meet the demands of our technologically based society. I felt this had some significance to this class because it deals with the ever important questions that we are asking ourselves about this newfangled civilization we are a part of. One of the aspects of this presentation I found so moving was the fact that it had no dialog and everything was represented in very simplistic graphic images indicative of what we are being inundated with on a day to day basis.
These images reminded me of an experience I had the other day in a parking garage. I went up to the pay terminal and as soon as I stepped close enough to the machine it sensed me. It began speaking to me, and it told me to insert my parking ticket into the ticket reader, then it began flashing brightly where I was supposed to insert my parking pass. The machine then told me to insert my credit card or cash into the appropriate slots and began flashing again. Of course on the screen was the same message only written out for me. I was a bit perturbed at this machine for treating me as though I was not smart enough to read the instructions and obey them. Instead it talked to me in an automated voice and flashed pretty colors at me. I began to wonder if all of this technology is helping man-kind, or making us lazy and complacent. Supposedly these technologies are freeing us up to do more important things, but what exactly are these important things we are being freed up to do?
Anyway, I thought this video was interesting.