I Still Love Technology

I’ve been applying to scholarships lately. This scholarship asked me to blog about my favorite technology (hence...the blog entry). 

There are a lot kinds of technology in my life, and I can’t think of a reason I wouldn’t be glad for any one of them. I am grateful to have toilets, for example. Indoor plumbing is some major technology. So is my car, the radio I listen to, books…and about a zillion other things.  

Like a zillion. 

I have to add a little side note here. A few months ago, I went to an exhibit at The Leonardo in downtown Salt Lake on the 101 inventions that changed the world. I assume this meant the 101 inventions that most changed the world. It included things like the x-ray and the birth control pill, as well as good number of things I had never even heard of before, though they probably really have changed the whole world. And then…it included the Lego.

I do think Legos are great. In fact, here I am at Legoland.

Well, never mind. No picture. Blogger won't upload it. You'll just have to imagine me at Legoland.

Anyway, for me, choosing a most favorite technology, the Lego just isn’t one that’s hard to pass over.

If I had to choose one technology as my preferred, it would be…the internet.

Now, I do remember a time without an interweb. The first computer our family had certainly didn’t have it—though it did have a black screen with graphics in one color (green), it was controlled by arrow keys, and it ran Oregon Trail. I don’t remember doing much more on the next computer besides Math Blasters. And then things like cereal boxes and billboards started listing…websites.

Things have come a long way since dial-up noises and “you’ve got mail.” And along with developments in internet technology, I definitely enjoy things like streaming endless episodes on Netflix and music on Pandora. Though things might this might add up to be what I do most of online, however, they aren’t why I love the internet.

Though I’m going back to school full-time, I’ve taught school for the last three years. It’s actually relatively regularly that I pull up some information on Wikipedia for my students, and when I do, there is always at least one who tells me how they’re “not supposed to use Wikipedia.” And I tell them? No! Use Wikipedia! And then I can’t help but talk about the democratization of knowledge that the internet has created.

And here’s what I mean. Everyone can contribute to Wikipedia (I myself am a Wikipedia editor), and everyone can access great introductory articles on a huge range of topics in dozens of languages because of this project in knowledge, collaboration, and access. The same with YouTube: no one has to wait for a producer or TV network to pick up their content in order to get it out to the world, and the ordinary individual has the chance to pick their content for themselves. This same pattern continues all over the internet: everyone can contribute, access, and connect. Ordinary individuals have more access to collaboration and information than any time before in history. And you know what they say about knowledge. Knowledge is power.

I don’t think anything drove this point home quite like a discussion in a class I took last summer. One of the topics was technology and learning. We looked at MOOCs and Khan Academy. One weekend I was on a long drive and put on a TED Talk (speaking of access to information and collaboration)—I was going to skip over the title on my podcast playlist until I realized it related to what we were talking about in class. And I’m glad I listened, because it was really interesting. The speaker explained some amazing stuff that happened when kids in the slums of India had street-side access to a computer and internet—like how they ended up teaching themselves computer skills, English, and DNA replication.

Take a look at his talk. He’s really interesting. He’ll make you laugh and he’ll make you think.

So why do I love the internet most of all? Because the internet…the internet is practically knowledge. It’s like it’s the key to everything else. I once had a teacher who only gave open-note tests. Knowing information, he said, is not as important as knowing where to find it. And, like I tell my students, we have more access to information—and to each other—than any time, any where in history. That’s why, if I were to choose a favorite technology, the internet would be it.