Oh, I want to be Amish in my ways, but I am distracted by the lights and buttons and.....

So two things about K.Kelly: -- With fixed link

I often listen to podcasts including one from WNYC (NY Public) called RadioLab.  It's a great show which focuses on Science and Tech related topics and is hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich.  In this particular episode (http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2010/nov/16/idea-time-come/), Robert is 'moderating' a forum at the New York City Library with Kevin Kelly and  Steven Johnson (author of Where Good Ideas Come From).  I find it interesting to listen Krulwich's hesitancy to accept Kelly's postulation of the Technium as a nearly living entity.  It's fairly short if you wish to listen....

I think the concern I have is that the Technium, as presented by Kelly, is still not sentient, yet is "controlled" by humankind in the programming of that technology and that tools and gadgets which develop.

My second, and more pressing note on Kelly, is I further believe that Kelly hits home in his discussions regarding the Amish and I love that he assigns them with the "Hacker" label.  Immediately, I become uptight and critical when the word "Hacker" is used because current rhetoric has put such a negative connotation on the word, yet it isn't bad.  I love how the Amish manipulate the newer technological tools to fit into their desired lifestyles rather than shaping their lifestyles around the technological tools....That seems to be key for me in regard to my personal use of advanced technology in my personal and teaching spheres. 

A current situation I am dealing with is the implementation of interactive whiteboard technology (IWB) in my English classroom. I am struggling to make the time to fully implement the technology because that is what the district has chosen to pursue, but I am also battling with the best ways to use the IWB for teaching composition and literature.  For me, I am not convinced yet that this is the better mode of teaching kids to read, write and to explore literature.

The crux is that I haven't fully had time to evaluate the technology to see if it fully integrates with my goals for my students.   In much the same way as the Amish do, I guess that I am one of the early 'testers,' but we have already bought in to fully outfitting each classroom with an IWB, but haven't defined its role in our mission and goals statement nor or current curriculum and teaching methods, so I believe we may have lost the POWER to reject technology.

That is where Kelly is heading, I believe...that we must leave ourselves the ability, power and position that we are not compelled to adopt all technology, but to pick and choose as the Amish.....

Choices bring happiness...

Kelly says that increased money bring an increase in choices (78) but what about Schwartz's argument (available here as a video podcast) that too many choices are what is driving the growing trend toward depression?

Kevin Kelly appeared on BuddhistGeeks...

I find this quote pretty intriguing...  "There was actually Buddhist philosophers like EM Shoemaker and others who were talking about, “Small is beautiful, simple is beautiful” And that was part of the philosophy. But I think what it did is kind of open up for me, the door into the idea that some technology was better than other technology, and that some was very appropriate. That you could select the right technology and the right technology could be very sophisticated."

Here is the link to the rest of the transcript (an MP3 download is available as well). 

Right -- easier = more

It is certainly easier to do, read, write, travel....more with the aid of technology, but is it always necessary?  I think that so often, the technium (as Kelly terms it) is the driving force behind our implementation and usage of a certain technology as well.  Just because we can now often means that we must.  One example is mass media itself.  We have the ability to read online articles and texts with relative easy, and often from our phones.  We can update our Facebook pages and read our 'friends' Facebook updates as often as we'd like, but so many are feeling compelled to update and read.  We even  harangue those within our social and work circles who do not update 'often enough' or who haven't heard and read the latest news/gossip.  Those who choose to turnoff the stream of information, even for a short period of time, are doomed to face scathing criticism for being uninformed.  

So composition needs to be addressed as well....I can post it, so should I?  Where is my editor to help me perfect the piece? In texting and Twitter space, that editor is the character limit as I must be as efficient as possible, and thus succinctness is mandated unless I were to fall into the crutch of Textspeech....(makes me think of Doublethink and 1984).    lol

It's supposed to be easier

If technology and invention were supposed to make our lives so easy --as I was told repeatedly through my early days of education -- why do we now have so much work to do?  Why are we filling the time after sundown with work and with studies when we could be sleeping and resting and talking with our family and friends.  I have some severe doubt regarding the direction my own life has taken with regard to my own reliance on advancing technologies....

I am well aware that these technologies have given us luxuries of safety and free time during the daylight hours that are not consumed with tasks of survival, but it seems that we have created  the necessity of writing when there may have not been a need before the technology was available.  The simple number of emails that I must answer each day is astounding to me  -- and many of these emails are ridiculous in nature as they may be inquiries that can be easily determined with a little thought and consideration ro they are messages meant to entertain and distract from the monotony of the day --which wouldn't be if I weren't tied to that email application on my laptop computer....the cursed anchor.  The joke used to be that the ball and chain was one's wife after marriage, but now it's the laptop that one's workplace so generously gave..... 

I wonder if we have created technologies of economies which simply consume time. 

Technology --It's Alive....

Gene Wilder's character ("It's pronounced Frankensteen") recreated the famous "It's alive" line when he created his "Abby-normal" creature.  And I hear some of the same language as Kelly tells us that technology is alive.  In some ways, I agree that we have created a situation in which we are seeing a living 'Technium' which seems to evolve into newer and newer technologies, but I also wonder if this living technium, which we may or may not have started, is causing us to devolve.  Are we less able to survive now?  What happens to us if/when we lose electricity and fossil fuels? The blackout of the eastern third of the United States is but a simple example of the chaos which ensued when we lost our electronic communications and our electronic assistants. 

I am not a Luddite -- I wish I could be, but I am too lazy -- and were they really against technolgy in the first place?  I think that they were only against the elimination of a set of jobs that had been reserved for artisans?

I think about it in the simple terms of my garage door.  The structure of my home and garage is, of course, a technological advancement to provide my family shelter and comfort.  Furthermore, the rail, bearing and spring system which makes the opening system of my door is a technological advancement.  The last bits are the electrically powered mechanical opener and the remote, located on my visor, which triggers the motor  -- all those make my life so very easy, but I could survive without them.  That much is true, but I don't think that I would want to.  I have become comfortable and reliant.  I think that my wish is that I could then have the skill and knowledge to repair that technology myself. 

The same is true in the case of my gas heated clothes dryer  -- which broke on Friday... and I had to learn to disassemble it to then repair it before reassembling it so that we could dry the clean clothes (so many technologies to think of here....) And this creature comfort which helps to keep my clothes soft and dry now has cost me 6-7 hours of time....and I curse that technology for breaking, but it saves me so much time when it is working. 

So it's almost a situation of codependency maybe.   I am dependent.