Class Reflection

I first want to start by saying that sucks for all of you who left early on the last day of class because we got to have a pizza party, make up a song, and listen to our wonderful teacher sing! So thank you Lim! As for the class, I loved it. At times some of the readings were a little boring but overall I learned a lot. I thought it was great that our class was not based on books, quizes, and tests. It was based on important information about science, technology and inequality issues that we face every day. The class discussions allowed each of us to communicate our opinions and learn different information from different people. We also got to work in groups witch was a lot of fun. The teacher and Gaberial also did a great job of setting up powerpoints for each topic and video clips to go along. The guest speaker was also an interesting addition to our class. He was boring and hard to understand but at times he did make very good points. I was very interested in one of our last discussions about China. I really didn’t realize how technologically advanced they were and they they may soon take over the power the US currently has. This class allowed me to look at technology in a whole new light. I didn’t even realize some of the technologies I take for granted such as the Internet. In the end we had to do a research paper which I did about the Internet and how it has impacted our society. This was a great assignment because I was able to research this topic in depth and learn many new things.

Post #12 S&T

This week we discussed science,technology and inequality in the economies of China and Vietnam. The readings were very long, hard to understand so It was good to have the class discussions to help understand better.I was actually interested in finding out about modern day Vietnam. Most of their population are literate which gives them an advantage to improve science and technology issues, and they didn’t have traffic lights till 1993 which was shocking. I also learned about all the important items that are being exported from Vietnam such as electronics, garments, coffee tea and many other necessities. Items imported were machinery and equipment, fertilizer, and steel products to name a few. Vietnam is also considered to be one of the safest countries in the region for business and investment. As far as China, there science and technology system changed dramatically in the 90s. Policies were changed in the economy and law and social security agreements. We also talked about how China has become a very industrialized country and that could have a major effect on our economy. With out world now being based on technology China will become the technological leader and have power over the United States. I don’t think people realize that China has the largest population are more technologically advanced than the US they just don’t have the laws to allow them to make their products. To me this discussion about China was interesting and forced me to do further research to learn more about it. It is something I believe everyone should be more educated on.

Sustainable Cities

In Thursday’s class we watched a segment on sustainable cities. The man leading the discussion was Jamie Lerner from Curitiba, and talked about the things we can do to make cities cleaner and better to live in. He starts off by saying, “the city is not the problem, and it is the solution.” Mobility and sustainability are very important for the cities. Lerner talks about how cars are bad for the city because of emissions. He believes cities should use busses, metros, bikes or even to walk as modes of transportation. This would allow cities to save more. I agree completely with his idea of having a separate bus lane. This would definitely minimize traffic, and be a positive thing in downtown areas. Lerner’s master plan for Curitiba is great and would do well in the United States if people were more open to the idea. I don’t think people would be ok with giving up their cars and using public transportation. Mobility creates a huge inequality among cities. If a change such as the bus system is put into place, this will give those who don’t have cars an opportunity to travel to the places they need to go. Overall this idea would help the environment, which is most important and also improve cities in many positive ways.

Week 11 (Technology and Education)

In Thursday’s class, Gabriel started off the lecture talking about the different generations. Silent Generation, Baby Boomer (which is our parents), Generation X, and Generation Y which is my generation. We are the computer/internet age. We grew up with more choices then ever and never knew a world without a computer. The goals of our generation are fame and fortune. “The American Dream.” 8 out of 10 say getting rich is their most important goal in their lives. It is important for our generation to understand technology, and in terms of education, we have many more opportunities then our parents did. We watched a clip in class where a bunch of students held up signs that told the truth about them in relation to their education. For example some read, “I spend 3 hours online,” “I never read the assigned readings,” “I facebook during class.” We also did an exercise in groups and listed different technologies we have in class, the pros and cons and the advantages we have by using them. Overall we learned about the importance of technology on our lives and especially in our education system.

 

Election Day!

Election Day was finally here! This was my first year ever voting so I was really excited. I am registered at a place near my mom’s house in Scottsdale so I headed down there around 3pm. I went in and was shocked because I didn’t have to wait in any lines! This lady took down my name and I showed her my driver’s license, then she handed me my official Ballot. I went over to the voting booth and filled out my ballot. After I was done I put it in this big electronic counting machine, got my “I voted today” sticker and was on my way. It was pretty much how I pictured it would be, but it was interesting to see the counting machine and how it worked. I went home and met up with a bunch of friends to watch the election unfold. We must have sat in front of the TV for hours until finally they announced the President. When I saw Obama is President flashing on the screen I was pretty disappointed, along with everyone else in the room. Even though I didn’t vote for him, I am willing to be open to his ideas and I really hope he can “change” the problems our country is having. I watched McCain’s speech and it was very sad. He has so much experience and knowledge it was just hard to see him like that. Later in the night we watched Obama’s speech. I actually thought it was good and I am just very interested to see how things are going to turn out. I have never followed politics as much as I have this election. I feel very proud that I was apart of history. We have never seen an African American elected President or a woman running for Vice President. I am glad that our country is being more open and giving him a chance. Our economy is in a crisis and I just hope we chose the right guy to get us out of this mess. I am also concerned about him raising taxes, but I will just let him do his job and hope for the best. I had a great experience voting for the first time and I can’t wait to be apart of the next election.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwrbJu7D0Fo

Week Ten (Dr. Smith’s Lecture)

I was very excited for the guest speaker on Tuesday but as soon as Dr. Smith started his presentation I sort of lost interest. He spoke very loud and was just reading off of his slides. I started to pay more attention because he did seem knowledgeable on the subject, but I felt he was very opinionated. I could tell by my classmate’s reaction that his lecture seemed very bland and when I spoke with people at my table they felt he was very open-minded. Dr. Smith just seemed like he wasn’t open to anyone else’s opinions and if you had one he would try to sway you to believe his way. For example he talked about having students just learn off of the internet and yes that would maybe save money but that’s not very beneficial. There wouldn’t be a chance for students to learn to be subordinate in a classroom setting such as, not talking while the teacher talks, staying in your seat, raising your hand, etc. A classroom setting also teaches students social kids and interacting with other students. There wouldn’t even be teachers and that would eliminate many jobs. On a positive note, Dr. Smith said that he spent most of his life researching and when I looked on his website about the causes for war and poverty, I was actually really impressed. Overall I thought his ideas were good but he needs to present his information in a more organized way.

Gender, Technology and DNA (week 7)

On Thursday when Gabriel lead the discussion, he asked what is DNA and is it a positive thing for our society? I replied and talked about the importance of DNA and how I think it is a very positivething for our society. For example, DNA is essential in convicting criminals and releasing innocent people from jail. It is a 100% accurate piece of evidence in any justice case. We also talked about how poor people don’t have the means to have a good lawyer which means more time in jail where as O.J. Simpson’s so called “Dream Team” spent the time, effort, and money to get him out of trouble. This was also an example of social class. With the issue of race, more blacks are incarcerated. DNA doesn’t exactly bring equality to society. With the issue of gender and inequality, we discussed the lady who wrote books but went by the name “Steve” so she could get a job because they wouldn’t hire her as a women. We also watched a video clip on iceman and how DNA was used to identify ancient historic evidence during that time period.

Overall I believe DNA is a positive thing for our society and I believe everyone should be required to provide DNA to the system because when the police search for a match, they only have the people who have provided DNA to the station/system and that person is most likely a criminal. In order to change something you have to acknowledge it.

Distributive Justice (Week Six)

This week we discussed Susan E. Cozzens article, Distributive Justice in science and technology policy. Four different viewpoints were introduced; libertarian, utilitarian, contractarian and communitarian. I think each system has good and bad points but I believe the utilitarian form of government would work best for us. Utilitarian says that a set of social arrangements is fair as long as it increases total well-being (87). Unlike the libertarian view, utilitarians are for government support, research and development. In class one example used was the pizza pie, if the entire class got x amount of pies, the entire class is satisfied regardless of how the slices individuals ate. During the lecture we also talked about Justice. We were presented with the question, “what is justice?” We watched different You Tube clips that expressed this question even though most of them had to do with justice in the courtroom. All of these clips made justice seem unfair. The lawyers had to lie for people who were truly guilty.

Outline

Theme: For my final paper I will be writing about the impact the internet has on our society. The internet has become one of society’s major technological advancements and it will continue to change the way we live. The internet allows us to work, communicate, govern, learn and profit.       

Title Impact the Internet has on society

1. Introduction
   1. The creation and start of the internet

 

1. Body
   1. How the internet effects the way we communicate
      1. Hidden indentity with communication in chat rooms and on Facebook and Myspace
      2. How we can talk with people in other countries or anywhere with companies such as Skype
      3. Email and how important it is for many people and people in businesses
   2. Education
      1. Students who take online classes and they have online universities
      2. Digital libraries
      3. Virtual classrooms
   3. Impact it has on businesses
      1. Companies such as E Commerce and Google who rely on the internet
      2. Trading of stocks
      3. Buying pretty much any product
   4. How it effects poor or lower class people who do not have access to the internet
      1. Smaller businesses might not be able to keep up with competition
      2. keeps them in a lower class and a disconnect from the rest of the advanced society
      3. provides knowledge that they are not able to access 

 

1. Conclusion
   1. Restate thesis
   2. Ending statements and ideas

I will be using many internet resources such as scholarly articles from the ASU library website as well as information provided by the class power points, lectures and discussions. This topic sort of relates to the week we talked about the bike, park benches, bridges, and cars etc. that are very important technological advancements and effect many people in many different ways, especially those who do not have access to these technologies.

 

 

 

Reflection (week five)

The article we read for this week was called Mortality and Technology. Although it was a little difficult to understand it was quite interesting. The basic question being asked was “What can we do to give to technology the dignity equal to that of morality so that we may establish between them a relation which would no longer be that of the tool to the intention?” We need to be able to distinguish a technical object and a non-technical object. Latour talks about the hammer and how this humble tool is a very important one that some may take for granted. Most of us just think a hammer is an ordinary tool with not much significance. He says without the hammer we would be pounding nails or whatever else with out fists or a rock. In class we talked about how the hammer can be considered a deadly weapon if the claw is pointing downwards and how its simply a tool if the hammer head is pointed down. We also discussed how the “scientist” developed a new technology that could bring people in comas back to life. The mortality was then brought into question. This concept can sometimes be very difficult.