Reflections on Session 2
20 August 2014
Today morning, on my way to school, I stopped by MacDonald’s’ to grab some breakfast. While I was at the store, there was a short circuit affecting the order screen and the cash registers. As they were still able to assess the money in the cash register manually using a key, business went on as usual. After placing my order for an Egg McMuffin set and a cup of ice Milo, I stood amazed to the chaos that was happening. Even after getting her colleagues and managers to help, no one in the store could not calculate what $4.80 plus 55 cents was. After waiting for a long time, one of her manager finally found a calculator.
This experience helped me to reflect on the importance of technology in our lives. Just a few days ago in class, I read an article titled “Enculturation of Young Children and Technology”. The article shared about the role of technology in the lives of children and adults in the 21st Century. From the article, I learnt a new term “ubiquitous computing”. The term was interesting to me as it opened my eyes to see how technology has gone beyond a traditional computer hardware. Technology is so embedded in our lives that I can hardly imagine a day without it. My experience today was an excellent example of the impact that technology and ubiquitous computing has on everyday life. Although it sounds extremely strange, I couldn't figure out what $4.80 plus 55 cent was too.
Your encounter is a classic example of how reliant we are on technology. We have become so used to having technology around us, so much so that we do not realize it is rapidly "dominating" our lives.
ReplyDeleteWe should be thankful for how advanced technology has become. It helps relieve us off mundane chores, ease our workload and increase our efficiency.
However, on the other hand, we are overtly dependent on it. It results in us being more impatient as technology often offers us immediate gratification. Many things has been taken for granted that technology will solve our problems. Therefore, when technology fails us, we are lost as our problems have been "thrown" back to us.
We are using technology to live our life. Or should we say that technology is living our life for us?
Your experience at McDonald's reminded me how even as we advance we technology, we ought to have the appreciation of the current technology tool's predecessors. Before tools that were multi-facet, the tools that carried one function at a time had its strengths. This experience served a timely reminder how at the end of the day, the technology tool is there to assist us but if possible, we ought to have basic fundamental competencies that will still make work processes possible to a certain extent in the absence of the tool.
ReplyDeleteTechnology tools, in its brilliance also have their moments of 'malfunctioning'. It is in those moments such as the experience at McDonald's, which make having the competency in mental sums very useful when a cash register fails or the absence of the calculator to calculate that $4.80 plus 55 cents makes it $5.35.
In this current day and age, learners are introduced to tools which serve multiple functions and make work processes so much easier. We are challenged then as educators to perhaps 'go back to basics' to explore the tools that only carried single functions, returning to the origins of these technologies as a foundation and connection point for learners.
The human mind is such a brilliant technology on its own! It would be such a disfavour by relying on tools of technology all the time and let these things be the master of lives, dictating our lifestyles. Technology aid us, not control us.