Issue 2: Technology
How has technology influenced the spread of information?
Study Questions
- What is the digital divide and how has technology helped to fill or create it?
- How has the development of technologies helped increase information access for citizens of developing regions?
- What role do cell phones play in opening communications in developing areas?
- How does this increased access affect communication in our region? What differences exist in regions throughout the world?
- How has the development of information technology systems influenced information availability to global audiences?
- Why do some people make conscious decisions to avoid information technologies?
- In what ways does technology limit information access and distribution?
- How vulnerable are information technologies to disruptions in service?
- What technologies that we enjoy today had their origins in scientific and military applications?
- How do we determine that information technologies become obsolete and what happens to them?
- How has technology increased our ability to collect and mine data to make it more useful?
- How has technology contributed to online voyeurism and addictions?
- How did technological advances result in the development of the Internet?
- How do advances in information acquisition lead to the perceived need for more technology?
- How do information technologies promote the study and preservation of languages?
Honors in Action
Live with the Met
Investigation of the Honors Study Topic (Research): Examine the websites for the Metropolitan Opera Company (Met), the National Endowment for the Arts and other resources about opera. What are the demographics of people who attend opera? What are the implications of this demographic for opera companies like the Metropolitan Opera in New York City? What steps has the Met taken to increase its audience? How has technology played a significant role in the efforts to expand the Met audience?
Leadership Role(s): Organize a workshop on opera that relates general information to specific operas being broadcast by live stream by the Met. Go to www.metoperafamily.org to access the annual Met schedule and classroom materials for each performance. Work with a member of the music faculty or someone who is learned about opera to choose a performance to study from the schedule. Who was the composer? Who was the librettist? Who staged notable performances of the work? Who were the notable performers who sang roles in the opera?
If there is no live streaming performance in your area, work with the Met to see if it is possible to have your college included as a Met Live in HD site. Or you may work with a local movie theater to bring the Met Live in HD series to your community. Independent venues such as colleges may submit applications online by filling out the form found on the Met website: www.metoperafamily.org/broadcast/hd_events_current.aspx. Click on the box labeled “Cinema Operators” found on the lower left side of the page.
Leadership Development: Host a workshop with arts and social sciences faculty to develop a pre- and post-questionnaire for Met Live in HD attendees to be sure the questions asked will result in valid and reliable outcomes.
Action: Using what you have learned about opera and Met Live in HD performances, visit classrooms on your college campus and in local high schools to promote the event, and talk about ways attendees can better appreciate the experience. Work with faculty to develop ways the Met Live in HD performance can be used in classrooms on your campus and in local high schools.
Collaboration:
- Chapter members
- Fellow Phi Theta Kappa members beyond your chapter who participated in the Met Live in HD performance
- Students on your college campus
- Students at your local high school
- Faculty on your college campus
- College administrators with whom you can work to determine whether your campus would be an effective Met Live in HD site
- Community members who view the Met Live in HD performance
Reflection: Have attendees complete a pre- and post-questionnaire addressing their attitudes and impressions of opera and the use of technology to deliver what is often seen as an “elite” art form. Discuss together as a chapter what you learned about the arts and the ways technology can help democratize information. How did you grow as scholars and leaders? What would you change if you were to organize the project again?
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
Investigation of the Honors Study Topic (Research): Investigate the role that cell phone technology plays in opening communication in developing areas. Search the literature to examine the history of communication needs during your country’s development, discover how these technologies improved communication and the effects they had on social, economic and cultural growth. Investigate the implications of improved communications for developing countries.
Leadership Role(s): Develop an educational forum to present your research to the college and community. Invite additional speakers from among immigrant faculty, students, and citizens of developing countries to share their experiences with the impact of cell phones in their homelands and how this technology has affected life there. Invite representatives from cell phone companies and other organizations that played a role opening these frontiers to share the benefits and constraints of these projects.
Leadership Development: Organize a chapter team to lead this project and a goal-setting workshop to help the team learn how to determine measureable goals, develop a project management plan and implementation timeline, organize committees, and collaborate with community groups, businesses and public safety agencies.
Action: Apply your learning to local underserved populations (women’s and family shelters, elderly, crime victims, disabled, etc.) that need communication access. Find local organizations that collect or recycle cell phones and work with them to provide cell phones to the underserved groups in your area. Have your college serve as a collection point and invite fellow Phi Theta Kappa members beyond your chapter to participate with you.
Collaboration:
- Chapter members
- Students on your college campus
- Fellow Phi Theta Kappa members beyond your campus
- Faculty members on your college campus
- Community cell phone manufacturers and recycling organizations
Reflection: After the project is over, spend some time reflecting on the project impact, what you learned as scholars and leaders and about technology and sustainability. How could you improve the project if you were to continue it or repeat it?
Bibliography
Carr, Nicholas. The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google. 2008.
Carr explores the impending shift that computer utilities will replace personal in-house computers much in the way that electrical utilities replaced onsite power generators in the past. He explains how our lives will center around one planetary World Wide Computer and examines the benefits and disadvantages of this inevitable future.
Eco, Umberto. Turning Back the Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism. 2006.
In this series of essays, novelist and philosopher Umberto Eco looks at media presentations of topics like 9/11, anti-Semitism, European politics, globalization, manners, religion, Harry Potter, and a host of topics. In this translation by Alastair McEwan, Eco challenges notions of privacy and speech, abilities and responsibilities of individuals, groups, and governments with respect to communication, and how ideas and attitudes evolve over time.
Hassan, Robert. The Information Society. 2008.
This work provides a valuable resource for understanding the nature of the information society and its impact on globalization. Hassan engages the contemporary debates around the network effect, singling out two processes: commodification and acceleration.
Tapscott, Don. Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation. 1998.
Tapscott profiles the Net Generation, which is using digital technology to change the way individuals and society interact. This book makes a compelling distinction between the passive medium of television and the explosion of the interactive digital media, sparked by the computer and Internet. The author shows how children empowered by technology are taking the reins from their boomer parents and making inroads into all areas of society, including our education system, government and economy.
Tapscott, Don. Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. 2009.
Tapscott takes a look at the Net Generation and how it consumes information. Inspired by a private research study involving surveys of 11,000 young people, Tapscott discovered a remarkably bright community with revolutionary ways of thinking, interacting, working, and socializing. His research suggests how the Net Generation processes information, ways to engage and attract young talent in the workforce, and ways for educators to tap the Net Generation potential.
Wright, Alex. Glut: Mastering Information through the Ages. 2007.
This fascinating exploration of the ways humans have collected, organized, and shared information shows how the information age started long before microchips or movable type.
