Final Reflections: Chloe Kent

My Self-Directed Learning

In the first half of the semester, I tried to gain as much insight as possible into the various historical periods using the tools available to me. I found that the weeks that I learned the most was when I talked with actual people or watched interactive videos (TED talks, movies, etc.). I felt that when I did this, I retained more information than just reading articles or books.

In the first two weeks of the semester, I focused on connecting newer ideas with the Boorstin text. I found that by making connections to this text, I was able to draw conclusions about the various time periods effectively. I was originally assigned to read about the evolution of clocks and time-keeping. While we were studying the Industrial Revolution, I made several connections between the evolution of machinery and how it mirrored the evolution of time-keeping.

On January 17th, as described in my learning log, I spoke with my brother-in-law, who is a high school teacher, about Descartes. He did a project on Descartes so he was the perfect person to talk to. I enjoyed relating to him on a deeper level because of the historical discussion we had that day.

Towards the end of January, I began really utilizing videos, especially TED talks and Vimeo. One of the talks that I watched by Monica Lewinsky, I ended up incorporating into my final project.

Throughout the first half of the semester, what was most effective in the learning process was making modern-day connections to the past. I found that as I became more passionate about the themes from history, I became more passionate about the current political atmosphere as well. Since we are in the midst of the election season, this was a timely class for us to engage in.

My Evolving Project

When we began constructing our individual projects, I focused on modern-day muckraking and how the blogosphere has negatively affected our thinking. I did, and still believe, that because of the huge surge in "homemade journalists," the way we accept information, even if it is false, leads to poorly informed opinions. While I still feel passionately about this topic, I realized that it doesn't divide an educated audience and was a bit too narrow for me to expound upon. Also, the nature of our project, contradicted a lot of the points that I brought up in my argument because we are all acting a bit like unqualified journalists.

Later, I decided that I wanted to choose a topic that I still felt strongly about, but that related more into our group project's theme. The topic I chose was how resisting technological change hurts students and children, especially due to the attitudes of the older generations. I strongly feel that if we are not receptive to change, the youth will not be able to be as successful. This idea lended easily into our Digital Society group project which emphasized change and the lack of change in today's world.

Throughout the construction of my individual and our group project, I learned how to blog effectively using intriguing formatting techniques, how to create videos and embed them into a blog post, and how to effectively work in group settings of differing sizes. Besides the historical knowledge I gained in addition to this, I feel that what I learned will be important in my long-term future as I try to incorporate various technological aspects into my career.

Communication and History

Communication is central to history and society for a variety of reasons including: technological and social progress, widespread dissemination of information, and sharing ideas to formulate opinions.

Our ability to record information, pass it down through generations, and draw conclusions, is important in the advancement of society technologically and socially. Each day, we build off of what others have previously discovered. Communication is used to spread information throughout the globe. We see this with the invention of the printing press, railroads, and later, the Internet. These modes of communication help us to connect with others large-scale. Last, we are able to share ideas and formulate opinions. This helps us to relate to others in order to broaden our scope of information.

By studying history, my understanding of the contemporary world has shifted dramatically. I can now draw conclusions about the evolution of ideas and learn from what has worked or failed in the past. For example, in my personal post, I related the resistance to the translation and publication of the Bible to the resistance of accepting technological change today.

Our means of communication affects society in the present in countless ways, many of which we illustrated in our class' overall group project. These ways include progress in education and politics, developing our personal identity, and many others. However, even though I believe technology has helped us overall, there are destructive outcomes such as online safety issues, a loss of interpersonal relationships in real life, and a dangerous reliance on the technology around us.

Hopefully, our group project has been able to shed some light onto the many aspects of the technology-based society we live in. Even though our means of communication changes constantly, we feel optimistic that navigating the digital wilderness is possible and beneficial to our progress.

Our Digital Society Needs One Thing

We live in a society dominated and powered by digital communication. Indeed, we are part of a Digital Society, one composed of powerful voices, each proselyting diametric views. There are many ignored voices that deserve and need to be heard.

These voices can only be heard if change happens. Our Digital Society has the potential to spur change or inhibit change, based on the way each of us decides to act. We need to be aware of the way we use digital media so that we can understand where we might better society through our use of technology.

Here are three ignored voices that you need to hear: 

1. Change in the integration of technology in the learning process;
2. Change in the toleration of radicalism online; and 
3. Change in the media's perception of women.

Resisting Technological Change Hurts Students and Children

"Screen time is dangerous. Social networking needs to be limited. Kids' self-image is being destroyed. Only bad role models are portrayed in the media......" 

My two-year-old niece at the local library in WA where they have embraced the use of technology for learning. 

Do you complain about how much technology is embedded in our lives? Do you often prefer the "old way" of doing things? If you answered yes to either of these questions, let me show you why your resistance to change may be hindering the education and development of the younger generations.

Resistance to Change is Hindering the Development of Younger Generations

"Screen time is dangerous. Social networking needs to be limited. Kids' self-image is being destroyed. Only bad role models are portrayed in the media......" 

My two-year-old niece at the local library in WA where they have embraced the use of technology for learning. 

Do you complain about how much technology is embedded in our lives? Do you often prefer the "old way" of doing things? If you answered yes to either of these questions, let me show you why your resistance to change may be hindering the education and development of the younger generations.

Changing to Fit Our Digital Society

The Digital Society in which we live in has the potential to spur change or inhibit change. Change can happen, but currently, it is not. 

Michael feels passionately that we need to use technology to change the way women are viewed globally.

Chloe is advocating for older generations to educate themselves in order to teach their students and children to maturely use the technology available to them.

Alec believes there is a fine line between tolerance and radicalism that we must reach in order to effectively inspire change.

How do you feel about the rate of change in our Digital Society today?

What is up with the caucus system?!

I attended my very first caucus last night. I initially was overjoyed to see so many people show up to exercise their right to vote, but eventually, I began to feel uneasy about how the caucus was being run. As I walked in through the doors, people were shouting to each other trying to figure out where to register, how to find their precinct, and how much longer the caucus would be open to vote. It was chaos, to say the least.

After I went home, I began discussing with my friends better ways to vote in the primaries when someone mentioned that the Republican primaries were held online and were available to vote nearly all day long. Why wouldn't all parties be able to vote in the same way?

As we stayed up well past 12AM to see what the results were, articles surfaced about the legal action being taken in Arizona because democrats were being sent home in droves (by the thousands!) before they had a chance to vote. Apparently, many of their voter profiles had them listed as Republicans, Libertarians, etc even though they were either lifelong Democrats or had recently updated their preference to Democratic. Here you can read about what exactly went down in Arizona. After the unprofessional scene I had witnessed in Provo, I was not surprised.

After reading the many articles, I asked myself, if we can file taxes, purchase houses, and become hired for a job online, why can't every political party have the opportunity to vote online? The current voting process is archaic, unreliable, and discriminatory against certain political parties.

I think that this is largely due to the push against change, mainly in older generations who are not used to the idea of converting old systems technologically in order to simplify processes such as voting. We must change this system.

While I was excited about attending and being able to discuss my political views with my fellow Democrats, I was disappointed at how the entire process was run. What would have been more beneficial would have been to have an open discussion where people could come and share ideas the day before voting opened, and then the next day, voting should open online for a full 24 hours. I think this would solve many problems with our current caucus system.

Digital Society E/Affects: Womanhood, Education, and Tolerance

Our digital society is made up of many parts, similar to a pie. Technology doesn’t just include social networking and funny YouTube videos, that is just the cherry on top. The real meat of it includes politics, education, co-collaboration, and overall social progress. We have chosen three parts of this pie that we feel passionate about and want to share with you in our short group video.

The Older Generation is Hindering Technological Progress: A Video Claim

Older generations are hindering technological progress by rejecting change and refusing to incorporate technology into their households and teaching curriculum. By doing this, the youth are having to learn how to use the Internet on their own which encourages them to waste time on mindless activities, instead of using these tools to foster learning and development. Here is my 10-second video claim stating this view:

I have shared this video with some of my family and friends and will update this post as I gain their feedback. What do you guys think?

Project Log: Chloe Kent

I'm Chloe Kent. This is my personal log where I am documenting the work I'm doing on both my individual project and our group project.

Here is a picture of me doing a backhandspring for the main purpose of enticing you into reading further.

Older Generation vs. New Technology: It's Time to Embrace Change

"Screen time is dangerous. Social networking needs to be limited. Kids' self-image is being destroyed. Only bad role models are portrayed in the media......" 

My two-year-old niece at the local library in WA where they have embraced the use of technology for learning.

Do you complain about how much technology is embedded in our lives? Do you often prefer the "old way" of doing things? If you answered yes to either of these questions, let me show you why you may be hindering education.