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--- 325:questions:week_1_questions_comments-325_17 [2017/01/19 04:25] – [What is technological determinism?] sanchez
+++ 325:questions:week_1_questions_comments-325_17 [2017/01/20 03:05] (current) – [What is culture?] lanier
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 As some have already stated, Pursell tells us that technological determinism is the idea that technology determines what shapes society. I agree with Anna in the fact that I believe that the consumer shapes the market and technology. While the versions of technology may vary, such as different versions of the smart phone, they all are trying to fix the same problem and fill the same need created by the consumer. Our ability of creative problem solving and innovation lead to a consumer driven market and technological innovation. -Madison White
 ==== What is technology? (How does that definition (or at least the examples of it) change in different eras and places?)===
+From what the author is trying to explain about technology is itsthe collection of techniques, skills, methods and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes, and the like, or it can be embedded in machines which can be operated without detailed knowledge of their workings.(Daryl Murray)
+I found it interesting how Pursell mentioned that Native Americans are regarded in "natural history" rather than technological history. He brought up that race plans a role in which groups are associated with technology. This chapter also highlighted how changes in the field of history itself changes how we look at technology. The rise of cultural history made the focus shift from where technology comes from to what they represent according to the people that actually use them. (Nicole Spreeman).
 The author mentions "the fallacy of total revolution", which is the assumption that new technology will completely replace previous technology used for a given purpose. I found this confusing because I believe that there are several examples of new technology replacing old technology. Today, items like VCRs, record players, cassette decks, CD players, etc. are virtually defunct as a result of modern technology. How can this assumption be labeled a fallacy if the timeline of innovation shows that new technology displaces older technology in most instances? --- //[[ynasser@mail.umw.edu|Yousef M Nasser]] 2017/01/18 14:52//
 Webster defines technology as the use of science in industry, engineering, etc., to invent useful things or to solve problems. Pursell spoke about the pros and cons of new technology through an example of self driving cars. Self driving cars would be a new piece of technology aimed to lower crash rates and slow automobile injuries and deaths. The flip side to introducing this new technology would see collision shops see exponentially less clientele, leading to the extinction of the business, and leaving more than thousands of people without a job. I found it pretty interesting to look at technology from a negative light from those who used to work on assembly lines, but have now been replaced by machines, or any industry that has continually updated their technology, making it difficult for people to continue their blue collar or outdated jobs. It seems to be the blue collar jobs that are being increasingly squeezed out of existence, in my opinion, and it would be interesting to see if others agree. --- //[[kmcgowan@umw.edu|McGowan Khayla J.]] 2017/01/18 15:27//
+Technology, at first, sounds like mechanical and electrical devices such as phones and computers. However, technology can be broadly defined as any tool, whether created or improvised from something that naturally occurs. Computers are obviously technology, but so are things like desks, chairs, and books. Even rocks and sticks that have been picked up off the ground can be technology, as they can be used to start a fire or build a shelter. Simple objects such as shirts, tissues, and windows are all technology, and have all evolved over the course of human history. Technology is anything that can be used as a tool, or used to develop technology further. -Nick Skibinski
 ==== What is culture? ====
+Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. -- Daryl M.
 Culture is defined (by Webster) as "the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group, and/or the characteristic features of everyday existence shared by people in a place or time." In relation to technology, Pursell defines cultural history as focusing on what technologies mean or represent (4).  -- Megan P.
 Pursell also quotes historian Lynn Hunt who writes "the accent in cultural history is on close examination - of texts, of pictures, and of actions - and on open-mindedness to what those examinations will reveal." Pursell uses the example of automobiles to describe cultural historians in relation to other historians. A social historian might be interested in how quickly African Americans were able to buy and use automobiles while a cultural historian would be interested in what the fact of being able to buy and use the car meant to African Americans. - Helen Salita
+Technology helps shape and depict culture, according to Pursell. He uses the example of Native American "race" as separated between savage and civilized based on what kinds of tools they used; the more civilized would accept and use European tools while the savage would use their original tools, in the eyes of European colonists. Technology does help determine cultural relativist views of other groups of people. For example, many countries do well without microwaves and, upon its people crossing into a country that depends on microwaves, they may prefer to continue heating items on a stovetop because the microwave doesn't seem to do the job. To someone who owns and depends on a microwave, this might seem excessive and ridiculous, but the cultural perspective of a microwave's usefulness is the only defining difference between depending on one and not. Learning to understand relativity in culture helps define technology's role within it.  --- //[[lmccuist@umw.edu|Lindsey McCuistion]] 2017/01/18 23:48//
+The idea of culture is a broad term with multiple lenses which can be applied when studying a particular piece of technology. Pursell focuses is on the culture of the society that develops around technology, “with a sensitivity to cultural dimensions in the stories they tall.” Pursell, p. 5. (Laura Downs)
+Culture as I feel it described by Purell is an centralized ideology revolving around technology. The differences in culture between various culture groups is due to the different needs each group has. For example, native people who dwell in mountains have different cultural needs than say native people who live on plains land. This divivdes the cultures unless there is a technological tie that binds them in some way. -Thomas Lanier
 ==== What is technological determinism? ====
+a reductionist theory that presumes that a society's technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values. The term is believed to have been coined by Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929), an American sociologist and economist. Daryl Murray
 Pursell defines technology determinism as the assumption that technology determines what happens in society. He points out that advertisers use this assumption in order to sell their product. For instance, advertisers sell their product by suggesting this new technology changes lives. However, Pursell argues that society influences technology more directly. While technology does impact and influence society Pursell suggests that technology mirrors society's needs and norms.
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 -Angie Sanchez
+Alongside with what Angie mentioned, I was captivated by the idea of social and cultural history's impact on how people may have interacted with the "technology" of their time and whether what they created or had invented was given recognition (or not) based upon their social standing and color of their skin. The idea that society's need for a new form of technology to be created to help better the lives of those of the period can, and does adversely affect people of different social groups based upon accessibility and predetermined social norms is not only very interesting but in a sense almost seems to have, in recent years broadened from the scope of white men being hailed as the only social group with the ability to properly reason and create. - Danielle Howard
 ====== New York Times on Classroom Technology ======
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 As a student in the education program, I found this article very interesting. Seeing all the different technologies and how they developed over time was interesting especially since I know how common some of the more modern technologies are in classrooms today and how important they are in today's educational system. Education has gone from wooden boards and slates to Smart Boards and iPads. Theses technological advances have had a huge impact on education and how things are taught. It also make me realize how some of the technologies I consider common, but vital part of education have only become so in the last 100 years or so. --Kasey Mayer
+I am in the education program, so this article was very intriguing to me. When Corbett talked about how technology was banned from the classroom, and the internet was filtered at school, it reminded me of how much I hated that myself as a student. But as an educator observing classrooms during my practicums, I saw how many students in a BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) setting, where the students can have their technology out during class and use it without penalty, misused and abused their access to technology. During note taking times, the one time that the teacher specifically requested the students to not use their technology, the students would be using their devices, the teacher would have to ask them to stop, and it was a huge distraction for the whole class. This may be because our generation is part of the generation that had technology taken away during school at some point, so when the opportunity presents itself, it may be too tempting to use at the wrong time. I think that if technology is going to be so freely used in the classroom, it needs to be started in elementary school, where the students can be taught rules and how to respectfully use technology in the classroom to help everyone's educational experience. -- Heidi Schmidt
+The invention that grasped my attention the most while looking through this timeline was the pencil. When I hear the words "technology advances in the classroom," my mind immediately shifts to the creation of computers, smart boards, projectors, the internet, mostly things that are electronic based. Pencils are such common objects in the classroom nowadays that I have never thought about the times where there were classroom settings without this product that has been an essential part of my learning experience since the day I stepped foot in a classroom. This article not only served as a reminder for all the learning tools, like the pencil, that I take for granted in my academic endeavors every day, but it also highlighted the idea we discussed on the first day of class that just because something is not electronic, does not mean it is not an important technological advancement.--Kelsey Dean