Smart Suds

In today's Brattleboro Reformer, Monday July 24th page five, was an article about a new technology. Smart washer and dryers which can be manipulated via home networks and cell phones. I agree with the comment made by Laura Champine "I think this is a great example of people using a new technology to solve a problem that doesn't exist".

The above link is to a story describing the technology not what appeared in the Reformer as I could not find it to download.

I think that this is a fairly good summation about mcuh of what we have covered throughout this course. While it is important and some might say imperative to know about "new" technologies I am beginning to feel like this is the beginning of a new type of something akin to "political correctness" or as Ken Kesey said" either your on the bus or off the bus".

While mixing my metaphors I believe that the read write web 2.0 is a creation of people creating technologies that may in the beginning have served some noble purpose but have grown into meaningless repositories of blah, blah, blah.

Is there hope I am not sure. My next post will discuss the 600 identities of our future.

I know we are studying podcastingbut thiscaught my fancy. One must have alot of time on their hands in order to see and hear just some of what is out there.

To clarify my last post this is the paragraph which I was talking about
From :
beat the devil | posted June 14, 2006 (July 3, 2006 issue)THE NATION
The Hot Air Factory

Alexander Cockburn


Beyond raising money swiftly handed over to the gratified veterans of the election industry, both MoveOn and Daily Kos have had zero political effect, except as a demobilizing force. The effect on writers is horrifying. Talented people feel they have to produce 400 words of commentary every day, and you can see the lethal consequences on their minds and style, which turn rapidly to slush. They glance at the New York Times and rush to their laptops to rewrite what they just read. Hawsers to reality soon fray and they float off, drifting zeppelins of inanity.

The Hot Air Factory

I found the 6th paragraph in the above article from THE NATION magazine touching on some of my feelings about the usefulness of the blogsphere as well as the validity of what is presented in blogs. I suppose we put value and belief where we want to.

I find with all these myriad of voices whether written or images it leaves one with many choices to make; any of which can be countered with a literal click of the mouse.

I think a discussion of how these may be utilized in a school setting, elementary up through high school and beyond is warranted and of value. Limiting the discussion as oh this is really neat and the copyright issue is less doesn't really address the question of how these tools can enhance and bring learning forward.

It has been noted that people are becoming even less sociable because of the internet and all of its "social tools" or is it just redefining it?