So Far...

When I started writing my paper I was not that excited about my topic. Digital literacy seemed to be a topic I didn't really have an interest in at all. But As I started to get more into research I started to understand what digital literacy was. Then we chose our topics and I chose computer mediated communication. I started to become really interested in this topic. I find it interesting how computers have changed the way we communicate and the way we act.

The only problems I have run into in this class so far was understanding my topic in the beginning of my research. There was a lot of information to go through on the internet. Picking out the right information from false and unusable information was kind of a challenge. So far the hardest part about the class has not been writing the papers but doing the research.

Core 1

The world we live in is almost completely run by computers. Every aspect of our lives involves some kind of computer or micro processor. This wasn't evident 30, 20, or even 10 years ago. The first rule about technology is that it never stays the same. In the beginning of a year, you could buy a new computer or a new iPod and by the end of that year that computer will be old technology and Apple will have a new generation of the iPod out. Nowadays whether or not you get hired may depend on how technologically literate you are. The better you are with computers, the better your chances are at getting hired. I have grown up in the first generation that has grown up with computers. Because of this my generation is much better when it comes to technology because just like a baby learns English, we learned how to use computers. To understand technology in your life you have to first understand where you stand as far as your technological literacy, then you think about what technologies you are proficient at and which ones you would like to learn, and finally you have to think about the role of computers in your life and how they have changed your life.

Being that I am from the first generation to grow up with computers, I consider myself pretty technologically literate. Technology comes naturally to everyone from my generation and newer ones. A lot of times I end up helping my mom or dad with stuff on the computer that seems so simple to me. They will ask me where I learned something and I never really have an answer. Technology just comes naturally to me and people of my generation. It seems that the area we are the strongest in is social networking and chatting. My generation and I live on our cell phones and our Facebooks. In May of 2009, the New York Times reported that the average teen in the US sends and receives 2,272 texts a month. That's 90 texts a day. I know that without my phone I feel lost and disconnected. If you go to class and you accidentally forget you phone at your dorm you feel weird and you want that phone so you can stay connected with everyone and be entertained. Facebook is another big thing now. Everyone is on Facebook at least once a day, if not more. Now they even have a Facebook chat so people can spend hours on Facebook talking to other people through chats. Social networking and connectivity is a very big thing amongst members of my generation.

Some of these technologies come naturally to me such as texting and Facebook along with other social networking sites, but there are some things I have learned in classes. The first real computer class I took was during freshmen year in high school. It was a class on Microsoft office and Adobe Photoshop. We learned about how to create professional Powerpoint presentations and how to formulate equations in a data sheet among many other things. In my senior year of high school I took a great class on interactive design where we worked a lot with Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. By the end of that class I was able to make professional advertisements, banners, and all sorts of publishing things, I was also able to edit and embellish photos. All of these are great tools that I will almost definitely use when I have my own car business but there are still a lot of other softwares and technologies I would like to learn, such as auto diagnostics and tuning. In the future I plan on having my own performance car shop, so this is a very vital technology for me to have. You might not think cars are so advanced, but you would be surprised how much they have changed from the days of carbureted engines. Today's cars won't even start with out the ECU (electrical control unit) telling the engine what to do. The computer on the car tell the car how much fuel to inject with a certain amount of air being taken in, it adjusts the spark in the cylinder which ignites the fuel and air mix and moves the car. Along with that, the computers in cars measure and adjust brakes and suspension to adapt to different conditions on the road. My car now measures everything from oil pressure to the tire pressure in each of the four tires. Cars can now park themselves and even stop themselves if you are about to hit something. If you are not trained in this technology there is no way you are going to be able to work on these cars. Your average mechanic today is much smarter than he or she was 10 or 20 years ago.

Computers and technology have had a huge impact on my life. Everything in this world is run by some kind of technology, and life is only going to become more dependent on computers. As Johnson wrote in “Bitmapping”, “There are few creative acts in modern life more significant than his one, and few with such broad social consequences.” Like everything in this world there is a good side and a bad side to this advance in technology. Technology is a very good tool but it comes at a cost. Because of technology we are able to do things we would never have been able to dream of, like having an virtual conference with a company in China or Europe with the click of a button. We can also do things much more efficiently and quickly. You can go on a search engine like Google and find out information in a second that would have previously been impossible for you to find the answer to. There is a bad side to this technology. Technology in our society has become too much of a crutch for some people. As Selber argues in his book, “All too often computer technologies are touted as the solution to all of our problems.” When I was growing up I remember always being outside and riding my bike and playing some game with my friends. Now children are sitting at home staring at a TV playing Xbox or Play Station for hours. The other day when I was home for the weekend I saw a kid who was wearing a shirt that said, “The internet was out so I decided to go outside”. This makes me sick.

Computers are a part of everyday life now and it's do or die. If you don't learn how to use computers and technology then you will never make it in today's society. Life today is much better than it was before we had the technology we have now. Technology has made life simpler and allowed for more connectivity and efficiency. Although there are down sides to technology, without computers the world would never be what it is today.

Core 1 Part II

I am studying to be a mechanical engineer. And in the future I want to have my own performance car shop. Both of these require a lot of technical knowledge. Mechanical engineers use a lot of computer software such as Auto CAD and Solid Works to produce prototypes and make 3-D models. I have started to learn some of this software in my engineering class.

Working on cars take a lot of diagnostic and technical tools. Back in the day cars used to be very simply. There was no sensors and computers. Engines were carburetor and always ran the same. Nowadays cars couldn't even start with out a computer. All cars now have a ECU with controls all the engine work in a car. And now there are all kinds of electrical sensors that read information and relay it to the computer and the car can actually adjust certain aspects such as braking, suspension, and steering. To work on these cars you need to be very proficient with this technology. Your average mechanic is much smarter now than he was 20 years ago.

For the engineering programs I will mostly learn those in school here at UCF, but for the auto technology I am planning on going to a technical school that specializes in auto shop and auto repair so that I can learn how to use all the modern day equipment.

Part I of Core 1

I think of myself as a pretty tech savvy person. I'm not a computer programmer but I can do quite a lot with a computer. In high school I took a few computer classes. One was a class on office and a little bit of photoshop. The second class that I took was a interactive design class. In that class we learned how to use InDesign, Illustrator, and photoshop. Here at UCF I took the engineering 1 class fall 2009 and in the lab portion for that class we learned how to use Auto CAD and Solid Works. These two programs are drafting and 3-D Design programs that engineers use in their professions today.
There are a few thing I would really like to learn. One of them is auto diagnostics and tuning. I love working on cars but I can only do regular work that doesn't involve anything electrical. The problem with that is that so many cars now a days are so computer based that nothing even works with out a computer telling it to do something. The second thing I would like to learn is web design. Since in the future I want to have my own performance car shop it would really be a help to be able to set up and maintain my own web site.

Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century

The purpose of this article is to talk about the changes in literacy over the years and how digital literacy is affecting learning. Children in school are said to have a very high digital literacy. They are taught this the same way they learn language, it just happens to them. The problem is that they are being taught by professors and teachers who are of an older generation and who are not digitally literate. Technology is a great tool for learning. "No longer is it enough for a teacher to talk about another country and point to a given city while holding up a map." It may seem like technology is the answer to our educational problems but the truth is, even if schools try to implement more digital technology, the technology will not be as affective as it can be. This is something that is usually over looked by schools. Not only do they need the technology, but they also need the training for their employees to be able to effectively manage the equipment.

This article is directed towards the schools and school boards across the country. If they see the flaws with their approach to digital literacy then they can easily be fixed. This will result in better and more efficient education.

Literacy education for the 21st century

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=7208