Technology—cornered again and again and again…

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It was only a few short years ago I heard the news that banking could be done online. I knew I would never do it; that is, to do banking transactions using my computer at home. I think it was a combination of extra charges for paper and some other activities and the fact that, with all the technology in my life, life simply speeds up and was having trouble finding time to get to the bank. That will be the focus of another article post tentatively to be called Technology at the speed of light.

Well, the above is a great example of getting cornered. When the path of a technological change and the interest or need for that technology by a particular person meet is the point of a corner that convinces that person they need the technology and to keep using the technology from that point on, until that technology is no longer current. What I am saying is that at some point, we all get cornered by a particular technology and will adopt it into our life.

Another axiom I notice is that as a particular technology becomes ubiquitous, it intersects a point on a path of decline for an older system or technology and creates a corner whereby a person must change to the new technology. We can look at the postal system. As more companies begin to offer services online or through other technologies, the postal system is no longer used. I’m sure you can think of several examples. How often do you use the phone to get help with something?

Here is another one. Any new technology that attempts to replace an older technology or system will offer more features and greater convenience with less cost that will entice users. This does not necessary mean the new technology is a better solution.

And still another way we get cornered. As a technology usage appears and begins to improve, one will downgrade their expectations for quality to adopt it, if the new technology is cheaper, more convenient and provides more features. The point when one adopts the technology is another corner. I can remember when computers became capable of doing typesetting. We, who were working in the trade, could not imagine cheap computers improving at this ability to the point that expensive dedicated typesetting equipment would become obsolete. The same thing happened with digital photography. We could not envision a photo made up of pixels could ever be of a quality that could replace traditional photography.

There is something else about digital technology. It will often be too perfect. In the case of audio music, it no longer sounds real or human. Audiophiles, are going back to vinyl records, and tube amplifiers. Vinyl records have imperfections and tube amps hum. If you tune a piano or guitar perfectly, it won’t sound right. In the hands of a musician, who tunes by ear, the instrument sings. A computer can easily emulate a drummer, however, a human drummer never plays every beat perfectly. It varies ever so slightly. When printing press operators were given plates imaged digitally with computers, they had trouble controlling colour.

The point here is that we are used to what is often called colour—imperfections that we tune out. I did state that often a new technology isn’t as good as the technology it replaces, however, digital information is perfect, while analog information is imperfect. Humans are analog and imperfect, so we naturally prefer analog information. Sometimes, imperfections are built into a digital technology. So, we can say that there is a point where we become cornered into accepting the perfection of a digital technology, even though it may be uncomfortable.

And then there is this one. Any new technology that offers new features and conveniences will erode the aesthetic artistic skills involved in the person using it. For example, E-mail and texting has eroded the skills and abilities of people using this medium, to compose good and proper writing. This decreases the impact, clarity, value and accuracy of the message. Yet, everyone accepts it, why, you guessed it.

In a few rare instances, at technology may be impeded by corporations. An excellent example of this is the electric car, or for that matter, any replacement for an oil reliant vehicle. Many years ago, General Motors produced an electric car called the EV-1. It was sporty, performed close to a regular automobile and was affordable. In the end, all these cars were picked up and destroyed. The story is told in a documentary called ‘Who killed the electric car?” Here the cornering is interrupted and the reverse of the usual situation happens until other influences change the direction. In the case of the electric car, one might speculate that corporations and perhaps government, with a stake in the oil industry might slow the introduction of the electric car until pressure from environmental groups and other groups cause a change.

In some cases, the new will become the only way and the old is out. Try to find a pre-recorded cassette tape to purchase. When was the last time you used or even saw a camera that uses film. However, we still have books and magazines that were predicted to disappear.

It is at the point where one adopts a particular technology, either willingly with enthusiasm or out of necessity, a corner occurs whereby a person has little choice but to continue to use the technology. Technologies are always chasing us and attempting to corner us into changing the ways we live do things.

Education or learning

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I’ll let you in on a bit of my past. School for me was, well not for me, right from the start. School and I simply did not get along. It is not that I didn’t have interests that were covered in school curriculum. Something about the classroom experience and the delivery of information really didn’t suit me. I guess I had some difficulties settling in to the routine and understanding what was happening and what was being taught.

This is the story of how I came to learn about education and became educated about learning. Most important, it is about how I came to learn how to learn. If that sounds strange to you. Keep reading. You might be interested in why learning is more important to me than education.

As I scraped through the grades, made to repeat a grade when we moved from the U.S. to Canada, I began to live for the weekends. In later grades, I needed to forget the week and find some way to enjoy the weekend. I hated Sunday night and Monday mornings. Parties and drinking became weekend norms. By grade twelve, with just passing grades, I vowed to never set foot in an academic environment again.

Today, I still struggle with plenty of life, yet, I have managed to avoid alcohol for over 30 years and have earned an M.Ed. among other certificates and diplomas. How did this happen? What do I know now that has made the difference?

Let’s pick up the trail after grade twelve and race through a few years. After working in a dairy, I decided to go to college to learn about printing. I didn’t consider this academic and thus not breaking my vow, even when I studied some journalism. The number of educators who have strongly influenced me during my life have been few. One was an associate music teacher in high school. Yes, there were a few positive experiences. This teacher asked me if I would like to do an entertainment review for the local newspaper. My response, ‘But I’m barely squeaking through in English.” His, “You know what you like and don’t like, so just write what you think.” So began a small career as a part-time entertainment reviewer that lead me to take some journalism so I could get more free press passes to shows.

After working in the printing industry for a few years, I managed to get my hands on a Mac Plus computer to teach myself the new prepress method then known as desktop publishing. Soon, I found myself doing some training. One other piece of the puzzle developed when I was contracted by an educational institution to help develop a new distance education project using an online groupware product I was a representative for. I ended up writing the first course and delivering it to the group of instructors who developed the courses and programs at the institution. I had little understanding of what I was doing. I remember the project manager saying “To ensure your long-term participation in this project, you might what to get some training in developing training courses.” We traded some work for the Instructional Skills workshop, part of the Provincial Instructor Diploma.

During that workshop, the reality of the world of education and learning began to be revealed to me. Wait, was this academic, could I actually learn something and enjoy it? Even more surprising, this shy guy actually ended up standing in front of people to teach a short lesson. I enrolled in another course and got to really grapple with my own learning. It was a tough slog. I had to find my learning legs. I had to apply the little I had already learned about learning to my own learning. Finally, I learned a few things about how to learn, how I learn.

In the following years, I completed the Provincial Instructor Diploma, the Advanced Diploma in Adult Education, a Leadership Coaching Certificate and an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction. Perhaps one day I’ll continue my story about learning. For now, let me talk a bit about education and learning.

What comes to the forefront of your mind when you think of school, education, or learning? What is the difference? What do they look like to you?

Would it surprise you if I stated that education, to me is a production machine? It is an attempt to bring about the result of learning to the masses of society and to indoctrinate them into the norms of society; to make citizens who can function within the framework of society, meet the employment needs of corporations and to behave in an acceptable manner. That may sound like a strong accusation of a major societal institution, yet, this is what school is about.

The institution of education is so massive that it actually has a number of difficulties. When you think of school you probably think of a classroom of tables and chairs and the teacher at the front of the room teaching. The sage on the stage as we came to call it. Educators now know so much more about how people learn than when I went to school. With this research, one might think that the school experience would be quite different. Perhaps it is, slightly, but in truth the machine keeps churning as usual. Even with the ability to deal with the students who struggle or have other differences or challenges, the system can’t help in ways that could make a huge difference.

In the past, less was known about what the problems really were, or how to provide assistance. Those who did not fit in, might be labelled as troublesome or lazy. Today, research has revealed much about how people learn, yet, notions such as mainstreaming all students or financial cutbacks have limited improvements to education. In addition, the educational machine is very slow to change and seems to be entrapped by the expectations of what school and education should look like—people expect it should look the way it looked when they went to school. Teachers teach the way they were taught.

Here’s the point. So much more is known about how we learn. From varying the delivery of instruction and teaching to meet learning styles to brain research, the educational experience should be so different from what it is. In addition, we now know that creative, innovative thinking needs to be developed in learners to meet the complex needs of society today. Employers are constantly changing what they are looking for in potential employees.

Since education seems inadequate, at least to me, I tend to focus on learning. Now, you should understand why education to me is a formal ridged, inflexible processing machine. What I seek are creative learning solutions. I’ll probably write more about creative learning solutions. Perhaps a series. Watch for it.

A byte of the Apple

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It might be difficult for some people to ask the enormous question, what are we getting into and where are we going with all this high technology? It is indeed a difficult question considering the wonderful things we can now do and the speed at which advancements continue to come to use daily. One might say it is mesmerizing. As it would be impossible to discuss even a half of the issues, let me look at a few that come to mind.

I have been using Apple Macintosh computers for well nearly 25 years. I have always liked the ease at which they can be used. It is, of course, the ‘user experience’ that has always been at the heart of everything Apple has undertaken. I must admit, however, that only recently have I begun to slightly question Apple. As with many other people, I admit to having a love hate relationship with most,if not all, technology.

When I look around, I see the good and the bad of technology and I don’t mean just the obvious spread of good and evil information. I have heard many people over the years state that technology, like everything man makes, can be used for good or evil. This would apply to computers and what is often called high technology.

It is easy to to be caught up in all the interesting things technology can do. We are told that our lives are so much better off due to technology. Let’s face it, technology is fun and it sure looks like our lives are getting better, however, as I have written before, it seems to me that we have crossed over to a new paradigm when we adopted digital technology. Something is truly and fundamentally different.

In the span of human history, computers have only been part of our lives for a very short time—sort of a blink of the eye of history. At first, they were hailed as wonderful number crunchers, however, a computer with only a fraction of the capabilities of even a small computer of today, took up more than one room and required several people to operate it. Here is an interesting aspect of computer technology. It grows in power and shrinks in size at a rate nobody could ever have imagined. Along the way, it captivates us with the wonderful things it does for us.

Perhaps our lives would be quite different if computers had remained in the hands of corporations that had the space and finances to obtain and operate a computer. But something happened in a garage during the 1970s. The personal computer was born. In a matter of a few years everyone could have a powerful computer. This was a fundamental change to mankind and it was ushered in by a company called Apple.

I want to take a moment to have a look at a few interesting aspects of Apple Computers and the personal computing industry. First, what is a byte? In simple terms, it is a collection of eight bits of data that makes it possible for a computer to know and render a single character, such as a letter of the alphabet or a single digit number. A bit is the smallest unit of digital binary data, a 0 or a 1. I guess, for some people, it represents knowledge. I’ll stick with information, as I believe knowledge is information that has, not only become part of our memory, it is information that we are able to use and apply in a meaningful way. Nevertheless, many people consider information as knowledge.

Humans are transformed when personal computers enter their lives. It is not just a device, it is a foreign world that I would state, is incompatible with the physical nature of a human being. I am talking about digital information. One could say it exists, but it does not exist. One can have information at their fingertips, but not have it physically in their hands, you have a file that does not actually exist in a physical form or space. One can go to a web page without going anywhere. One can communicate with another person without ever meeting them, or be their friend without knowing them.

Is all this real? Does it make us more or less human?

Much of the bulk of a computer is in the machinery required to allow a human to interface and interact with it and the information available. A keyboard and a screen are examples. Not only is this bulky, it slows the interaction down. Computers work in milliseconds, however, the operation of a keyboard takes, well, much much longer. Have you ever wondered why we have buttons and other graphics to make the digital world look like our physical world? All this contributes to a clumsy, awkward exchange between humans and computers, one that, if computers get smart enough, will frustrate the computer into perhaps bypassing the human. Might the computer decide to control the human? Could this already be happening in some way?

Have you heard the statement that technology is neither good nor bad, it is just how you use it? What do you think? Have you ever wondered where technology is taking us or are you simply infatuated with technology today and what you can do with it?

I find myself regularly taking a step, or more, back to attempt to observe where we are going. Perhaps this is one capability that the late Steve Jobs of Apple had. He is now considered a genius and visionary. As the story goes, Jobs chose the name Apple so that the company name would come before Amiga and Atari, companies who might compete with his company. It is a rags to riches story with plenty of ups and downs. Beginning in a garage, Apple is now the largest publicly traded company in the world.

In the book of Genesis in the Bible, we find the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden facing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Was it not a bite, or byte taken of the apple. Take another look at the Apple logo. Curious, isn’t it?

The Master Card — what happened

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There was a time when people shopped with cash or cheque. At some stores, one could have a credit account and be billed once a month. I remember when credit cards began to become more popular. I’m sure the origins go back many years prior to what I can recall, however, I think the major growth started with the gas companies and the Diners Club and spread to the larger department stores. This, presumably, provided an easy way to handle credit accounts, since everyone would have their own unique number. Before long, credit cards were being offered by so many stores that one’s wallet would bulge. Even worse was the number of bills that came in the mail each month, something that required the average person to become an accountant. Soon, people were getting behind by first charging for more than they could afford and second with the number of bills they had to pay each month.

Enter Master Charge (later MasterCard), “the only card you will ever need.” I seem to recall that was the slogan. I remember the entrance well, VISA and American Express may have already emerged, but I remember Master Charge. What a great idea. The merchant pays a small fee, which they then pass on to their customers through higher prices, the credit card company looks after collecting the money and the customer has only one bill to pay at the end of the month. All of one’s expenditures are presented on one piece of paper, easy to track. Just to make these cards even more valid and secure, these cards are issued through banks.

I don’t know about you, but, I have a wallet full of credit cards. My wallet is no longer leather, but metal for protection reasons. I have an additional wallet for other cards, such as my drivers license and medical card and loyalty cards. What happened? Today, the credit card situation seems worse than when the master type cards came into use. I think the origin of the credit card was to not only allow credit, but to create loyalty. Now, we have a separate card for loyalty by giving points and/or discounts. Why the metal wallet you ask? In a turn that is supposed to create greater security, we now have cards with chips. I have written about the radio frequency identification (RFID) chip elsewhere on my blog. The long and short of it is that we have a four digit PIN that is supposed to be safer than our signature. In reality, most people use the same PIN for all their cards and the PIN is often punched in out in the open where other people can see. Get the cards and the PIN and a criminal has everything. Also, the corporations collect an incredible amount of information from card and chips. They can track where we go and what we buy among other things. Safe, what do you think?

Remember, the problem was that there were so many stores issuing credit cards? It seems they all still want their own cards, however, they get the now huge credit card companies to issue them in the name of the store. It is worse than that though. There are a plethora of specialty credit cards. Some are for collecting points, others for saving for a car, well, I’m sure you get the idea. There are other cards for collecting travel miles and then there are store loyalty cards that allow the customer to get discounts or save points. On top of all these cards, stores also issue gift cards. Sometimes one is required to take a gift card instead of getting money back for a product returned to the store.

This sounds like a bit of madness to me. I’m just talking about the number of cards—credit, loyalty, gift… I have not even begun on how these cards are used and misused.

But wait! I’ll bet all these cards migrate to our phones. What a concept, no more wallet.

Back from Kauai for more than two weeks—what have I been up to?

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Yes, we returned safely and life has taken off again. One project that has occupied many of my hours is editing video. We received a pocket video camera from my sister as a Christmas present, a red Samsung W200 that shoots in full 1080p HD and I waisted no time in shooting videos. Of course I ended up nearly running out of storage. I had only accounted for files coming off my dSLR Nikon camera. Video files are substantially larger than photos. I think I ended up with around 1500 files of photos and videos. So, I have been editing and producing a two hour movie, complete with music and rolling credits. This is taxing our little MacBook, which is getting slower and slower. I even went out and bought a 2TB external hard drive to off-load files to make room for working on the photo and video projects. I have completed the photo slideshows, sorting out all the shots and adding music. Now, I am thinking of doing further video editing, but, may just take everything to DVD and be done. When I have completed everything, I will get some photos on my photoblog and feature photos websites.

We have returned to curling and now we are into some record breaking cold weather. My wifey has got us enrolled in a 28 Day Healthy Eating Challenge at Whole Foods Market. This week is about getting more greens and that has meant making smoothies that include as much kale as we can. All I can say is, this is going to be challenging, for sure. I will post a log every week.

This health trend is interesting because opportunities have been popping up everywhere, it seems. We do eat pretty good, yet, my wifey decided to get us into the four week program at Whole Foods and recently, I have had some conversations with a fellow who does wellness programs for corporations. Today, we were at a mini wellness fair. I found out that, while I am 56, my body age is 61 and my obtainable age is 48. Just a little goal to shoot for. While we were there, we got mugs and free tickets for a very large wellness fair at the huge convention center downtown next month. Health is trying to gang up on us.