Maggie Kartanowicz

SLM 521

Below are 5 points made by Clifford Stoll in his book Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Superhighway and my views about them.

1. “Schools, libraries, and even businesses are being sold down the river, wasting money on ineffective and counterproductive computing systems.”

I feel the only way computing systems are wasted, is when the people using them are not properly trained to use them effectively. I admit to observing computers and technology not being utilized but I don’t think the solution is to remove the technology. Once the equipment is placed in the schools, libraries or businesses, it becomes the responsibility of administration to ensure that everyone is educated on the equipment. Most of the technology that is purchased for education is carefully reviewed and not impulsively purchased. We need to use the same care in integrated the technology into the curriculum. We need to prepare students for the world they will live in as adults, and like it or not, that world is full of technology.

2. “Information available over the Internet is often stale, incomplete, misleading, un-reviewed, or simply wrong.”

I do agree with this quote to some extent. Before taking this course, I was very frustrated by the information, or lack thereof, that I received when surfing the internet. There is such a huge amount of information on the internet that it benefits users to learn to use search engines efficiently and effectively. The activity I did on Search Engines helped me to use the Internet more effectively by using more key words or specific engines to retrieve information.

3. “E-mail is clumsy, inefficient, and impersonal. It appears to be free, yet is actually quite expensive, and can be much slower than ordinary postal mail.”

On both a personal level and as a teacher, I strongly disagree with this statement. Personally, I feel that email has been a link to friends and family that I otherwise would have much less communication with because of my aversion to the phone. As a teacher, email has facilitated communication with parents and staff alike. Before email, I would many times use my free period and time after school to communicate with parents. Email eliminates phone tag and lengthy conversations. A teacher can’t leave children unattended to ask a question of another teacher so email has been a great help in this area as well. I guess I have been fortunate as far as speed because this has not been an issue.

4. “Computers will deviously chew away at libraries from the inside.”

We want the students to utilize technology in the library but it should not be their only resource. Technology has the advantage and the ability to easily accessed and updated. I think the Media Specialists needs to keep educating the students on how to properly use the references in the library, but also keep their collection as updated and current as possible. Printed resource use should be encouraged .

I agree that it is very important for people to interact with one and other face to face. Characteristics such as voice inflection and a general attitude can not be determined by an email or by reading a web page. Having said that, I think that, along with a lot of the points made by Stoll, he takes it to the extreme. Using technology to communicate does not mean that meeting face to face has to be eliminated.