This is an AWESOME activity! It discusses the issues of “computers and are they taking over too much or not”. It a hot issue that concerns everyone in society.
The italics are statements taken from Clifford’s Stoll Web Page: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~stoll/silicon_snake_oil.html
1. Schools, libraries, and even businesses are being sold down the river, wasting money on ineffective and counterproductive computing systems
ü
I have worked in businesses that had computers and ones
that didn’t have computers. I prefer
working for businesses that had computers.
Made the job more productive.
ü
I don’t think that I even remember how to use a manual
card catalog. Card catalogs on computers
are more efficient and gets exactly what I want.
ü
Without computers in school, there would be a
loss. For example, a teacher can take
her class on a virtual field trip even if the real thing is not attainable.
- Information
available over the Internet is often stale, incomplete, misleading, unreviewed,
or simply wrong
ü Information on the television isn’t any better.
ü If people use credited sites then it will eliminate incomplete and misleading information.
ü Information that is misleading, stale and etc are provided by average “joes” so when researching people have to distinguish between quality and non-quality.
3. Face to face meetings are far more meaningful -- and valuable -- than disembodied network interactions
ü Telephones are highly used for communication so computers provide the same means. It just provides another option to communicate.
ü Face to face meetings are not always attainable because you may have to meet someone who is in another country.
ü With our technology, people can have face to face meetings on the computer.
4. The Internet provides a vast amount of data. But there's a wide gulf between data and information. There's a long distance from information to knowledge
ü Just
like any resouce, the Internet provides information to enhance knowledge.
ü Any
way that people gain knowledge is appositive resource and lessens the distance between
knowledge and ignorance.
ü Data
and information are two different items and perform two different things.
5. 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
ü E-mail is just the same as writing a letter. Actually that is what e-mail is a letter. People use the same skills for e-mailing as paper mail.
ü I can send e-mail faster than licking a stamp and sticking it on the envelope.
ü If e-mail is clumsy, inefficient and impersonal that is only because the sender made it that way. Ppaer mail can have the same results.