From the excerpt and reviews that I read on this book, I would have to say that some of Stoll’s worries have been solved in the last 10 years, but others most definitely are still being hotly debated. I think that issues about email being too slow have definitely been resolved. We can now even talk real time, which apparently is a huge improvement over how things used to be. I had heard that it took several days to send an email in the primitive days of the computer. Another issue that he was worried about is digital cash for ecommerce. Business on the internet today is HUGE. Although, I would not consider doing all my shopping online, there are products that I enjoy being able to receive online without having to travel to Baltimore, Towson or D.C. to find the nearest store. There are always security and fraud issues to worry about, so it is best to research extensively and be properly protected before purchasing safely online.

One issue that I really have to agree on with Stoll is his feelings of impersonal interactions through the use of computers, and the fact that face to face meetings are much more meaningful and valuable than digital communication. When you consider that people generally react more favorably to positive feedback and encouraging interactions, how are computers more valuable than experiencing something first hand or meeting with someone face to face. I do not believe that they are. I don’t know how many times I received an email or read something that someone wrote and mistook their meaning due to incorporating my own perception of the way it was said. To tie this into an educational setting, I cannot comprehend how the valuable feedback and positive praises of an online teacher could be as motivating and successful as the actual face to face interactions with students and teachers. In the real classroom setting, teachers have unlimited chances to motivate students through verbal praise and other positively reinforcing activities and behavioral modifiers. Unfortunately, I think that this interaction between teachers and students would be lacking the more technology and computers are used in the classroom. I believe there is a place for computers in the classroom, but in no way should they replace the invaluable chance for people to interact with each other face to face.