As you may or may not know, me and my class have recently taken a trip down to California as a part of our disruption unit for Socials and English. As a quick disclaimer, this post is mostly about the work we did while on this trip. If you would first like to read about all the fun things we did, you can click the link below.This post also shares information about my learning on the this trip. The main learnings were focused on the evolution of Silicon Valley and the Tech industry, the evolution of technology (we went to the Computer History Museum), how a great university is creating disruption by changing their admission requirements and how the hippie movement was also disruption and really changed society. its a good post, you should read it!
One of the key goals of this trip was to create some form of media (video, etc.) to explain the disruption of one of the locations we would be visiting. This was a partner project. We were allowed to pick our partners but our teachers had to approve them. There was much bargaining. I decided to team up with Sydney. Sydney and I have known each other for about as long as I can remember and her skills at script writing and my visual media talents made us a great team and her a good choice for a partner.
Our chosen location was the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We chose it because we believed that it be a disruptive place and it would also be very ascetically pleasing. We were right.
The disruption we chose to use was the parks reintroduction of species, such as the Californian Condor, back into the wild. We filmed most of our footage at the park and then incorporated a voice over once we returned home.
Our first draft (above) was pretty strong and we interviewed three people that worked at the Park. However Ms. Maxwell and the class suggested it was too long so we cut down time by trimming interviews. We also changed some of the visuals to make the video flow better and make more sense. Lastly, we edited the background music because it needed to be more balanced.
I was pretty happy with the results of this project (above). I think that Sydney and I worked really well together. We were very productive, we stayed focused and we tended to agree on most things to do with the project. I’d definitely work with her again.
The other part of our disruption unit was our synthesis essay. This was an essay debating the disruption of technology. We where required to have three sources with one of them the book “Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow. We had to write our essay over two classes. Prior to writing the essay, we had to create an essay outline however we were not allowed to have our outline available to us while actually writing the essay. The only thing we were allowed to have with us was a sheet of paper with quotes that we chose and planned to use in the essay. My thesis statement was: “Technology has been a major disruption to the human population. This can especially be seen throughout 21st century technology. 21st Century technology has resulted in a world population with more developed critical thinking skills as well a greater amount of individuality. This can be seen through fashion, literature, and education.”.
Below is a copy of my essay.
I liked this activity because it really made me think and I believe I am getting better at creating thesis statements and defending them.
21st Century Technology’s Affect On The World Population
By Robert Wharton
Technology has been a major disruption to the human population. This can especially be seen throughout 21st century technology. 21st Century technology has resulted in a world population with more developed critical thinking skills as well a greater amount of individuality. This can be seen through fashion, literature, and education.
Technology such as social media has been a disruption to the fashion industry. The blogging website “Adwell” states that one way it has disrupted the fashion industry is by offering individuals a grater variety of fashion sources. A great amount of these sources are run and produced by individuals or small groups not in control by larger companies. This leads to a population that is less concerned about following the fashion advice of only one source. Instead they are more likely to take information form multiple sources which they then use to influence their personal unique style. This both shows critical thinking skills and greater individuality.
Disruption by technology can also be seen thought literature and its distribution. Formally the only way that you would be able to have your literature available to the population was to have a publishing company decide to publish it. However, if the publishers where unfond or opposed the ideals within your literature they wouldn’t publish it. Thanks to technology like the internet this is less of an issue. For example the the book “Little Brother” written by Cory Doctorow talks about free speech as well as the questioning and over throwing of authority. This has lead to the book being bandedin country’s like China. However, as stated by the main character of “Little Brother”, Markus, you could easily have private access to countless amounts of information using cipher codes on the internet. This means that anyone is able to access all sorts of information by thanks to technology.
Technology has even disrupted the future of our society, our education system. 21st century technology has lead to technology infused programs and schools such as PLP (Performance Learning Program) or HTH (High Tech High). As stated by Brian Hughes, a PLP teacher, one of the core beliefs of the PLP program is one to one student iPad work. But why are these programs disrupting the education system? The first reason is that technology, like iPads, give both teachers and students tools to learn, teach, and complete projects with. That’s because iPads, like any Apple product, have access to the App Store, a digital location from witch you can purchase and download applications for your divices. These can allow teachers to collect digital homework, allow students to creat all sorts of projects like videos or images, and many more. Another disruption technology has had to the education system is the internet. It has acted as a reaserch source for all sorts of projects or essays. Since the internet is mostly free to use there are a prethra of different opinions and arguing topics to source from. This means students are now able to hear both sides of an argument allowing them to form their own opinions of topics, increasing their critical thinking skills.
In conclusion, 21st century technology has been a disruption to the human population. You can see this with social media and how it has disrupted the traditionaly magazine driven fashion industry or with how the the internet has been used to spread literature that schools or even governments may not approve of. You can also see this this in the education system with technology, such as iPads, and how they are tools used to help both teachers and students.
All in all, the California trip and our class time back at Seycove has really got me thinking about disruption. It was a good unit and it reminded me, especially when I learned about the Chinese Fire Wall, how important disruption is in our society and how we need it in order to move forward.