I do not believe Friedman and Florida’s beliefs are mutually
exclusive of one another. While the world is becoming flatter, the
technological and financial impetus of the flatness is becoming more disparate.
First, the world is flat. Technology is everywhere. Through,
the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, etc. news and information is instantaneous.
Instead of information being centralized it is now decentralized. For instance,
in education student data and information used to be located in one central
location: the central office. Now, while hard copies of that information may
still be located in the central office, technology has allowed that information
to be accessed in the classroom and even at home by students’ parents.
Secondly, the world is spiky. On a more global scale, the
centers for economic and technological advancement are still centralized. While
an innovation may originate in one of the ‘valleys’ Florida discussed, the
innovator still must travel to one of the ‘mountains’ to get her or his vision
realized. While the benefits ‘trickle down’ into the valley eventually, the
unintended consequences of the current system is the widening disparity between
the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’ This situation is not going to change and indeed
Florida is right, this is the biggest challenge ahead.
Amidst all of this, is the participatory culture that has
been created due to the emergence of technology (even in the ‘valleys’).
Technology and participatory technology has a direct impact in manufacturing.
For instance, when Oreo created the rainbow filled cookie ad. Social media went
nuts!
Anyway, that is my take on technology for the week!
Hi Robert,
ReplyDeleteIt seems we came to similar conclusions. Friedman and Florida can be simultaneously right, and the world flat and spiky at the same time.
I like your blog title, and confess I almost chose a similarly alliterative eponymous moniker, Patrick's Ponderings. (Great minds?) :)
Patrick,
DeleteI struggled with a title...I'm a little OCD, lol!
Robert
LOL I had to laugh at your rainbow oreo reference. It may have been a spike on social media in the US and a million moms may have decided to boycott the colorful cookie; the majority of the world had no clue nor care that the incident flared across the HDMI screened landscape of the 'haves' in the US.
ReplyDeleteIn thinking about this reference; I looked at my own facebook account and while I have the ability to connect with a world full of people - thus making my own digital world flatter - I found that of my 201 friends; only 5 are in other countries. 1 in Japan, 1 in the UK, 1 in the Caribbean and 2 in France. That means 97.6% of my social network are in the US and of that almost 90% are in close geographical proximity.
So while I have the ability to flatten my digital world, I do not and I keep it very much a mirror of my physical world. Thank you for taking me on an enlightening journey. (^_^)
Interesting point, Patrick, about geographical spread/flattening. I take a slightly bigger picture. My Facebook use is primarily with family and friends...and so there are nodes in Georgia, New England, and Virgina. My Twitter and LinkedIn are professional, and I do have contacts in UK, Canada, South America, Romania, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, and India. Much more global. And as the Clustr map on my blog demonstrates, while few comment, readers stretch worldwide.
DeleteWhile we have debated the availability of Internet, social media, etc. There also has to be a desire to seek out information as well. Reading your posts reminded me of a woman I worked with in here in Alabama. She is a very rural woman with very little education. She was content living in her little world. I remember seeing a billboard on the side of Interstate 20 one afternoon with the likeness of Winston Churchill on it and a quote from him (I do not recall the quote). I made some comment about it and she said, "who's Winston Churchill?" I was simultaneously flabbergasted and saddened. While I attribute the majority of her lack of knowledge to being undereducated, I still believe you have to seek knowledge. In my humble opinion, the same holds true for technology; sometimes you have to go looking for the answers. Regardless the availability of technology or not, knowledge is not going to drop into our laps.
DeleteRobert
It is interesting, after Britt's reply; I checked my LinkedIn and my professional network is a bit more global and people in Asia and the Middle East have checked out my profile.
DeleteHi Robert,
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that most of the data concerning K-12 students was located at the District Office. About five years ago, the school district I worked for came out with tablets for every teacher. We took attendance, lunch count, recorded grades and used the tablet to interface with the Internet and Intranet during lessons. The tablet also worked as a platform for magnification. Wow did my world change as an instructor. I could easily pull up test scores and look at areas of strengths and weaknesses for each student. In addition, I could form groups for instruction with targeted objectives for different students. While instructors had new technology, there weren't enough funds to go around to put technology in the hands of each child-only four computers in each classroom, two computer carts with 28 laptops each for check out, and a 30 computer station computer lab. Have you seen a better plan to put more technology in classrooms?
Joel,
DeleteI have indeed seen a bigger plan for technology in our classrooms. Students with special needs are an underrepresented minority as far as the application of technology. Within the same last five years you discussed we have received smart boards, desktop magnifiers and readers for the blind and visually impaired, and iPads.
Robert
I don't remember the Oreo rainbow reference... But now I am hungry for the cookie!
ReplyDeleteOkay, seriously now, I understand the flat/spiky concept. But I am not convinced there will be a trickle down effect of the knowledge of technology unless the "haves" help disseminate that information to the "have nots." But I'm not sure how to do that... That is the question that keeps turning up as I think about the digital divide. How do you see that information trickling down to the other parts of the population/world?
One fascinating experiment with trickle down is The Hole In The Wall Project in India, where a computer was literally embedded in a slum street wall and kids figured out how to use it and began to self organize and teach themselves - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks8D3WE-PbM
DeleteIf it works in India, could it work here? How might libraries be part of the answer?
Ivette,
DeleteMy apologies, but the trickle down analogy was meant as a descriptor. I was not advocating for a trickle down distribution of technology to other parts of the world or even our country. I used it primarily tongue-in-cheek. Trickle down theory is a poor way for distributing almost anything.
My apologies for the confusion.
Robert
Nice ramblings, Robert! It sparked some interesting conversation. I had forgotten about the social media buzz over Oreo Rainbow...good example of social dialogue (both pro and con).
ReplyDelete