The Race Between Technology And Journalism

In their 2008 book, The Race Between Education and Technology, Harvard economists Claudia Goldin and Laurence Katz argue that technological advancement was a major spur to educational attainment for the U.S., at least until the 1970s, and that this symbiotic relationship laid the grounds for almost a century of American prosperity and relative economic equality. As the U.S. had a more open educational system in place by the end of the 19th century, it was able to educate its citizens to the secondary level earlier and in greater numbers than anywhere else in the world.

"Because the American people were the most educated in the world, they were in the best position to invent, be entrepreneurial, and produce goods and services using advanced technologies," they write (nodding, of course, to other preconditions such as secure property rights and a form of government sympathetic to free markets).

Many interesting observations follow on from this central thesis, notably that the ability of the educational system to supply workers educated to meet the needs of the economy, and yet keep pushing it forward, increased economic equality. But when educational attainment began to stagnate in the 1970s, the trend was reversed and then compounded by accelerating technological innovation.

The Race Between Education and Technology is a hefty read filled with data and charts and sometimes long passages written, regrettably, in economese, which likely have been and remain rich fodder for argument among economists. But the general brilliance of illumination makes this book a feast of provocation. In particular, I was struck by what could be called the mediocrity dilemma, which is that middling achievement in education is at the most risk from advancing technological change, as average skills can either be replaced by a program or offshored at lower cost, while the demand for people with no skills or high skills will remain robust. (Something, according to Goldin and Katz, that accounts for the negligible impact of immigration on economic inequality.)

But the idea of a race between education and technology is also an interesting way of exploring the travails and the future of the media. For years, journalism education in the U.S. aspired towards the empirical certainties of social science, and it did so because the expansion of university education demanded that nontraditional subjects genuflect to the power of scientific enquiry. To be worthy of a place in the university pantheon, English literature, for example, demanded its students become philologists; to be persuasive, journalism would take law or medicine as its educational models. As Joseph Pulitzer argued in The College of Journalism, "I wish to begin a movement that will raise journalism to the rank of a learned profession."

If that didn’t quite pan out, journalism was institutionalized and codified into a series of operations (beats), formulas ("the inverted pyramid," the anecdotal lede, avoiding adverbs) and a selection of ideological catchphrases that embodied a strong sense of ethical purpose if not necessarily ethical understanding (a journalist was "a lookout on the ship of state," he or she was to "be skeptical," "hold truth to power" and "afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted"). All of these codes made journalism teachable and gave it the aura of a profession.

source:http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/23/media-journalism-technology-opinions-columnists-trevor-butterworth.html

Internet Publishing

As far as publishing is concerned, Internet is causing a revolution. It is now within the reach of ordinary individuals to publish something. And the reach is world wide. This was a situation unthinkable in the past. Even desk top publishing came nowhere near this. Publishing in the past required large investments. Now, all you need to publish your material world wide is a computer and an Internet connection. Many large organisations are now offering free server space for Web publishing. They will host your personal Web site free in a bid to attract more hits and advertisements to their combined sites and services. The disk space they offer is substantial.
Even if you want to maintain an independent Web site with a direct link to the Internet backbone, the costs are very low compared to the kind of money you would need to set up a press and distribute your publication. Besides, the costs for publishing additional pages are marginal. (With print media, production and distribution costs would increase substantially, when pages or distribution volumes are increased).
The Internet now has more than 6600 electronic editions of commercial newspapers and magazines printed in English. The number of newspapers on line went up from around 1100 in 1996 to more than 2500 this year. The figures include 22 Indian newspapers and 40 Indian magazines in English. Some vernacular newspapers and magazines too have their presence on the Internet. The number of college magazines and non-commercial publications on the Internet is much higher and is multiplying every year. Some commercial Web newspapers (news sites) and magazines (e-zines) are offered for a subscription. Others distribute them free and manage the business with advertisement revenues.
Some journalists do run their own publications on the Internet in the West. If one's site is good enough, one will attract readers as well as advertisers. As the Internet is still not past its infancy, the opportunities offered by it are only beginning to bloom. In the West, some important news breaks and investigative reports have been published by journalists operating single-handedly. Some newsletters specialising in certain subjects are being distributed through E-mail. While many of them are distributed free of charge, some manage to collect subscriptions.
Internet is sure to emerge as major source of news in the coming years, though it may not displace any of the established media in the near future. The ability to combine text, voice and pictures gives added strength to Internet as a medium. Though Internet could not yet transmit long videos efficiently, convergence of various media, in a certain sense, is round the corner. Yet the text on the computer screen will not be a 100 per cent substitute for the printed matter. However, the impact of the Internet revolution, will be much higher than the print revolution in terms of published material. Internet publications would multiply like anything. It is no more many voices and one world, as the famous UNESCO publication (Many Voices, One World, Sean MacBride, International Commission for Study of Communication Problems, UNESCO, Paris) put it; but millions of voices (sites) and one cyber world.

 

source: Koch, Tom (1991): Journalism for the 21st Century: Online Information, Electronic Databases and the News; New York, Praeger.

Reddick, R. & King, E. (1995). The Online Journalist: Using the Internet and other Electronic Resources. Orlando: Harcourt Brace.

Technology in News Gathering

Today, most newspapers receive press releases and statements over fax. The technology has speeded up delivery. But that has rendered authentication of sources difficult for the reporters. Material may get discarded simply because it was delivered over fax.
In many countries, press hand outs are now being issued through electronic bulletin boards and the Internet. Thus, it is now possible to release information simultaneously across continents. Journalists can dial up and get the information any time after it has been posted. Bulletin boards can be of real help if used while managing calamities and other incidents. If authorities like the police keep on posting information as and when they become available on bulletin boards, they can avoid answering a lot of telephone calls from reporters.
The bulletin board and the Internet are among the new sources and tools that have become available to the journalist with the development of computer networking. These sources can be broadly classified as electronic sources of information. Perhaps the most important among them, on account of reliability, is the electronic databases. The new tools include E-mail, telnet, Internet browsers and search engines.
A large number of information systems are now available on a wide variety of subjects. This makes it possible for the journalists to obtain authentic information on specialised subjects. Specialisation was the in thing in journalism in the recent past. However, the importance of specialisation would diminish in the coming years as quick access to large pools information, on almost everything under the sun, is available through networks. It would now be possible for a journalist with good general knowledge and common sense to write stories relating to almost any field for the general public, provided that he is willing to learn some fundamentals of science, economics, commerce and other subjects.
The Internet also offers vast amount of information useful to journalists. However, much of the material on the Internet could not be considered reliable. (Generally, Gopher sites have more reliable information than world wide Web sites). There is also the possibility of Internet sites or files disappearing without trace. This could become a problem if the material is controversial. In fact, the several ethical questions are being thrown up about sourcing stories from the Internet. I am not detailing them here as it is not within the scope of this discussion.
The E-mail opens up wider vistas for the journalist to contact experts and other sources, and also for in-house communication. Journalists working from a location can now easily reach out to experts in other parts of country or even abroad to gather information and check facts. Most of the scientific institutions in India and Collectorates are now connected by E-mail. The only problem is that many here are not in the habit of checking their mail daily. Some are afraid of the cost of replying.
The discussion lists and usenet news groups also offer additional fora for the journalists to collect information. The media generally reflect the opinions of the elite and not the common man. Reporters usually look for opinions from politicians, opinion leaders from various professions and experts, except for occasional forays for interviewing the man on the street for his opinions on the budget or the like. The reason for this is not often the reporter's antipathy for the opinion of the common man but the difficulty in identifying the man on the street with worthwhile opinion. Discussion lists and news groups, when it becomes common here also, will remove this difficulty to a great extent. Reporters can subscribe to discussion lists or "lurk" relevant news groups to gauge the opinions of the general public. There are also cases of journalists posing questions and gathering responses. Several discussion lists exist which cater to various professional interests of journalists. Some of them help journalists in the use of electronic sources.


source: http://cyberjournalist.org.in/advance.html

Technology in the Transmission of News

If the teleprinters used to transmit news at the rate of around 80 words per minute some years ago, today transmission speeds of the order of 56 kilobits per second (about 70000 words per minute) are at hand. It is now possible for a reporter to work at home with a computer and file his report over telephone lines. This has not, however, become common though the technology is here. One of the reasons is the absence of qualified and confident engineers in many newspaper organisations who can tackle virus, security and other problems. Secondly, we are not yet ready to dismantle our offices and turn our homes into workplaces. Such a change obviously has its advantages and disadvantages.
Tomorrow, reporters may be dictating their stories on the field to computers capable of recognising voice and transmitting them instantaneously to their offices. While the electronic media is sure to embrace such a technology, it is doubtful whether print journalists would welcome it. There are limitations in composing long and detailed stories using voice. (I am not forgetting that there were writers who used to dictate long articles to their assistants). However, the technology will be ideal for radio. The reporter's voice could be directly broadcast or converted into print outs and read by the news reader, according to the requirements of the newsroom. Voice recognition is already here. However, the technology would take some more time to mature. There is also the possibility of blurring of the distinction between various media in the near future. The same newsroom would be producing the print and online editions of the newspaper and news broadcasts over radio, cable and television. This process has already begun. At least one newspaper in the United States has an integrated newsroom. In India, the print and online editions of newspapers share resources.

source: http://cyberjournalist.org.in/advance.html

Tools for Reporters

Word processors have eased the job of reporters and the sub-editors as far as journalists dealing with languages using Roman and similar scripts are concerned. (The scripts of vernacular languages in India do not have a suitable key board.) At least some of you may be knowing that writing the leads for stories is a difficult task even for experienced reporters. Earlier, reporters used to change paper after paper on the typewriter till they could type in a good lead. Now, he can modify the lead any number of times without much hassle.
Similarly, a sub-editor handling the copy of a novice may need to bring an important point buried deep in the story to the top. Now, he can do it with a few strokes of keys. The word processor also provides many other features useful to the journalist which I do not hazard to list here. But, one facility which needs special mention is the ability of word processors to insert other files in the copy. Files can be easily combined and material from archives inserted into the body.
Maintenance and retrieval of material from newspaper morgues (for those unfamiliar with the term, "the morgue is where we keep obituaries of living people, especially the famous ones, until they are dead". But nowadays, many other things are also kept in the morgue) have become easier and quicker with electronic medium. The archives can be easily searched and retrieved material incorporated into copy. It is time that every publisher of newspapers and magazines worth the name has an electronic equivalent of a morgue.
Word processing and archiving have also brought in its own evils, or better say, devils. Most publications have practically abandoned proof-reading, leaving the job to spell check engines of word processors. But spell check engines have their own limitations. It will not flag a spelling mistake if spelling is wrong only in the current context. For example, the engine would pass the word if you type `their' where `there' is needed. A more dreaded mistake in publishing like `public' getting printed without the `l' can also go unnoticed this way.
Besides, many of word processors on sale in India use American spelling while we follow British spelling. The result is often a mix up of both American and British spelling. The spell check machine, as you know, can replace the wrongly spelled word with the correctly spelled word. It will, however, flag a correct word as misspelled, it the word is not in its dictionary. And sub editors may hit the key for replacement without applying the mind. The result of all this is a newspaper with more printer's devils than in the past. And the printer is innocent of the crime. Most of the printer's devils have been ostracised by photocomposing. A p or d will not be upside down anymore. But new devils have taken possession of publishing.
Easy access to archives and the capability to insert material from the archives without retyping is tempting many reporters to use archive material without rewriting. While this may be okay with material like biodata, it would not look that nice elsewhere. Owing to easy access to archives, reporters would be depending on them rather than scouting for the information afresh. Over dependence on archived reports can result in repetition of errors committed in earlier reports. However, the balance is in favour of archives. Reference to past events and issues in the archives will help to avoid more mistakes than it is likely to cause. Reporters will also be able to add much more background and depth to their reports through use of archives.
Newspapers used to be considered one day wonders that are discarded the next day. Except for researchers and their ilk, few would be searching back issues of newspapers. But this has changed with the availability of searchable newspapers, back issues and archives on the Internet. And this has increased the responsibility of all working behind newspapers. They are more likely to be hauled up for a mistake committed years ago than ever before. More than mere mistakes, one may find reports contradicting each other in the same newspaper, if one scans through a longer period of reportage by different reporters. No doubt, that can be very embarrassing for the newspapers and reporters. However, more at risk will be the politicians. They can be easily caught for their contradictory statements.


source: http://cyberjournalist.org.in/advance.html

Photography in Journalism

Photography is an important tool in the hands of the journalist. It is perhaps this tool which is facing the best and worst effects of modern technology. Advancements in technology during the past four decades have made several cherished skills of the photographer irrelevant. Camera electronics has grown beyond helping him with exposure and focusing. It can now almost fully take over these functions and its dependability is very high. The camera would set for the photographer the best aperture and shutter speed combinations for almost any given situation with or without flash. It can also read the film speed automatically and do the settings accordingly.
It is only a matter of years before digital cameras are widely used by the photojournalists. It will free the photojournalist from dark room processing and time consuming manipulations with the enlarger. Wet processing is bound to become a thing of the past, if digital cameras achieve the resolution of films. This may happen any time now. Pictures would reach the newsroom from the photographer in a matter of seconds through telephone lines or wireless. The picture editor can do a quick adjustment of brightness and contrast besides cropping on the computer. And the picture would reach the page in a matter of minutes. If the editor has time, he can use an array of tools available on computer programs like PhotoShop, to improve the picture in many ways. The possibilities are endless.
A picture is worth a thousand words. This old saying will continue to be true. However, the credibility of the thousand words would now be held in doubt from the day you go in for computer manipulation of images. (It is inevitable that you will.) Some years back, I reported on a case of the Forest Department employing children for work in their nurseries near Kallar in Thiruvananthapuram district in violation of several laws. I had seen the children working, and the report was carried by THE HINDU which enjoyed a high degree of credibility. Despite that, the Forest Minister denied it on the floor of the Assembly. He said that the children were there with their mothers who were actually the ones working there. (The payments were being made in the name of their mothers.) Next day, we carried a follow up showing an overview of the nursery with the caption that no mothers were around. The children were seen working with shovels. Only two grown ups were amidst them. That was evidence which cannot be easily refuted. Even a newspaper with low credibility could use such a picture to prove its point. But the situation has changed now. If mothers are present in such a picture today, they could be easily edited out using latest image processing technology. The background can be changed and the number of children increased, if needed. The credibility of a picture will now dependent on the credibility of the newspaper and the photojournalist. In other words, the credibility of a photograph would be the same as that of the printed word. Thus, the profession losses the strength of one of its tools as capabilities of the tool are enlarged by modern technology.
Besides, the wide scope for manipulation of pictures now throws up several ethical issues. This would range from issues like whether an electric line in the foreground or a disturbing background could be edited out to whether one could change the appearance of a person. Many would countenance the editing out of a disturbing background or the like, but what about editing out distances or the like. Some time back, a newspaper published a picture of a policeman running after a few demonstrators with a lathi. The distance between the policeman and the `victims' was drastically cut through computer manipulations. This gave a better effect. Instead of a picture of a policeman chasing away some demonstrators, it looked as if the policeman was about to hit one of them. Is this ethical? In the past also, use of telephoto lenses tended to shrink distances. This was something known to many and they could arrive at a correct assessment of the distances. However, now the situation has reached an unacceptable extreme. Unlike in the case of telephoto lenses, the reader may not be able to guess that the picture has been electronically manipulated. This is true of video footage also.
Similarly, photo finishing, including touching of the negatives, was used by photographers for many decades to improve portraits. Now, there is no limit to how far one can improve or damage a portrait. One can even strip a person of his or her cloths. Where would one set the limits?


source: http://cyberjournalist.org.in/advance.html

Technology Advances in Journalism

As you know, the print revolution started with the invention of printing by Johann Gutenberg in the fourteenth century. The next important development was the arrival of telegraph. Many of twentieth century's scoops were transmitted over telegraph and telex lines. The telephones brought in a fast means for the reporter to gather information. However, it was not used much for actual transmission of news as vocal communication was more prone to errors. (I am not forgetting its wider use by reporters working in vernacular language newspapers for dictating news). The telephone, incidentally, gave the inspiration for radio. Parallel to these developments was the evolution of photography, motion picture photography and television.
Computers have now brought about major changes to the scenario. The way reporters gathered and disseminated news is changing. Photography is on a threshold with the arrival of digital cameras. Internet is emerging as a medium of mass communication. That brings in fresh competition to other media, even forcing changes in content.
It is to be remembered that none of the tools used by journalism is its own domain. But in every case, journalism brought in an added dimension and character. Internet began as medium for sharing information among military establishments and research institutions. Now, it is increasingly being identified by the common man as a news medium, as it happened with radio and television.

The Print Medium

But before looking at the Internet, let us examine what is happening to the good old print medium. The great breakthrough for the printing technology was the development of high speed steam printing press in 1830. A hundred years later, the rotary press emerged making mass production of newspapers possible. There had been many refinements and additions to the technology such as offset printing. In fact, most of the important developments before the arrival of computers were around the printing press. The quality and speed of printing improved tremendously in the latter half of the twentieth century. Printing presses became very sophisticated, and the level of automation increased. If two persons were needed earlier to load each page, cast in lead, onto the rotary press, now plates are loaded automatically on the web offset press. Technologies also emerged for high quality colour separation and four colour printing. The rotary press started giving way to the web offset presses as back us in the seventies. And for the last two decades, nothing dramatic seems to be happening in this area. However, the electronic sophistry of printing presses is increasing. The number of copies that can be printed on a web offset press has been gradually going up, surpassing earlier limits set by the rotary. The latest presses are computer controlled and custom settings can automatically be made through computers. They can also be operated remotely. This has reduced the number of people needed to operate the presses. The units of the latest presses are arranged vertically, reducing the need for long horizontal spaces.

The second half of the twentieth century saw the emergence of transmission of newspaper pages by fax and the inauguration of photocomposing. The Japanese had started using facsimile transmission of the newspaper pages early in the fifties. THE HINDU was the first newspaper to introduce facsimile editions in India. Some newspapers like Malayala Manorama adopted this technology several years later. Others altogether skipped this phase of technology and jumped to computer based transmission of pages in the nineties.
Prior to these developments, monotype had given way to Linotype in larger newspapers. Hot metal composition, which was common in the seventies, was tedious and time consuming. The average output on a Linotype machine was about 200 (newspaper column) lines per hour. There was an inherent restriction on the speed of the operator as molten lead is cast into lines.
Photocomposing, which arrived in the seventies, removed the tedium of the operator to a large extent and restrictions on his speed. The early photocomposing units installed by THE HINDU could compose 1000 lines per minute. Now, nobody talks of speed in composing. The only speeds worth considering now are the speed of the operator and the speed of transferring the made up page on to film (which is just a few minutes). Whole newspaper pages can now be sent across continents in a matter of minutes. This is being facilitated by high speed modems, fibre optic cables and satellite links. The last page being readied for an edition— that is, the front page carrying the late breaking news, can reach the press from the pagination room in less than ten minutes. The latest web offset printing presses for newspapers can print at the rate of about one lakh copies per hour.
While the high end technologies for printing became more complex, a new dimension to publishing was added by the personal computer. The computer made it possible to publish material from the desktop. Thus, publication of a lot of new material became feasible. Now, one can publish small booklets or magazines without worrying about the costs and large scale circulation. The page making can now be done even from your home. Thus, you can publish something with small investments. The whole equipment would cost you only a few lakh rupees, and the power of publishing is in your hands. (You have to use the services of an outside printing press, if you want a good number of copies).
The distinguishing feature of this technology is that it can bring about quality very closer to those achieved by larger presses. Almost all the typesetting features and tools needed to bring out well designed publications are available in latest DTP programs for the personal computer. They can handle graphics and pictures with ease. Accompanying programs like PhotoShop can enhance the quality of your photographs. And programs like CorelDRAW offer unlimited graphic and design opportunities. Type alignment has become so easy that you take it for granted. (Once, this was being done manually!)
As I said earlier, the low end and high end technologies in typesetting and page make up are now closer than a decade ago. A small as well as large publication would need only personal computers to make the page. Definitely, the latter would need more of them, organised into a local area network or intranet, with much more disk space and other resources. On the software side, the features available on the Champion system used by THE HINDU and the PageMaker used by a local desktop publisher in Thiruvananthapuram are not much different. What the local man lacks is the Linotronic printer that can transfer the made up page on to photographic film for plate making. This situation may also change if service providers with Linotronic printers get established as in the West. In future, it would be possible for the desktop publisher to hand over floppy disks containing his pages to the presses which will have Linotronic printers.
The entry of computers into typesetting was not without any casualties. The computers almost displaced a band of traditional typesetters, impositors and lay out artists who rightly prided in their work. They were men who practised type setting and layout as an art, strictly adhering to rules of their profession. The computer operators who replaced them were adept in handling the machine and the programs, but lacked knowledge about niceties of typesetting. As there was a divide between the old and the new generation, the fine art of typesetting was not passed on to the new generation by the old guard in full. Though most of the old typesetters were trained in the use of computers in several organisations so as to avoid retrenchments, most of them never acquired full mastery of the new medium. Many were just using the computer in a mechanical manner and looking forward to their retirement. As a result of this, now one finds the new comers breaking rules, that were considered sacrosanct by the old guard, with impunity. Some of them have not even heard of things like grid alignment. Many of them manipulate line spacing without discipline and entirely leave spacing between words and justification to the machine. Though the typesetters now have the added power to manipulate features like kerning, many of today's typesetters do not have the skill or inclination to try them.
Scalable fonts available on computers have opened up possibilities that the old generation of typesetters could never dream of. The freedom of the old compositors to chose point sizes was limited by the choices available in their composing room. Now, the computers will create any point size for you. And a large number of fonts are available as never before.
The machine, however, had brought in certain limitations on page design. With some of the early software, there were difficulties in achieving text flow into L-shaped or T-shaped designs. Defining of rectangular design elements, on the other hand, was easy. Thus, L-shaped and T-shaped text lay out became rare in newspapers using computer typesetting and rectangular blocks dominated. The new techniques also led to newspapers gradually abandoning vertical and horizontal page make up in favour of modular design. The transition was often through designs that were neither this nor that.


source: http://cyberjournalist.org.in/advance.html

The Top 10 Inventions of the Past 50 Years

In the past half-century, scientific and technological advances have transformed our world. PM convened a panel of 25 experts to identify innovations that have made the biggest impact, from the hospital to outer space to the kitchen. Here, then, are the breakthroughs of our time.

1955—TV REMOTE CONTROL
It marks the official end of humanity's struggle for survival and the beginning of its quest for a really relaxing afternoon. The first wireless remote, designed by Zenith's Eugene Polley, is essentially a flashlight. When Zenith discovers that direct sunlight also can change channels on the remote-receptive TVs, the company comes out with a model that uses ultrasound; it lasts into the 1980s, to the chagrin of many a family dog. The industry then switches to infrared.

1955—MICROWAVE OVEN
In 1945 Raytheon's Percy Spencer stands in front of a magnetron (the power tube of radar) and feels a candy bar start to melt in his pocket: He is intrigued. When he places popcorn kernels in front of the magnetron, the kernels explode all over the lab. Ten years later Spencer patents a "radar range" that cooks with high-frequency radio waves; that same year, the Tappan Stove Co. introduces the first home microwave model.

1957—BIRTH-CONTROL PILL
Enovid, a drug the FDA approves for menstrual disorders, comes with a warning: The mixture of synthetic progesterone and estrogen also prevents ovulation. Two years later, more than half a million American women are taking Enovid—and not all of them have cramps. In 1960 the FDA approves Enovid for use as the first oral contraceptive.

1958—JET AIRLINER 
The Boeing 707-120 debuts as the world's first successful commercial jet airliner, ushering in the era of accessible mass air travel. The four-engine plane carries 181 passengers and cruises at 600 mph for up to 5280 miles on a full tank. The first commercial jet flight takes off from New York and lands in Paris; domestic service soon connects New York and Los Angeles.

1959—FLOAT GLASS
There's a reason old windowpanes distort everything: They were made by rapidly squeezing a sheet of red-hot glass between two hot rollers, which produced a cheap but uneven pane. British engineer Alastair Pilkington revolutionizes the process by floating molten glass on a bath of molten tin—by nature, completely flat. The first factory to produce usable float glass opens in 1959; an estimated 90 percent of plate glass is still produced this way.


1961—CORDLESS TOOLS
Black and Decker releases its first cordless drill, but designers can't coax more than 20 watts from its NiCd batteries. Instead, they strive for efficiency, modifying gear ratios and using better materials. The revolutionary result puts new power in the hands of DIYers and—thanks to a NASA contract—the gloves of astronauts.

1961—INDUSTRIAL ROBOT
The Unimate, the first programmable industrial robot, is installed on a General Motors assembly line in New Jersey. Conceived by George C. Devol Jr. to move and fetch things, the invention gets a lukewarm reception in the United States. Japanese manufacturers love it and, after licensing the design in 1968, go on to dominate the global market for industrial robots.

1962—COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE 
Telstar is launched as the first "active" communications satellite—active as in amplifying and retransmitting incoming signals, rather than passively bouncing them back to Earth. Telstar makes real a 1945 concept by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, who envisioned a global communications network based on geosynchronous satellites. Two weeks after Telstar's debut, President Kennedy holds a press conference in Washington, D.C., that is broadcast live across the Atlantic.

1962—LED 
Working as a consultant for General Electric, Nick Holonyak develops the light-emitting diode (LED), which provides a simple and inexpensive way for computers to convey information. From their humble beginnings in portable calculators, LEDs spread from the red light that indicates coffee is brewing to the 290-ft.-tall Reuters billboard in Times Square.

1964—UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES Widespread use of remotely piloted aircraft begins during the Vietnam War with deployment of 1000 AQM-34 Ryan Firebees. The first model of these 29-ft.-long planes was developed in just 90 days in 1962. AQM-34s go on to fly more than 34,000 surveillance missions. Their success leads to the eventual development of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles widely used today.

sourcehttp://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/2078467: 

Teacher vs. Teaching Technology

Recognizing the difference between technologies that actually communicate information to students and those that help you be a more effective teacher is important. They are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. Consider how each may be appropriate for your situation and then identify opportunities where teaching technology and teacher technology may make your work easier.

Teacher Technology

Teacher technology helps the teacher administer a class. Software, for example, is more a part of the classroom today then ever before, and has assumed a central place in class management.

• Spreadsheets are useful for maintaining students' information and for automatically calculating grades. The matrix can be used to track deliverables across all students while charts can help to communicate to each student where their grade falls along the distribution of class grades.

• E-mail lists allow you to reach all of your students (or just a subset) with a click of a button as well as allow every student to reach one another with little additional effort.

• Plagiarism identification tools help uncover where non-original work has been submitted as original—including work submitted for another class or work purchased from another party.

• These are becoming essential tools for instructors as class size grows and assignments entail greater collaboration outside of the classroom.

Teaching Technology

Teaching technologies, in contrast to teacher technologies,' help the teacher conduct class. They present new opportunities for conveying information and suggest new modes for reaching students to enable the substantive topic ideas to emerge. For Example:

• PowerPoint presentations are already integral to both instructor and student presentations in class, but wikis are increasingly useful as both a collaborative forum and a teaching tool.

• DVDs have supplanted VHS in-class videos and provide more value to instructors as they hold ancillary class material such as texts, video, maps, and charts.

• Instant feedback tools (e.g., class clickers) make communication a two-way street as they help the instructor gauge student interest in, or understanding of, the current topic.

Sometimes these two complementary, supporting technologies merge to add value. For example, course management software such as Blackboard keeps student information and grades but also delivers class notes and administers quizzes. When the collaborative tool suite is used, Blackboard coordinates groups and manages communication for collaborative student projects. Students can also use the communication tools to monitor their own progress and chat online in real time about upcoming assignments—an example of how teacher and teaching technologies can add value to the classroom experience. Use your imagination to consider how new, emerging technologies can be integrated into the classroom.


Source:1. Savery J. R. "BE VOCAL: Characteristics of Successful Online Instructors." Journal of Interactive Online Learning, Volume 4, Number 2, Fall 2005.

Technology and Religion, Technology as Religion

Many secularists and nonbelievers of various sorts tend to regard religion and science as fundamentally incompatible. This incompatibility is also imagined to extend to the relationship between religion and technology, since technology is a product of science and science cannot proceed without technology, especially today. Thus atheists marvel in disbelief how many engineers are also creationists, how many people in high-tech industries display high-energy religious motivations.

Why do we witness widespread enchantment with technology and at the same time a world-wide resurgence of religious fundamentalism? We shouldn't assume that the rise of both is simply coincidence. Instead of presuming that the education and training behind science and technology should always result in more religious skepticism and even a bit more atheism, we should wonder if perhaps empirical observations are actually disconfirming our ideas. Atheists are often ready to criticize theists for failing to deal with evidence that doesn't meet expectations, so let's not fall into that same trap.

Perhaps there are religious impulses underlying the drive of technology which has characterized modernity — religious impulses which might affect otherwise secular atheists, too, if they aren't self-aware enough to notice what's going on. In this way, unnoticed premises or attitudes will prevent technology and religion from being incompatible. Perhaps technology itself is becoming religious on its own, thus also eliminating incompatibilities.

Both possibilities should be explored and I think both are occurring to varying degrees. Indeed, I think that both have been happening for hundreds of years, but the clear religious foundations for technological advancement are either ignored or hidden away like embarrassing relatives. The enthusiasm so many people have had with technology is often rooted — sometimes unknowingly — in religious myths and ancient dreams.

This is unfortunate because technology has proven itself capable of causing terrible problems for humanity, and one of the reasons for this may be the religious impulses people are ignoring. Technology, like science, is a defining mark of modernity and if the future is to improve, certain elemental premises will have to be identified, acknowledged, and hopefully eliminated.

Religious & Technological Transcendence

The key to it all is transcendence. The promise of transcending nature, our bodies, our human natures, our lives, our deaths, our history, etc. is a fundamental part of religion which is often not explicitly recognized. This goes well beyond the common fear of death and desire to overcome it and results in a negation of all we are in an effort to become something else entirely.

For a thousand years in Western culture, the advancement of the mechanical arts — technology — has been inspired by deep religious desires of transcendence and redemption. Although currently obscured by secular language and ideology, the contemporary resurgence of religion, even fundamentalism, alongside and hand-in-hand with technology is thus not an aberration but simply the reassertion of a forgotten tradition. If you don't recognize and understand how religious and technological transcendence have developed together, you'll never be able to successfully counter them — much less recognize when they might be developing within you as well.

Sources

·         The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention. David F. Noble.

·         Sleeping with Extraterrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety. Wendy Kaminer.

·         Technology, Pessimism, and Postmodernism. Edited by Yaron Ezrahi, Everett Mendelsohn, and Howard P. Segal.

·         Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace. Douglas Rushkoff.

·         Medieval and Early Modern Science, Volume II. A.C. Crombie.

The Effect Of Technology On Relationships

Email, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Delicious, Digg, LinkedIn, blogs (of course), and scores of others—all part of the new and wonderful ways we can now connect with one another electronically, each with its own culture and unique set of rules. In one sense, the planet has never been more interconnected. And yet, this interconnectedness, while wonderful, hasn't come without cost.

ISOLATION
Much has been written about the dangers of Internet addiction. From pornography to merely surfing the web, the Internet is clearly the television of the 21st century, an electronic drug that often yanks us away from the physical world. Like any addiction, the real cost, for those of us who are truly addicted, is to the number and quality of our relationships with others. We may enjoy online relationships using social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, for example, but the difference between these kinds of interactions and interactions with people in the physical world is clearly vast. As long as we expect no more from these online relationships than they can give, no good reason exists why we can't enjoy the power of social media sites to connect us efficiently to people we'd otherwise not touch. The problem, however, comes when we find ourselves subtly substitutingelectronic relationships for physical ones or mistaking our electronic relationships for physical ones. We may feel we're connecting effectively with others via the Internet, but too much electronic-relating paradoxically engenders a sense of social isolation.

DANGERS

Making our meaning clear electronically presents extra challenges. For example, we write things like "LOL" and "LMOA" to describe our laughter, but they're no real substitute for hearing people laugh, which has real power to lift our spirits when we're feeling low.
I've also observed people using electronic media to make confrontation easier and have seen more than one relationship falter as a result. People are often uncomfortable with face-to-face confrontation, so it's easy to understand why they'd choose to use the Internet. Precisely because electronic media transmit emotion so poorly compared to in-person interaction, many view it as the perfect way to send difficult messages: it blocks us from registering the negative emotional responses such messages engender, which provides us the illusion we're not really doing harm. Unfortunately, this also usually means we don't transmit these messages with as much empathy, and often find ourselves sending a different message than we intended and breeding more confusion than we realize.
As a result, I've made it a rule of thumb to limit my email communications as much as possible to factual information only. If I need to work something out with someone that feels difficult, uncomfortable, or unpleasant, I make myself communicate in person. In-person interactions, though more difficult, are more likely to result in positive outcomes and provide opportunities for personal growth. Whenever I hear stories of romantic break-ups, firings, or even arguments going on electronically, I cringe. We find ourselves tempted to communicate that way because it feels easier—but the outcome is often worse.

ETIQUETTE
For transferring information efficiently, the Internet is excellent. For transacting emotionally sensitive or satisfying connections, it's not. My wife and I joke that we use email messaging when we're sitting back-to-back in our home office, but we use it to keep a record of our schedule. When we have a conflict, we turn our chairs around and talk.
Even when we're all careful to use the Internet only to exchange information, problems can still arise. People tend to delay answering emails when they don't have what they consider to be good answers or when they want to avoid whatever responsibility the email demands of them. But this is like being asked a question in person and rather than responding, "I don't know" or "I'll have to think about it," turning on your heels and walking away in silence. It's far easier to ignore an email sender's request than a request from someone made in person because an email sender's hope to get a response or frustration in not receiving one remains mostly invisible. But it's every bit as rude.
Our "emotional invisibility" on the Internet perhaps also explains so much of the vitriol we see on so many websites. People clearly have a penchant for saying things in the electronic world they'd never say to people in person because the person to whom they're saying it isn't physically present to display their emotional reaction. It's as if the part of our nervous system that registers the feelings of others has been paralyzed or removed when we're communicating electronically, as if we're drunk and don't realize or don't care that our words are hurting others.
Social media websites are wonderful tools but are often abused. A few common sense rules for the electronic world apply:

1. Don't say anything on email you'd feel uncomfortable saying to someone in person. If it needs saying but feels awkward, do it in person. Look upon it as practice for handling confrontation maturely. Consider yourself drunk every time you get online so that you take steps to monitor yourself carefully. If you find yourself tempted to behave like a boor, step away from your keyboard (you wouldn't drive drunk, would you?).
2. Don't delay your response to messages you'd rather avoid. If someone has reached out to you, they care about your response. I'm sometimes guilty of this one myself, but I'm working on it.
3. Relationships are affected by online communication. It's much easier to injure friendships online than in person because of the ease of creating creating misunderstandings electronically. Non-verbal communication, after all, (argued by to some to represent up to 40% of our in-person communication) is completely absent. Be careful how you word every electronic message you send, in whatever context. Remember that every Internet message you send becomes a permanent part of your brand (whether you're trying to market something or not).
4. Balance time on the Internet with time spent with friends and family. It may seem too obvious to mention, but it feels qualitatively different to go out to dinner with friends than to spend several days engaged in back-and-forth email exchanges. So much communication and meaning is lost in the latter. And our effect on one another is much more intense when we meet in person. When a friend is going through a rough time, nothing substitutes for in-person communication. A gentle smile or a heartfelt hug has far more power than the cleverest emoticon to lift another person's spirits.

SOURCE: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-in-world/201006/the-effect-technology-relationships

Technology Literacy

The U.S. Department of Education (1996) defines technology literacy as "computer skills and the ability to use computers and other technology to improve learning, productivity, and performance." It lists four goals related to technology literacy that ensure all students and teachers have equitable access to and effective use of technology:

• "All teachers in the nation will have the training and support they need to help students learn using computers and the information superhighway."

• "All teachers and students will have modern multimedia computers in their classrooms."

• "Every classroom will be connected to the information superhighway."

• "Effective software and on-line learning resources will be an integral part of every school's curriculum."

For further information, refer to the following sources:

• Getting America's Students Ready for the 21st Century: Meeting the Technology Literacy Challenge (U.S. Department of Education, 1996)

• Expanding the Definition of Technological Literacy in Schools (Fanning, 1996)

• Realizing the Promise of Technology in America's Schools (Kennedy, 1996)

• Technological Literacy in President Clinton's Call to Action for American Education in the 21st Century (U.S. Department of Education, 1997)

source: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te4lk7.htm

TECHNOLOGY BRAINY QUOTES

All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value. 
Carl Sagan 


Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. 
Arthur C. Clarke 


Bill Gates is a very rich man today... and do you want to know why? The answer is one word: versions. 
Dave Barry 


Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen. 
Larry Niven 

Building technical systems involves a lot of hard work and specialized knowledge: languages and protocols, coding and debugging, testing and refactoring. 
Jesse James Garrett 


Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully. 
Graham Greene 

Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them. 
Alfred North Whitehead 

Congress will pass a law restricting public comment on the Internet to individuals who have spent a minimum of one hour actually accomplishing a specific task while on line. 
Andy Grove 


Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts. 
William Gibson 


Defect-free software does not exist. 
Wietse Venema 

Do you realize if it weren't for Edison we'd be watching TV by candlelight? 
Al Boliska 

Doing linear scans over an associative array is like trying to club someone to death with a loaded Uzi. 
Larry Wall 


Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. 
Gertrude Stein 

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. 
Richard P. Feynman 


For my confirmation, I didn't get a watch and my first pair of long pants, like most Lutheran boys. I got a telescope. My mother thought it would make the best gift. 
Wernher von Braun 

Gates is the ultimate programming machine. He believes everything can be defined, examined, reduced to essentials, and rearranged into a logical sequence that will achieve a particular goal. 
Stewart Alsop 


Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant. 
Mitchell Kapor 


Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing... you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn't affect two-thirds of the people of the world. 
Jimmy Carter 


Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons. 
R. Buckminster Fuller 


I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours. 
John F. Kennedy 




source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_technology.html