The Vicente’s book is a mentor to me since I am a beginner is the field of Educational Technology. Before I laid my hand on this book I thought it was another “regular-boring-doctrine” text book that I always have during my sixteen-year’ study. But it wasn’t!!! While I reading this book, the author is not lecturing me (to my big surprised) rather to tell me facts and reasons as a parent or a friend. I can’t help nodding my head when I agree with the author’s opinion! With his vivid examples of everyday life or well-known incidents, I have a better understanding with the “Human Factor” conception.
At the very first chapter, Vicente does not advocate how important technology is to the human being (of which is a big surprise to me too! According to the conventional Chinese thinking pattern, the author must throw this kind of “reminder” at the table to catch reader’s attention) rather to illustrate how technology can be devastated and fatal. And once again to my surprise, Vicente take the Chernobyl disaster to demonstrate his point of which is exactly the event that always haunted my mind (I’m kind of pro environmental conservation and thus this catastrophic event would print in my mind once I read it). The author draws my attention successfully and I do enjoy reading this book.
Ok. Back to the subject matter then. As Vicente cited C.P.Snow :” the intellectual life of the whole of western society is increasingly being split into two polar groups.”(“Science and Art”, as Vicente added.)(P31) I think this situation is not just happen in western country but all over the world. And it is not a concern but already a fact. We have science and art subjects separately at the very beginning of elementary school. People who learn science are geeks and people who study arts are sentimental. This impression is almost a inherent concept to everyone. That’s why when I told my friends and relatives that I will study Educational Technology in UC and nearly all of them ask:”Oh! Since when you do with computer science?!” What I tried to explain is that people will instinctively relate computes or machines to “Technology”. And it would be ridiculers to try to convince them working schedule and relationship is also “Technology”.
I have to admit that I have the same concept in mind. But after I started reading this book, my mind is having a revolution too. The book is definitely broadening my horizon. Meanwhile I can observe the Educational Technology in a whole new perspective. This is only the beginning…
PS: Background Information for Chapter 1
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