This Class

Overall, I would consider this semester to be a rather successful one.  I loved the fact that the class was centered around technology and innovation.  The idea of the coffee shop and the use of TED talks really sparked conversation in the class room.  We had great discussions and I enjoyed the way the class was taught. It's been good getting to know everyone and have a great summer!

Final Paper

This blog post is about the final paper that we just wrote.  My paper was about the effects of the Internet and other forms of technology on my field of study, chemistry.  I used a debate that I found on Economist.com on the effects of technology on the education system.  It proved valuable in my argument that education and the science field have always and will continue to benefit from technology.

Technology in Science

For my final paper, I will be writing about how technology affects my respective major, Chemistry (or science in general).  One of the articles I found using the pro/con tool on CQresearcher.com discusses whether or not the Office of Technology Assessment should be reinstated within our government.  This office supplied Congress with unbiased information on scientific issues, so that Congress could make their decisions on these issues.  Without this office, Congress has no access to such quality information without bias.  I will use this pro/con conversation in my paper.

Archival Research Review

In this blog post, I wanted to talk about the archival research process as a whole.  I liked the process of writing this paper more than I did the last one, because in this paper I was able to research into a past subject that I had little knowledge of.  This paper was based less on the actual process and more on the knowledge of the subject, which made it a tad more difficult to write despite it being shorter.

Archival Research

For my Archival Research paper, I have chosen to write about the rivalry between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison and the harnessing of electricity.  I will talk about how these great thinkers came up with their ideas, and what sparked their competition by means of Steven Johnson's argument about ideas.  The network between these great thinkers sparked an intense rivalry.

A Critique of TED

In class the other day, we discussed a blogger's critique of TED.com.  This blogger discussed how TED is more about makinng money, such as charging $500 for a ticket to the conference, than actually spreading world-changing ideas.  He talks about how the organization has become part of the corporate world instead of about the everyday individuals.  One of the ideas that he presented that caught my eye was the topic of whether or not TED's creation of an entirely women conference was the right thing to do.  Yes, this allows ground-breaking women a chance to present new ideas, yet it is also is putting these women into a separate category from men.  Is TED doing the right thing by giving these women an entirely different conference, or are they demeaning them by overcompensating the idea of gender equality.  In other terms, are they creating an environment of inequality by trying to create equality?

Ideas as a Network

One of the main ideas that I drew from Chapter 4 of Where Good Ideas Come From was the continuation of the thought that ideas come from a network of cells firing together.  However, I found the part about innovation coming through dreams to be extremely interesting.  My favorite idea that came through a dream was when Kekule discovered the formation of the benzene ring through a daydream about Ouroboros, the serpent from Greek mythology.  It is amazing how we can find some of the greatest ideas through "serendipity".  Have any of you ever had any inspiration or ideas that came about through serendipity?

Trash Toys Survey Question

For my research on the idea for trash for toys, I plan on doing a survey among several college students to see how much visual learning has helped them in their educational process.  This will let me know if the idea of mass producing these "trash toys" is even worth the effort.  I certainly believe that visual models aided me in my learning process, and that they are a vital part of education.  I may also interview a teacher or two in order to find out how much they use toys in their teaching.

The Capacity of Technology

One of the most prevalent topics in our class so far has been whether or not there is a limit to the amount of technology that we can create.  We have created many types of technology over the course of our history, but are we running out of things that we can create?  We have already shown that the Internet and other types of technology have drastically changed the 10/10 rule in the spread of technology.  However, is this increased speed of technology distrubution affecting the amount of new discoveries that we can have in the future?  Or do you believe that the Internet and other forms of technology will facilitate the creation of new technology?

Trash Toys

http://www.ted.com/talks/arvind_gupta_turning_trash_into_toys_for_learning.html

I think it is amazing how Arvind Gupta came up with so many different ways to teach kids different methods of design and different scientific techniques through toys made out of trash.  This is a huge breakthrough because there are children in schools throughout the world who do not have enough money to get a proper education, and this man has created a way to further facilitate the learning process for these kids in a very cheap manner.  Some of the future's greatest scientific minds may be in schools that do not even have a roof over their head.  Therefore, it is our job to come up with ways to teach these kids, like Arvind Gupta did, through cost-efficient means.