Technology's Effect on the Acquisition of Knowledge
Uploaded by Voltaire2202 on Feb 28, 2002
For a class called 'Theory of Knowledge.'
As I walked into my younger brother’s elementary school one day to pick him up, I was confronted with a flurry of sounds; it was nothing new, this was just the first time that I noticed it. All I heard was the buzzing of computers, the ringing or phones and the humming of printers. The same at my school, my parents’ workplaces, and nearly every other public place, as well as some private places. Then I began to wonder if all of these technological advances really help, or rather hinder, how we gather information from the world around us. Do these smaller and faster computers, these increasingly tiny cellular phones, or any of these other recent technological inventions really expand the acquisition of knowledge? Or are we just moving backwards?
First of all, I think that we need to define technology. My definition, as well as the definition that I will use to determine whether something is technology, is any device that makes life easier for the people who possess and use it. One of the most obvious ways is that now it is a lot easier to access knowledge. You can research any topic and access statistics and primary documents. You have got the world at your fingertips. I, as an International Baccalaureate student, cannot imagine writing papers or researching any issue without access to the Internet. Another example of technology that helps most people is the calculator. I cannot even imagine trying to do Calculus homework without its help. With the aid of the calculator, you need not look up or calculate by hand values such as logarithm, sine or cosine…it is just beyond me how they did complicated math like that before everyone had calculators. Another advantage is that, if you have Internet access at home, you have access to seemingly endless information twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week; anytime you want to learn something about any theme, you can. Even devices such as overhead projectors and loudspeakers make access to knowledge easier. Also, as technology progresses, computers get more affordable, along with other learning tools, thus they become available to more people. There is also more information. Examples include movies, photos, audio devices and other entertainment that was not available before. There is also more scientific equipment that allows us to collect more information about the world such...