CARS MODEL

My topic is on how or if at all adults feel about adapting to new technology. I’m interested in whether or not they are pressured into learning it by their kids to keep up with them, with work to be the best employee, and medically to keep up with all this new medical equipment. I find this topic to be important because we all need to understand the difficulties faced by the older community and how they me busting their butts to catch up without us knowing. We need to give them credit and maybe assist them a bit more. It’s been shown that they indeed is a gap between young and old and also that the older generations are somewhat pushed into learning new technologies. I don’t think my research is biased because many quantitative studies have been done to show the facts. Also many articles that I have researched have discussed or interviewed older people first hand. My paper will deal with examining how much pressure is put on these “golden oldies” and how we as a society could ease this pressure and provide more help to them. It’s a fact of life that without new technology you don’t stand a chance, so let’s help these older people out.

Definition Entirely

I feel that my research paper for core 4 is going to be mostly fact based. My topic on whether or not adults are pressured by society and their kids to adapt with current technology has to be fact based, much like Malcolm X’s argument of being in prison and learning to read and write. He states what he went through and how he learned, all the facts that contributed to his literacy. My research is going to be comprised of scholarly articles and family interviews. All of these sources are factual. All the information I used is going to be gathered from scholarly articles that have conducted research studies or surveys, both factual and not definition. For example one of my sources deals with an Air Force Scientist who studies how adults compared to the younger individuals when it came to using new software. He studied I believe 118 subjects and came up with conclusive evidence supporting my claim that adults are not as good with technology as their children or younger generations. He also discusses how around 80% of adults experience some psychological blocks that inhibits their learning of new technologies. All that research is purely factual. In establishing or disproving my point of adults being pushed into using new technologies, I must use facts! The research paper would be considered invalid and unreliable if I had an argument of definition rather than of fact. If I used definition for my paper as Wysocki and Johnson-Eilola it wouldn’t work. They were defining and explaining what digital literacy was, and what should be considered as digital literacy. I on the other hand want to prove or disprove that adults are pressured into becoming fluent technology users. My research paper needs to include facts, and a lot of them at that. When relating or referencing my family members I will be using “factual” information provided to me from them. I am trying to explain how adults feel about technology and that could only be done I believe with facts gathered from studies and published surveys. The only definition portion of my research paper with defining is when it comes to who I consider to be adults. What age do I draw the line at and consider them as “older”? This is the only part of my paper where definition as used by Selber could be applied to my core 4. To properly discover how adults relate to technology facts are needed, in bulk. Bottom line is my study will be an argument of fact completely.

Thoughts On Research

I Believe most of my sources are on the same page as far as the technology gap that exists between generations. Some of my research articles focus on how adults have witnessed a complete change in the technology they once used. These same sources seem to indicate that adults are overwhelmed by it all and are trying to simply catch up with the most basic forms of technology used today. Their focus is mainly on how in today's day and age you must be able to use technology or you stand a difficult time in relating to others. I have a few research articles that discus how the older generations compared to the younger when it came to effectively using technology. One of these in specific discuses an experiment where information communicative technology (ICT)was used to measure the gap between old and young. The rest of my research focuses on how adults have a difficult time learning new things, and then i applied it to technology. I also have some information given to me by some family members about their thoughts and how they have coped with technology.
My research seems pretty good but may lack a little bit of depth to it. Many of the articles state the facts or what they have observed, which is fine, but i feel a lot is possibly left out.

Technologic Me Core 1

Technologic Me
Many of us, or I should say all of us are familiar with the term technology and those associated with it like , computer, cell phone, texting, etc. I have been involved with technology one way or another all throughout my life and quite frankly rely on it a lot. I remember being around 8 years old and going over to my cousin’s house to use their computer. At first I just watched but slowly became familiar with it. Soon after my parents purchased a Macintosh, and my technologic journey was underway. Within a few years I was hooked to computer games and remember vividly spending countless hours playing Duke Nuke’em. Kids that grew up part of my generation were really among the first to have personal computers at home. This in my eyes sparked the evolution and advancement in technology that was soon to come. I recall game boys and Nintedo 64 and how remarkable they were. I also recall my parents having beepers which seemed like an item or accessory, if you will, from the future. The world was in for a big change. One I was here to witness.

Most people think of technology as being solely comprised of computers. That’s very untrue. In fact I’m willing to bet everything we do every second involves technology, even the less obvious like using our cars. When it comes to technology I consider myself and my generation in general at the top of our game. We our exposed and somewhat forced to stay current with technology. Even in school we’re expected to use technology. Programs like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint are a must. In college teachers will not take hand written assignments anymore, nor are verbal presentations acceptable, they must be accompanied by a PowerPoint or computerized graph of some sort. Most of these programs are constantly being updated so we must adapt to the changes. Technology is a part of us and will be forever. Older people may say they despise technology but I’m willing to bet they have cell phones, and use email as a form of communication at the very least, my grandparents do. Times are changing and you either adapt or get left behind. I use technology on a daily basis this includes using Facebook, emailing, and also using programs like Skype to video chat with friends. I am very active with all these things as most of my friends are. I would say that I Skype (video chat) at least once a day along with checking my email. Now when it comes to being on Facebook, I’m on whenever my computer is on. As we speak, writing this paper my Firefox is opened with Facebook waiting for me to update it. Another form of technology I use is cameras and editing and posting photos. I frequently take pictures or record videos and upload them to my computer. It’s scary how technology is everywhere. Like I previously said even driving a car involves technology, a lot of it. From the air bag features to the brakes and electronic locks, cars are giant 3 ton pieces of technology. My life would be completely different, in ways I can’t even begin to imagine without technology. I can’t even say the majority of my technology usage comes in the form of entertainment anymore. This would be a complete lie. My reliability on technology is scary.

Although I am young and have good knowledge with technology there are some things I’m “iffy” about and aren’t as comfortable using. A great example is using programs like Microsoft Excel and other business related programs. I can’t seem to figure them out! Also I’m not very good at blogging and never really have until this class. My roommate would probably also argue that I’m not very good at typing which I guess could be related to technology. I use computers all day long and type a million words a day, but can’t seem to improve my typing speed at all. I know enough about technology to keep me happy and get what I need to get done, done but I am not by any means a computer genius, i.e. an IT guy. I would not be able to take apart my computer and rebuild it, but hopefully someday I will.

I consider myself decent with technology as I previously mentioned. Although I believe this, there is without a doubt room to grow, there always is. I would say I'm 70% compatible this day and age with computers, I pods and all technology related things. In the future I would like to be more efficient with technology, mainly speaking of computers here. I want to be able to completely understand how a computer works and runs. This is more of a personal goal. When it comes to the future I plan on being a specialized nurse, without any idea what exactly the specialization will be yet. I do know that nurses have to be pretty good with technology believe it or not. One of my really close family friends is a nurse and she said to me "the better you are with it, the easier your life will be" when I brought up technology, so I'm planning on taking her advice. Nurses work with computers and input patient history, and information. Electronic medication administration systems (EMARs) use bar-codes to allow the nurse to scan patient's wristband, a medication label and a medication record, thus ensuring proper medication is given to each patient. Nursing is a labor intensive field and technology just makes life a little easier. They also have to look at computer images of x-rays and other such things. I figure I use technology everyday all day long why not embrace it and really learn it.

Sure most of us do use technology every second of our life, but I believe we kind of take it for granted and don't "learn" and understand what we have been blessed with. So my future goal in regards to technology is to improve my understanding of what I already know and further become familiar with new technologies.
Sources

Berkenkotter, Carol. Jstor. 32:4 vols. National Council of Teachers of English, 1981.
Keefe, Sandy. "Writing @ CSU". 2/4/2010 .
"Writing @ CSU". Colorado State University. 1/31/210 .

Audience Awareness

The article I read focused on an anthropologist Linda B who was being studied in regards to awareness of her audience when writing something. She and the others who were not mentioned in this article but were also studied all publish things in journals of their respective fields. The study went as follows, the participants were told they were giving a speech at a high school about their careers, and were asked to express aloud as they wrote what they would say to the students they were going to talk to. Observers would record what happened and conclude if avid writers( those being studied) put more thought into their audience than your everyday writer. What researchers found was that indeed Linda and the other participants did put more thought into their audience, they mentally pictured them and tried to connect with them. People like me who are untrained in rhetorical thought could only think about the topic which we were to focus on. It's interesting to read this because i now understand that i have to get see past the topic in order to truly understand my audience.

Where Technology Will Take Me

I consider myself Pretty decent with technology as i previously mentioned. Although i believe this, there is without a doubt room to grow, there always is. I would say I'm 70% compatible this day and age with computers, i pods and all technology related things. So there is definitely room for improvement here. In the future I would like to be more efficient with technology, mainly speaking of computers here. I want to be able to completely understand how a computer works and runs. This is more of a personal goal. When it comes to the future I plan on being a specialized nurse, without any idea what exactly where the specialization will be yet. I do know that nurses have to be pretty good with technology believe it or not. One of my really close family friends is a nurse and she said to me "the better you are with it, the easier your life will be" when I brought up technology, so I'm planning on taking her advice. I figure i use technology everyday all day long why not embrace it and really learn it, i mean really learn it. Sure most of us do use technology every second of our life, but i believe we kind of take it for granted and don't "learn" and understand what we have been blessed with. So my future goal in regards to technology is to improve my understanding of what i already know and further become familiar with new technologies.

Where I Stand With Technology

Before assessing where I stand in regards to technology let me first explain what technology is, or means to me. I believe technology is obviously related to computers, but also can be distant from computers. For example music mp3s and even CD’s, because you actually have to play it somewhere whether on your computer or car radio and those are forms of technology. Most people think of technology as being solely comprised of computers. That’s very untrue. In fact I’m willing to bet everything we do every second involves technology, even the less obvious like using our cars. When it comes to technology I consider myself and my generation in general at the top of our game. We our exposed and somewhat forced to stay current with technology. Even in school were expected to use programs like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Most of these programs are constantly being updated and so we must adapt to the changes. Technology is a part of us and will be forever. Older people may say they despise technology but I’m willing to bet they have cell phones, and use email as a form of communication at the very least. Technology in my life that I use on a daily basis includes using Facebook, emailing, and also using programs like Skype to video chat with friends. I am very active with all these things as most of my friends are. I am also ok when it comes to using cameras and editing and posting photos. The majority of my technology usage comes in the form of entertainment, texting, Facebooking, taking pictures, downloading music, etc.

Although I am young and have good knowledge with technology there are some things I’m iffy about and aren’t as comfortable using. A great example is using programs like Microsoft Excel and other business related programs. I can’t seem to figure them out! Also I’m not very good at blogging and never really have until this class. Another thing I seem to suck at is setting up a network and getting internet running, sounds dumb but man it frustrates me. My roommate would probably also argue that I’m not very good at typing which I guess could be related to technology. I use computers all day long and type a million words a day, but can’t seem to improve my typing speed at all. As we speak I’m still in class typing this while everyone has left. I know enough about technology to keep me happy and get what I need to get done, but I am not by any means a computer genius. I would not be able to take apart my computer and rebuild it.