Reading Review Post #3: Research Synopsis

In researching my issue of technology having a negative effect on its users, I was encouraged to look at the positive aspects as well, and found that there were more articles/blogs/journals dealing with the positive influence that technology is having on the face of education.  I actually had a difficult time trying to find information on most of my keywords that I had chosen, which made me feel a bit better about how much technology is being used, because if I can find more positive feedback than negative, it takes away some of my reasons for being reluctant to utilize it on a more personal level.

I spent more than an hour looking for articles, because I wanted to do more than just skim them, so I must have spent over three hours reading web pages discussing the ways that technology is creating a global community that can learn from one another, which was illustrated so wonderfully in the TEDTalk by Sugata Mitra.  Out of the 20 or so articles that I found, I chose to include the six that discussed the positive side of technology being used in the classroom, and found four articles that addressed two of my “negative” keywords, but with more of a positive spin on them.    

            In terms of relevance to my issue, I found the latter articles reflected some of my concerns, but the way they approached the possible negative side effects of children and adults being inundated with too much technology, was to discuss natural ways to create time away from it and how to create a balance in your life so that it does not consume every waking moment of your life.  The former articles were the absolute opposite of my issue, yet their impact was greater because they were able to alter my long-held viewpoint on technology and its seemingly insidious integration into even basic day-to-day interactions.

            Feeling just a bit more positive than I did before, I decided to learn something new, I don’t know if I’m going to be successful, but here goes...