Ramblings of a Technology Addict

Saturday, January 25, 2003

Understanding Technology

A few months back, Dan Hon was talking about computing without needing to understand the technology behind it. ie, "It should just work." But that's lazy. Articulated usage of technology requires an understanding of how the device in your hands works. If we want to advocate for the spread of articulated use of technology, and I deeply believe we should, then we need to teach how technology works.
If one this is clear to me this week, no one at this conference understands technology in a visceral way. Not unless they've chosen to investigate on their own. We can't afford that luxury as time goes by, to allow people to remain ignorant with regard to some of the workings of technology. I'm not talking about needing to test people on how CPUs work, or what it takes to program a deep application, I'm talking about basic usability of a computer.
If you are in business, you should know the following:

How to plug in a projector and get your machine to work with it.
How to create a basic presentation with your computer and display it
How to create a PDF of said presentation and host it on your website
A basic understanding of how the internet works:

Name servers
Mail servers and addresses (like, mjohnson@company.com is not a web address, it's an email address.)
What a URL is and why it works.

The basics of a file server
The basics of good backup policy
The basics of your company's network
There ought to be another list for teachers that's more extensive so you can explain to your students as you go along.
Technology really needs a higher place in our schools, but not as implement, but instead, framework. We need to teach people to not be afraid of what they're doing, but instead feel empowered by the technology they can wield.
Keynote's starting now, so I'm going to go.
12:24:52 PM comment []