Blog Response to Chapter 1

             David Wiley, a professor of education at Brigham Young University and a leading thinker on the opening up of education and learning in a connected world, cites six significant shifts that are supporting connection and network building. Three of the shifts I feel that are interesting and that I have a personal connection with are: 1) analog to digital, 2) tethered to mobile, and 3) isolated to connected.

            The first shift, analog to digital, I feel is very beneficial for students. Students would not have to go to the library because they could use the web, iPhone, Kindle, etc. to read books and to gather information. This would be useful for students who don’t care for or don’t know how to use the library. This would be useful to me because I am an independent person; therefor I could look up information at home instead of going to the library. (Here is a useful web site to gather information on books or to buy books:http://books.google.com/ ).

            The second shift, tethered to mobile, according to Wiley “We no longer need to be at a desk to do our work, and in the near future we’ll be able to do most of what we need to accomplish on just our phones.” I believe Wiley is correct because more and more people are using the internet on their phones. As of 2010, fully three-quarters of all U.S. teens owned cell phones. The iPad also can serve as a communication device and printing press to the world. With this technology that we have today most employees can do their work at home, however computers will not disappear because students can’t use their phones in school simply because they can use their phone for non-informational use, such as texting, playing games, and using Facebook.

            The third shift that Wiley points out is that “learning is moving from being a fundamentally isolated experience to one that is decidedly connected.” With online interactions people can find information quicker and socialize with experts on a particular topic. For example, professional blogs are an excellent way to gather information and to connect with experts on a particular topic. Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and Celly are excellent ways to communicate with others. I personally like Celly because the teacher can easily contact their students about anything, such as homework updates, and if the student has any questions he or she can easily contact the teacher back.

            All in all, technology is changing the way we gather information and stay connected with others. I know I use the internet to gather tons of information, such as finding directions to a certain location. Technology also allows me to stay connected to my friends and family that I don’t see on a regular basis.