McLuhan Tetrad

As I was reading the different wikis answering McLuhan tetrad questions on the different technologies, I reflected on the impact these technologies had on education and in my own life.

Information Superhighway
I frequently go on the Information Superhighway to retrieve information for school and work. In many ways, the advent of this technology has made searching for information so much more efficient. While this superhighway can lead me to almost infinite places, it will only take me to where I want to go. And looking at the 2005 Top 10 searches on Yahoo!, for majority of people, in my opinion, the superhighway led to nowhere great.

Internet Communication/collaboration tools
For someone who is living half a world away from home, the internet communication tools have made connecting to home so much easier and affordable. The internet is a great communication tool but, I feel, it is being underutilized in terms of collaboration. But it is ironic that while an email is almost instantaneous, it can sometimes take me more than 2 weeks (or even longer) to respond to a friend’s email and vice-versa. While these are great tools, they really depend on the users to utilize them to their maximum potential.

Stand-alone tutorials
For some reason, the phrase, stand-alone tutorials, sounds aversive to me. Maybe it’s because of the numerous CD softwares that I had browse through that did not catch my attention. I would probably not work on a stand-alone tutorial program unless it is a requirement. Perhaps many poorly designed programs have led this tool to its overextension before we have a chance to realize its potential.

Video games
As an entertainment technology, videogames are almost without any competition amongst the young and the young at heart. As an educational tool, the potential has not been realized yet. I do not foresee videogames being an educational tool on its own, but the combination of a stand-alone tutorial and a good videogame might just work. So instead of buying the videogame itself, parents could select a 10th grade World History tutorial combined with a popular videogame version.

Simulations
This is one technology tool that I have no experienced of. Although I have spent countless hours playing The Sims and SimCity, I feel that simulation technology is still at its infancy.

Tools Software
I believe that the usage of this technology would hardly lead to over-extension, at least in my life. Tools software has made so many tasks easier and faster, to the point that poor usage of a software can often be good enough. For example, I once overheard a lady telling her friend that she had to log on to two computers to complete her tasks. I was thinking,” Wow, she must have a lot to do." Then the lady explained to her friend that she used one computer to email her father and the other computer to google something. And when the friend asked why she did not just open two windows on one computer, the lady replied, “You can do that?"