A New Face to Information Literacy (REVISED)

Without the use of technology in our library systems, research, studying, and obtaining information would be very different.  In today’s modern library, the use of technology is inevitable, and in many ways, has made the library easy to use.  In our class presentation, Mr. Conley showed us the different ways that technology has transformed the face of information literacy.

                Technology has completely altered the process of information literacy.  Information literacy is the process of being able to look at available literacy, decide what is useful, and recognize how to use the information.  Years ago, libraries used to be restricted only to what was available in their building.  Now however, information literacy allows exposure to many different types of articles, books, and information from all around the world.  Libraries now use computers to access to the internet to view these resources.  This sort of technology allows all of the information to be stored in one place.  Mr. Conley explained to us that information literacy includes online catalogs and unlimited resources such as Journal Finder and Cyril.  This way, users are not limited to a small scope of materials.  Also, not only does the internet provide for a large variety of information, but search engines allow for a much quicker and easier search for this material.  He explained that in these catalogs, all of the article’s information is given on one page and in one place for the purpose of bibliographies and works cited pages.  He also showed us that by using Connect New York, a website that is designed to allow the sharing of books between every library in New York, students are now able to look at a book, even if it is shipped from across the state.  In these many ways, technology has modernized libraries and allowed for simplified research.

                Without technology, information literacy and the use of the library would be very different.  In his presentation, Mr. Conley showed us that this technology is used in ways to transform the concept of information literacy by organizing the resources, widening the variety of material, and allowing for easier use and access to this information.  Technology has expanded the horizons for information literacy, and allowed for endless possibilities regarding research and information.

Knowledge and Experince

In the novel, The Dragonfly Effect, Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith effectively tell the story of Sameer Bhatia to convey how technology helped to save his life.  They tell the story of how Sameer, a man of health, optimism, and well-being, was diagnosed with a type of leukemia that starts in bone marrow.  In the chapter, The Dragonfly Body, the authors tell how Sameer’s friends took the first steps to help him using technology.  This same use of everyday technology can be of critical importance to our class in trying to help the St. John’s/St. Ann’s Outreach Center.

                Sameer was in critical condition with his cancer and needed a certain type of bone marrow to help him.  His bone marrow type was rare, and the odds of finding someone who could donate his specific type were extremely unlikely.  On top of this unlikelihood, they had just a few short weeks to find the marrow in order to save him.  However, despite the difficulties, Sameer’s friends wanted to help as best as they could, so they spread Sameer’s story through the internet.  By creating a mass email and forwarding it to everyone they knew, they told Sameer’s story.  They helped to spread the message through internet sites such as Facebook, You Tube, and Google Apps.  In a matter of weeks, they were not only able to find someone with Sameer’s marrow type, but they were also able to help a man named Vinay, who was also in critical condition.  Without the internet, these remarkable accomplishments would have been nearly impossible.  The power of the internet was able to touch people around the world, urge them to help, and to save lives.

                I did not understand our use of this passage until we visited the St. John’s/ St. Ann’s Outreach Center as a class.  There, the volunteers told us about the dire need for food to feed many people throughout the Albany area.  They explained how they have a recent surplus of people coming into their center, because neighboring centers are temporarily closed.  They explained the shortage of produce they have because of the hurricane, and the amount of rain that ruined the crops in the area.  On top of their struggles to make ends meet, their budget was cut in half in recent years.  With a growing number of families coming in for three meals a day, the center’s grants should be increasing to help their community, not decreasing to make it difficult to feed them.  The center’s struggles struck me as unfair, and it broke my heart to think that people were not doing more to help their community.

                With Sameer’s story in The Dragonfly Effect in mind, our class could spread the need to help to Outreach Center through the internet.  Like Sameer’s friends, we could make an email, Facebook group, and Twitter account to reach out to the resident in the local community, asking to help the Outreach Center.  As stated in The Dragonfly Effect, the story must be specific and looking for action.  Our class can make the email personal, by describing our experience at the Outreach Center.  We can talk about personal experiences we have encountered with the people during the Writing Partnership program, or how we felt as we walked through the kitchen.  We can state what we learned, how the people are in need of help, and the lack of funds the center receives.  It is important to be informative to educate the audience so they understand the problem at hand.  Lastly, we must be direct in the email, telling the audience exactly what we are looking to accomplish.  It is a matter of requiring help, because their help could make the all of the difference to a starving family.  Sameer’s story is an inspiration of how technology can be put to good use for the benefit of the community, and inside the classroom.

                Through chapter one of The Dragonfly Effect, I believe that our class can help St. John’s/St. Ann’s Outreach Center.  As Sameer’s friends used the power of the internet to save their friend’s life, our class can use our technology to provide social change.  By using Facebook, and other forms of social media, we can spread the message of the Outreach Center to acquire help from people in the community.  Each one of us uses the internet every day, so why not put it into good use?

My "Aha" Moment

My "aha" moment happened to me this summer in what was considered as my biggest tournament of the year.  All summer, my golf game had been at its finest, and I was playing to a new level that I ha played in previous years.  However, for whatever reason, I seemed to slip when I was put into a tournament.  throughout my life I have played a lot of competitive golf, and i knew how to deal with nerves and pressure.  However, for whatever reason, this summer I struggled in my competitive rounds, due to some sort of subconscious nerves that i was unable to pin point.  I spent a long time trying to figure out what was getting to me; whether it was nerves of going to school, trying to get ready to compete at a division one level, or simply the life changes that I was going through, I did not know.  I talked to my father a great deal about my golf game, and he was always optimistic.  He gave me advice, asked me what I was thinking about during my rounds, and told me to be patient because at that point, I was closer than I had ever been to a breakthrough where my game would click. 
Finally, the end of the summer, I reached my final tournament before school started.  For my four competitive days that week, and the six 18 hole matches I played in, I finally played at my fullest potential, and everything that I had learned about golf, my mental game, and my swing had clicked.  I felt a feeling that i have never felt before, and an adrenaline rush that I will never forget.  During that week, I had multiple "aha" moments and i finally understood what I needed to do to win, and I was going to do everything that I had to in order to win.  I won my tournament that week, and with the competitive year that I had, it was exactly the "aha" moment I needed to end my competitive season, and to begin another season at Siena.

The Local Impact of Technology and Social Change (REVISED)

After traveling to the St. Johns/St. Ann’s Outreach Center this week, the organization provided an eye-opening experience to the different lifestyles of the people in our community.  In everyday life, it is easy to take for granted common accustoms, such as food, shelter, education, and even the modern technology that assists our everyday living.  After our presentation at the outreach center, I could not help but to notice that technology, if presented to the Outreach Center, would have a huge impact on their success in their efforts to acquire social change within the Albany area.

                During our presentation at the Outreach Center, the class was filed into a small building where we learned about the purpose of the shelter and the struggles that it faces to give the people of Albany a safe place to receive help.  We walked through the kitchen and the storage areas, seeing first-hand the small amounts of canned and packaged goods they have for the families that come to eat.  We saw a small rack of clothing, and a few volunteers trying to make ends meet.  The woman who runs the center explained to us that they serve about three hundred families, and roughly two hundred- fifty to three hundred meals per day.  She told us that the outreach center provides two managers paid jobs, but the majority of the staff consists of volunteers.  She explained difficulties that the center faces with the high demand for food, since the neighboring community pantry is temporarily closed, and the produce supply recently cut drastically because of the excessive rain that passed through Albany.  She also explained the G.E.D. program that they host at the center, as well as the donations of furniture and clothing in their small storage space.  However, with the large demand of people in need, and the many different causes they support, the center’s grants have recently been cut from $18,000 to about $9,900 per year.  Listening to her stories and hearing her frightening statistics was heart wrenching, and their lack of support from the government and the community is limiting their ability to provide a social change to the people in Albany who need it the most.

                As a class of college students studying technology and the positive impact it can have on lives and a community, we know that there are many ways that the Outreach Center could benefit from the modern technology that we use every day.  Telling the stories of the Outreach Center to people on social networks is the first step to receiving support from people in the community.  Just like Team Sameer in Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith’s novel, The Dragonfly Effect, our class could spread the word about the center’s struggles and lack of support through a Facebook group.  We can tell their story, while keeping in mind the goal of receiving support, and requiring help from those who receive the group invitation.  This Facebook marketing method is the first step because it would make people aware of what is going on in their community outside of their daily lives, and could potentially help to receive donations and volunteers.  Also, computers would greatly benefit the Outreach Center with the Writing Partnership and G.E.D. program.  Internet is an essential part of so many aspects of our lives.  It helps us access information, communicate, and it connects us to many different communities.  The people of the Outreach Center should have the same benefits.  The internet could be a great source of job opportunities and resources in the local community.  The computers would allow the people at the center to access the internet, programs such as Microsoft Word, and many other applications to enrich their knowledge and help them to obtain the necessary education to find a job in today’s society.  Along with the help of education, the Outreach Center would also benefit from computers because they would help them to keep track of their data and to record how many people are coming in and out of the center.  This recorded data could be critical in trying to receive help from people within the community, or even in trying to persuade the government to give more grants.  In these ways, the modern technology that we take advantage of everyday could be extremely beneficial to the Outreach Center to help them provide the social change within Albany that they struggle to achieve.

                The St. John’s/St. Ann’s Outreach Center, as well as many other struggling outreach centers, could benefit extremely from the use of technology in their efforts to help the community.  From marketing their stories to the general public, to providing computers for job applications and the recording of data, simple elements of modern technology could completely transform the center’s efforts in providing the social change necessary to make better lives for the people of Albany.  As a class studying technology and the effects it can have on social change, I believe it is our obligation to help the volunteers of St. John’s/St. Ann’s to make the local community a better place. 

Apple: The Modern Guide to the Development of Technology (REVISED)

In today’s society, Apple has entirely altered and developed modern technology.  In our class  trip to the Apple store, our tour guide showed us Apple’s continually developing technology, and he explained to us the practical use of their products.  Apple has guided the development of this modern technology by altering computers and machines to perform functions that I previously thought impossible, and by raising the bar for future developments. 

                Upon taking the tour of the Apple store, our guide showed us Apple’s latest technology and explained how they are practical in everyday use.  He explained the solid-state memory system that Apple uses in their computers, eliminating the need for moving parts in the memory of a computer.  He showed us well-known products such as the iPad and the iPhone, and explained to us popular applications such as Facetime, which allows the user to talk to someone on the phone while seeing their face.  He even showed us products such as the credit card reader, that allows you to swipe your card and track purchases on your phone, and the iGrill, which sends alerts to your phone to tell you when the food on your grill is at a proper temperature.  Our tour guide stated that these products are the up and coming technology of the twenty-first century, and could possibly revolutionize technology as whole.

                After taking the tour of the Apple store, I agree with our tour guide that Apple’s progress in the development of technology will guide all other aspects of electronics.    While Apple did not invent the computer, the business has advanced the basic idea of the computer, and found ways to make it portable, wireless, and accomplish tasks that I previously thought impossible.  For example, the Air Play allows your music to wirelessly stream to your television.  I find it amazing that technology has advanced to perform such tasks wirelessly.  Also, I find the iPad and Ebooks very practical because as a college student, I believe it would be very helpful to have all of my books, notes, and papers in one place.  In a medical perspective, Apple’s technology can be of great use and importance to many people because there is a device that monitors a patient’s blood pressure, and sends updates directly to the their phone.  This device is not only useful, but could possibly be of critical importance to someone in need.  For these many reasons, I believe that Apple’s advances in electronics have greatly guided modern technology and developed new ways to go about daily life.

                With all of Apple’s developing technology, it is interesting to consider the future of our world as technology continues to expand.  In such a short period of time, Apple transformed computers and upgraded them to unthinkable levels.  In my short lifetime alone, I have seen music transform from cassette players, to compact discs, to MP3 players.  Music is now played on Apple’s latest iPod, which seems to be getting smaller as its variety of uses expands.  I remember a time when cell phones were almost inexistent.  Now however, almost everyone carries and iPhone, which is not only small, but is touch screen, and is capable of much more than making phone calls.  Apple’s unbelievable change in technology seems almost unreal, and it is amazing to wonder what they will possibly think of next.

                After the field trip to the Apple Store, I was very impressed by Apple’s progress in their expansion of computers and uses for technology.  As our tour guide showed the class devices that I did not know existed, I realized that he was selling me on these items.  The Tour guide showed many products that seemed practical and useful to either my life, or someone that I know.  With Apple’s developments, it is difficult not to wonder how technology will advance in the near future, and how it will control and effect everyday life in years to come.

                                                                                                                                                            

A New Face to Information Literacy

Without the use of technology in our library systems, research, studying, and obtaining information would be very different.  In today’s modern library, the use of technology is inevitable, and in many ways, has made the library easy to use.  In our class presentation, Mr. Conley showed us the different ways that technology has transformed the face of information literacy.

                Technology has completely altered the process of information literacy, or the process of being able to look at available literacy, decide what is useful, and recognize how to use the information.  Years ago, libraries used to be limited only to what was available in their building.  Now however, information literacy has allowed exposure to many different types of articles, books, and information from all around the world.  Libraries now use computers and access to the internet to view these resources, and this sort of technology allows all of the information to be stored in one place.  Mr. Conley explained to us that information literacy includes online catalogs and unlimited resources such as Journal Finder and Cyril.  This way, users are not limited to a small scope of materials.  Also, not only does the internet provide for a large variety of information, but search engines allow for a much quicker and easier search for this material.  He explained that in these catalogs, all of the article’s information is given on one page in one place for the purpose of bibliographies or works cited pages.  He also showed us that by using Connect New York, a website that is designed to allow the sharing of books between every library in New York, students are now able to look at a book, even if it is shipped from across the state.  In these many ways, technology has modernized libraries and allowed for simplified research.

                Without technology, information literacy and the use of the library would be very different.  In his presentation, Mr. Conley showed us that this technology is used in ways to transform the concept of information literacy, by organizing the resources, widening the variety of material, and allowing for easier use and access to this information.  Technology has expanded the horizons for information literacy, and allowed for endless possibilities regarding research and information.