Friday, September 24, 2010

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

What if the Internet Did Not Exist?

If the internet didn't exist, I think our generation would be at a loss at what to do. We wouldn't have facebook or email to distract us from homework, and we wouldn't know how to communicate with people who didn't live around us. It's very seldom that I get a personal letter from any of my friends. It's much more convenient to send the same message in a matter of minutes over facebook than it would be to hand write a letter and wait a few days for it to be delivered.

If the internet didn't exist, we would have a much greater need for libraries, because we wouldn't have an unlimited database of information at our fingertips, we would have to scower books to write papers, and it would make most jobs today much harder, or even impossible.

We would obvoulsly survive without the internet, but our world would have to make a major adjustment, which would be quite difficult. Plus, then we couldnt Denis stalk people, or use online dating. :)

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Will the Internet Replace Libraries?

After reading the post in Cool Cat Teacher Blog, it got me thinking a lot not only about where our schools are now in regard to the internet, but where will they be soon?


I think she's right. The internet is a huge resource that is completely underutilized in schools today. She talks mostly about the internet being 'the library card of the modern age'. I think there is a lot of truth to that. Instead of requesting books, movies, and other resources from your own and other libraries, it's basically all a few clicks away. The only cost, primarily, is paying for the bandwidth you use. There are millions of free sites and programs on the web that are awesome teaching tools. Even better, students now days will be completely happy with using online resources, and probably know more about how to use them than an actual library. 


So, if all these amazing resources are becoming readily available online, and you can basically buy any book as an ebook, how much longer will print libraries be useful and utilized? The question begs an answer, that I, nor anyone I know has the answer to. 


Everyone is very used to libraries, but when things become outdated, then what? Society tends to hold tightly to certain things, but easily let others go. Will all these be let go? Or even some? It's hard to say. Technology is advancing so quickly, it's difficult to keep up with. I would be just as happy sitting down with the Nook by Barnes and Noble, with hundreds of ebooks on it, then I would be with a paperback. But not everyone is me. 


Try to imagine schools without a library, or even towns. Strange. I guess only the Lord knows where this age is taking us.