Technology and Tools for the Global Information Age – Discussion – Week 1
Other
Consider your professional past and future. How does technology drive those professions? How has technology changed these professions in the past 10 years? Of these organizational technologies, discuss which recent technology has produced the greatest societal or organizational benefit and which recent technology has been accompanied by the greatest societal or organizational cost. Support your reasoning with detailed examples.
Note from Professor:
I was a newspaper journalist before there was a world wide web (a dinosaur) and now I am a professor in a 100% online classroom (a relatively new profession). New technologies affect us all and will probably continue to change us indefinitely. I cannot think of an example of a workplace that has not been or is not currently being transformed by new technologies. I would say that the internet is the most beneficial technology for me as an individual and an academic – it has allowed me to interact with students around the globe. If there is a downside to this virtual classroom environment, it is the emotional exchange we might share if we were dialoging face to face.
FYI: “The pace of technological change — whether through advances in information technology (IT), biotechnology, or such emerging fields as nanotechnology — will almost certainly accelerate in the next 10-15 years, with synergies across technologies and disciplines generating advances in research and development, production processes, and the nature of products and services. In the IT field, for example, advances in microprocessors will support real-time speech recognition and translation, and artificial intelligence and robotics are likely to advance further. The use of more intelligent robotics in manufacturing will support the ability to quickly reconfigure machines to produce prototypes and new production runs, with implications for manufacturing logistics and inventories. Further technological advances are expected to continue to increase demand for a highly skilled workforce, support higher productivity growth, and change the organization of business and the nature of employment relationships.”
