Reading Response 10
Dan Feuerbach
English 354
3-20-06
Reading Response Ten
I was beginning to get nervous that the readings in this class would always bore me. For the last couple assignments I struggled to get all the way through. However, with the most recent assignment, “From Pencils to Pixels…” by Dennis Baron, I was pleasantly surprised.
I thought the history of the pencil was amazing. I might be a nerd for saying this but I was absolutely fascinated by this. I had no idea that pencils had been around for more than five-hundred years or that erasers are made from the juice of ficus plants.
There is a wealth of knowledge contained within this piece. Baron did his research well. Pencils, telephones, computers and many other inventions’ histories are available in this essay. It was interesting to see how the most important school related/writing related machines came to be.
The trend that Baron notes is the fear of change these advances imply. Teachers worried that an automatic way of accomplishing tasks would ruin the world, but soon discovered that not only does editing technology make papers of a higher quality, but society itself has embraced these machines and changed its attitudes.
The best example is spell check. When it premiered teachers feared that the students would forget how to spell and simply default to the checking program. They thought premeditated work was the best kind. Then when students could still spell, teachers embraced a “nobody does it right the first time.” Attitude and spell checker was allowed to live.
Another interesting trend he notes is the evolution of technology. It begins as something for the wealthy elite. As time goes on and costs decrease the technology becomes more available to the average person and everyone who wants a share gets one. Then something better comes along and the process starts again.
I liked this a lot because it hits close to home. My dad is a technology nerd. Whenever something new came out I would find myself asking “why the hell did he buy that?” He was the first person I know to buy a DVD player, the internet, high-speed internet and wi-fi. At each of these decisions I initially scoffed and now, years later, the stuff he pioneered has become common place.
I really don’t think anything needs to be done to tweak this article. I wouldn’t say it was perfect, but it’s definitely a high quality piece of work. I thought it was informative, interesting and not too drawn out. If I were grading this it would definitely get an A.
English 354
3-20-06
Reading Response Ten
I was beginning to get nervous that the readings in this class would always bore me. For the last couple assignments I struggled to get all the way through. However, with the most recent assignment, “From Pencils to Pixels…” by Dennis Baron, I was pleasantly surprised.
I thought the history of the pencil was amazing. I might be a nerd for saying this but I was absolutely fascinated by this. I had no idea that pencils had been around for more than five-hundred years or that erasers are made from the juice of ficus plants.
There is a wealth of knowledge contained within this piece. Baron did his research well. Pencils, telephones, computers and many other inventions’ histories are available in this essay. It was interesting to see how the most important school related/writing related machines came to be.
The trend that Baron notes is the fear of change these advances imply. Teachers worried that an automatic way of accomplishing tasks would ruin the world, but soon discovered that not only does editing technology make papers of a higher quality, but society itself has embraced these machines and changed its attitudes.
The best example is spell check. When it premiered teachers feared that the students would forget how to spell and simply default to the checking program. They thought premeditated work was the best kind. Then when students could still spell, teachers embraced a “nobody does it right the first time.” Attitude and spell checker was allowed to live.
Another interesting trend he notes is the evolution of technology. It begins as something for the wealthy elite. As time goes on and costs decrease the technology becomes more available to the average person and everyone who wants a share gets one. Then something better comes along and the process starts again.
I liked this a lot because it hits close to home. My dad is a technology nerd. Whenever something new came out I would find myself asking “why the hell did he buy that?” He was the first person I know to buy a DVD player, the internet, high-speed internet and wi-fi. At each of these decisions I initially scoffed and now, years later, the stuff he pioneered has become common place.
I really don’t think anything needs to be done to tweak this article. I wouldn’t say it was perfect, but it’s definitely a high quality piece of work. I thought it was informative, interesting and not too drawn out. If I were grading this it would definitely get an A.
posted by Dan at 12:52 AM
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