Session 2 Journal

Brief Overview

What is human development? There is Human Development Index (HDI) to measure the different levels of human development of different countries, but surely not everyone agrees with the perspectives in HDI. However, there is no doubt that technology has played an important role in these disparities, and I think these disparities do represent some extent of development and improvement.
Since technology is so crucial, then what have made the technological difference and what can we do to apply it to better our life?
We have found our answer to the first two questions mentioned above in class and have read someone else’s answer to the third one.

Interesting Observations and Ideas

Since globalization has become inevitable, being open-minded and developing the skills at managing across national and cultural borders will be very important for one’s adaptation to the globalization trends and career success.

Another impressive thing is that investing on women's education gives the society significantly more benefit than investing on men's. I think it's true, for I find from people who I know that women usually have a stronger sense of responsibility for the family and have more patience, endurance and wisdom to excecute their responsibility or even most of the family's matters than men do.

Key Take Away Points

We answered Yali’s question in class. The answer to why some countries have more “cargos” than others is that some countries are more open-minded than others. These countries are more willing to adopt new things from outside and thus can learn more advancement from other countries to help themselves develop faster and better.
This is the key take-away point for me. I have tried to answer Yali’s question when I read Guns, Germs and Steel last week. I know that the more developed regions enjoy the fruit of the efforts of other regions instead of inventing on their own before Renaissance. But I thought that it was the geographical and natural advantages that have enable people and knowledge to be transported and dispersed easier in those regions. I never thought about the mindset of people.
But at the end of the second class, when I was enlightened and began to think about the mindset of people, I felt a little surprised why I hadn’t thought about this before.

Issues for Further Discussion

However, after class, I wonder what have made the mindset of people different? Why is the overall mindset opener to new things in some regions, while the majority of people in other regions prefers to turn its back to the outside world?

Personal ratings for Session

I rate this session a 9 because I find it’s so good to attend the class. I have learnt much more than just reading alone during the first session when I missed the class. I was inspired in a lot of aspects by the videos, the prof’s and the students’ speeches. What I have got from this session have not all been written here because I decided to put it somewhere else (e.g. my LTB Learning Journal).

So I give it a 9 for all the contributions of this session made to me.

Looking forward to next class…

Blog after Session 1

As I have missed the first class and don’t have time to join any discussions before I write this, I can only write some thoughts of my own after reading the required materials.


Summary

I started from the past by reviewing the history of human beings, and have seen different levels of technological, political, and economical developments among different regions. Then I tried to know what have made these disparities and found Jared Diamond’s answer in Guns, Germs and Steel. After knowing more about the past, I cannot help asking myself, “Where will technology lead us in the future?” Then I read the BT Technology Timeline. Surely, technology will bring us both positive and negative influences, but what will be the final outcome and what can we do to control the negative ones and magnify the positive ones?

Interesting Observations and Ideas

When reading the long history from the beginning of universe till present, a question came to my mind, “What is the definition of technology?” I would never ask such a question before because in my mind, I have get used to the concept that technology is something very complicated and that only people who have professional knowledge or adequate practical experience can make. However, when I saw “earliest stone and wooden tools”, “earliest clothing”, “earliest fire”, “earliest controlled use of fire”, etc, I wondered whether these could be called technology or not. These things have been so important for the life of our ancestors, and have been created or found out by cumulated observations or somewhat experiments, just as what modern technology means to modern people. But these things look so primitive to modern people like me. Then what is the definition of technology?

Key Take Away Points

According to Jared Diamond, plant and animal domestication meant more food, more population, easier transportation, more advanced technology, more political and economical developments, and more powerful military weapons.

Issues for Further Discussion

As I am now convinced by Jared Diamond that the way of food production has caused the disparity of people’s life in different regions, I look forward to seeing what he would say about the causes of the different means to acquire food. And I hope we can learn more about the cause of disparity from our later discussion, and see whether we can find some evidence to support or oppose Jared Diamond’s opinion. Because understanding about the past can give us guide on how to make the future better for us.

Personal Ratings for Session

Since English is my second language and I came to Singapore just a month ago, when I found that there are so many tasks for the course, I felt really stressful at first. Although my friend had suggested me to drop this course, I decided to continue because I believe that I can learn more from challenging courses and I am a little stimulated by the challenge.

I will rate this session 8.8 for a few reasons.

First, as the first session, I think it has brought an overview of technology and world change, which just suits the name of the course.

Second, as the first session, it has aroused my interest in some topics concerning this course. And I think arising students’ interest to find out more is very important as this internal promotion will encourage students to learn as much as possible.

I strongly believe that I can think deeper and broader if I have time to join the discussions and I will do so as soon as possible. Looking forward to the next class…