This site is rarely updated. benbrophy.com is more up-to-date. - Ben
Grampa's tales of yesteryear
I've been participating in a class at Earlham College in Indiana - my Alma Mater. The class is called Social Impact of Computer Technology. The instructor, Mark Pearson, has set up the class so that every student is required to blog on their topic, and he's invited a panel of alumni working in the field to follow along and comment on the blog. I'm interested on how blogs can be used in teaching and learning, so I signed up.
This blog entry that sounds like something I would have written as an undergrad drunk on post-modern social theory: "Whats a Banana?". Here's my response.
"I know a lot of people work in the video business. People pay them to make videos about events, or about their company or whatever. When digital video cameras became affordable, and products like Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro made it easy for people to edit video without a lot of equipment or training, people in the video business got nervous. Would everyone just make their own videos now?
"Nope - they have more business than ever. Thing is that they anyone can make a video, but it takes a lot of effort and skill to make a good video. Same thing for web designers. Now anyone can figure out how to create a web page - but to make a really useful website takes skill and effort.
"Just something to think about. The increased availability of tools is a great help - and will open a lot of doors for people. But it's talent and the hard work that create something valuable."
My god I'm so OLD. That's the worst thing about this project - I feel so old an grizzled. I start saying things like "it's talent and the hard work that create something valuable." I should have signed off "Grampa."