Internet and Technology

A summit hosted by the Foundation for Excellence in Education was held earlier this week in Washington, D.C. to discuss the U.S. education system. Among all topics presented, one in which figures from all political parties and CEO’s from prominent U.S. corporations agreed on was that technology was not utilized enough in the classroom.

New forms of technology have had a great impact on the everyday lives of Americans. The way we share information has been forever changed by devices like smartphones and iPads, and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. But summit attendees agreed that technology has not been used to its full potential when it comes to education.

Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education finds it interesting that technology has impacted the way that people interact socially with one another but has not fully made its way into U.S.

schools. “It [technology] has transformed how we do business, but technology has yet to transform how we provide education,” he said.

Today’s students are not learning about technology in the classroom and are failing to meet the expectations of tech-savvy employers when they enter the workforce. William Simon, CEO of the U.S. division of Wal-Mart said that young workers often lack the ability to “adapt to the ever-changing technology that surrounds them on the job.” Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest employer has begun offering discounted rates for its employees to take online courses through the online school American Public University. At the summit, William pointed out the benefit of training students to use technology at an early age so that they will develop the skills to use new forms of technology that are developed in the future.

Decreased funding, a long-time hot topic in education, has a clear effect on technology education and was addressed at the summit.

Inadequate school funding could prompt education reform that does not benefit students, Duncan said, like the elimination of art or music programs and extracurricular activities, or shortening the school year. But a better solution might be to create an education system that is more productive and efficient by using technology. Duncan predicts that education will change drastically in the near future, maybe even with the next five years. “Paper is going to disappear,” he said. “I think we’re on the cusp of that.”

January 31, 2011 (Aurora) — GreenCell Technologies Inc. (Frankfurt Open Market: GT5) proudly announced today that Ken Mair, a sales and marketing industry leader, has been named senior marketing manager at the Aurora-based producer of hydrogen injection fuel systems, HydroCell™ and HydroCell Max™.  Mair, who will be based in GreenCell’s head office effective immediately, joins the company after serving in a similar role for numerous businesses targeting trucking firms. 

Mair will oversee requisite marketing, positioning and communication strategies and work together with GreenCell CEO K. Allen Etherington, and executives at Hy-Drive Technologies Inc. (TSX Venture Exchange: HGS) as well.

“We are extremely pleased that Ken Mair is bringing his three decades of phenomenal experience to GreenCell and to our new clients,” says GreenCell CEO K. Allen Etherington. “Ken has previously served as a senior officer for two global companies, experience that is very important as GreenCell grows its sales force across North America and to increase our marketshare. GreenCell is very excited that Ken has agreed to join our expanding team.”

Mair spent ten years with Data General Corporation (a Fortune 500 company) where he held several senior sales and marketing management positions with responsibility for growing the business through direct and indirect channels.  In his ten years at Data General, Mair helped the subsidiary grow to over $ 100 million dollars in revenue and 200 employees, as the top performing subsidiary in Data General’s global operations. 

Prior to launching Investment Ready Partners and 180 Degrees Consultants, and subsequent to Data General, Mair spent two years as Vice President Sales for a San Francisco-based technology company responsible for global sales operations.  In this role he designed and executed a reseller plan for the company targeting distributors in North America, Europe, Australia and the Far East.  Mair began his career in the construction, software application and distribution businesses.  These experiences give Mair a broad business knowledge that he uses to guide clients across a wide spectrum of industries.

About Greencell GT5

GreenCell Technologies is a Canadian company dedicated to designing and bringing to market, technology-based products in the alternative energy market. The current product line includes the HydroCell and HydroCell-Max. These on-board on-demand hydrogen generators are engineered specifically for Diesel Transport Trucks.

The HydroCell line of products produces Hydrogen Gas, on demand, and adds it to the air drawn into a diesel engine. This small quantity of Hydrogen has large effects on the combustion process. The result in approximately 10% fuel savings and up to 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (nitrous oxides, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide).

GreenCell Technologies Inc. is a Canadian company dedicated to designing and bringing to market technology-based products for the transportation and energy industries.

The most defining characteristics of American science and technology during the 1800s were the enormous amount of ingenuity and the sheer focus on the practicality of new inventions and discoveries. Throughout the 1800s, there were several figures that stood out and helped to accentuate American ingenuity. Included in this list of people are Jefferson, Whitney, and McCormick. Thomas Jefferson was about to advocate the advancement of science during his presidency and focused on practical inventions while he was at the patent office. Eli Whitney, although proven to be a fraud, put the idea of mechanization in the minds of other great people. Cyrus McCormick’s invention of the mechanical reaper changed the way of approaching agricultural science. The inventions and ideas brought forth by these people advanced American science and technology to an entire new level then what it was prior.

                Thomas Jefferson was one of the most dignified individuals for the advancement of a democratic technology.[1] Democratic technology refers to practical technology that is available to all people. Jefferson first became interested in this concept when accompanying Benjamin Franklin to Europe. He commented on how the French and the English looked at technology. He described the French as more of philosophers doing experimental science and the English used more practical technologies to help them work.[2] At the time, England was going through an Industrial Revolution where this notion of practical technology was a driving force. Rather than experimenting with Science like France, England was “converting labor and resources into useful goods for everyone”.[3] The idea of science was less prominent in the United States and Jefferson was the one to try to change that.

                Jefferson knew science and technology was critical to the development of a growing republican nation. He wanted to focus on how technology would affect the lives of ordinary people. This concern for the common people showed when Jefferson was involved with the Patent Office. When the Patent Office came to be, Jefferson had the idea of practical technology in mind. He was less interested in scientific discoveries than in actual, physical inventions. One such example is a comment made by Jefferson about a chemist by the name of Dr. Thomas Cooper. Jefferson said, “The chemists have not been attentive enough to this. I wish to see their science applied to domestic objects, like smelting…”[4] He goes on to list other practical applications for the chemist’s knowledge. This can be both a hindrance and advancement when it comes to science and technology. Jefferson wanted the knowledge of the chemists applied to a practical application in the world. Jefferson discouraged the advancement of knowledge in such a way that couldn’t be applied to everyday life. What falls under this category is any advancement in natural or theoretical science. Jefferson believed that every patent or advancement in science should be towards a solution to a problem that the common man faces.

                While under presidency, Jefferson always looked for the most intuitive and useful inventions he saw come through the Patent Office. Jefferson was the first president to look at the men of the military with a scientific intention. Rather than try to gather as much infantry as possible like the previous presidents, Jefferson favored technicians and engineers in the military. He established a corps of engineers at West Point in 1802.[5] Besides the military Jefferson sought to change the change the entire approach to agriculture. He wanted people to look at it as more of a science. Rather than mindlessly planting their crops, he wanted all farms to flourish from knowledge gained by scientific advancement.

                Another profound figure in the fight for the advancement of science and technology was Eli Whitney. Whitney is most commonly known for his invention of the cotton gin. The cotton gin was a simple device that separated the cotton seeds from the cotton. Even though the invention revolutionized the way cotton harvesting was handled, it also had a negative effect. At the time before Whitney’s invention, slavery was getting less and less profitable. It just took far too many slaves to harvest the cotton crops. The most tedious part of harvesting cotton was removing the seeds. Slaves would spent most of their time cleaning the cotton and would yield a very small amount of clean cotton at the end of the day. Whitney’s cotton gin allowed for slaves to clean cotton at a much faster pace. Each slave was able to output much more cotton by the end of the day. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin made using slaves on a cotton plantation profitable again.

                During the early days of the cotton gin, Whitney had to deal with several patent issues. Whitney decided to manufacture many of his cotton gins and install them on many farms in Georgia. The way he made a profit was by charging the farmers two-fifths of their profit to use his gin. The farmers disagreed with such a high price and called it an “exorbitant tax”.[6] What the farmers began doing is creating their own cotton gins based off the designs of Whitney’s gin. Whitney went through a long and expensive legal process trying to fight against these imitation cotton gins. He spent so much money that he barely made any profit from the cotton gin and would end up in poverty.

                One more idea Whitney brought to the table was the idea of interchangeable parts. At the brink of bankruptcy due to the legal suits of his cotton gin, Whitney agreed to manufacture arms for the United States government. Whitney had no idea how to produce guns and he didn’t have the necessary machinery to do so. With no money he had little choice but to do this. Whitney failed to meet several deadlines for the arms production, but he managed to convince officials that he was developing a new manufacturing process that would revolutionize the industry. He was talking about interchangeable parts. Whitney demonstrated that he could use several different parts in different guns and they would work. One thing was wrong; Whitney staged the entire event and had not invented the interchangeable parts. He merely needed to make up an excuse for him to get more time. Even though Whitney was a fraud, he still had the right idea. The mechanization of interchangeable parts would allow for mass manufacturing of goods. These goods would we cheap and available to all people.

                From the start of the United States to the Industrial Revolution, farming and agriculture was the main source of work and sustainability. When settlers first came to this new world, they brought with them all the farming tools from Europe. The soil of the new world was similar to that of Europe, but they were required to clear the abundance of trees dominating the new world’s countryside. By the 1800s, expansion westward required a vast amount of time and effort to clear forests. In one lifetime, it was estimated that a farmer would clear more than 200 acres of land.[7]

                By thinking of agriculture as a science, farmers were able to plan ahead, grow the right crops during the right seasons, and begin to mechanize the workload. This is where the final person of interest comes into view, Cyrus McCormick. McCormick was the inventor of the McCormick Reaper. This device made what was a prior labor intensive task into a job that could be done easily by a few people. The reaper was pulled by horses and was able to cut and separate the grain mechanically. Over the years, McCormick was able to erect a factory and manufacture many of his reapers. McCormick continued to build onto his reaper to solve other problems. He developed several attachments to the machine that would bind the stalks together and thus remove another tedious labor intensive part of the harvest. “The acreage of wheat alone doubled between 1866 and 1878”.[8]

                The one downside to McCormick’s reaper was the price tag. Only farmers with a large amount of land and money could afford to buy the reaper. Many farms at the time where small and could only support one family. They had no need for such extravagant harvesting tools. The adoption of machines started to turn the few number of large farms into monopolies. Prior to the introduction of the reaper, the farm output would bottleneck, or slow down, at the harvesting point. The reaper was able to open up that bottleneck and increase the output, but these farmers would be faced with another bottleneck soon enough. When all their crops were harvested, they still needed a way to transport all the goods.

                American science and technology grew due to the nature of American ingenuity. People such as Jefferson, Whitney, and McCormick were able to look at what others had done and construct something that fit their needs. Jefferson’s work at the Patent Office boasted practicality in an invention. The device had to somehow help the average man during his daily life. This type of thought demoralized some scientists, thinkers, and philosophers at the time, but with this train of thought devices like McCormick’s Reaper and the idea of interchangeable parts were presented. These kinds of technology really paved a way for the advancement of science and technology in America.

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[1] Pursell 17

[2] Pursell 18

[3] Pursell 18

[4] Pursell 23

[5] Pursell 24

[6] http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/cotton-gin-patent/

[7] Pursell 72

[8] Pursell 77

Title of the book, A Companion to American Technology, explains very briefly three points which I am to explain a little more elaborately. First of all, this book is a companion book, therefore we can’t expect many details about the issue, thus this book is a compact, all-inclusive and comprehensive one.
Second, this book has a chronological view to American technology, as it is one of the books of a series which are published by Blackwell about American history such as 19 th century America and, 20th century America. Thus in order to do this important job as well as it is possible , the editor Carroll Pursell, who is chair of history department at Case Western Reserve University ,gathers a group of historians of different fields to write about history of technology in America from the eighteenth century up until the present day .
Hence as the writers are experts in different fields ,this book is the interaction spot of technology with many aspects of American society including environment, science engineering ,government, gender, labor, culture ,art and so on . Therefore articles which are gathered in 435 pages in five parts, including twenty
two chapters ,don’t explain details but they review briefly and comprehensively history of technology and its impact on society ,art ,culture and conversely,
Third and finally as the title concentrates content, this book is about technology, but what the definition of technology in this book is. According to different contributors of this book, technology has different definitions, from airplane and nuclear technology to photography and music. In each section, every contributing author highlights his or her analysis about technology with dates and examples as well as references to a range of different sources.
In particular, different contributors approach technology from a variety of perspectives and emphasize on an array of themes. They explain how necessity of society or creativity of innovator causes innovation ,consequently how technologies shape culture ,and as new technologies don’t have the same effect everywhere, how they have impact on America, what the predominant role that technology has played within the American social context is and finally and simultaneously how culture shapes events even more than technologies .
For instance ,Henry Adams, professor of American art, contributor of chapter twenty one; art and technology, explains about the role of the engineer and how society views technology through art and how technology can actually be considered an art form.
Jeffrey R.Yost who is professor of scientific computing history, explains the role of systems in anything from the development of nuclear technology to the internet; and finally, look beyond scientific discovery to explain technology’s role in creating large systems.
David E .Nye author of many books on technology and American culture explains that how new machines emerge from political and social contexts and can be used for hegemonic ends.
Rebecca Herzig who teaches courses on the history and sociology of science and technology in woman and gender studies, explains that how public toilets
represent an attempt to follow “norms of gender” ,in fact writer examine the results of the intersection of technology and gender .
Nevertheless, this book with an interdisciplinary character is a very useful tool in bringing technology into the process of understanding the history of USA and simultaneously grasp of technology itself.
In better word, Pursell manages to influence readers ‘approach about technology and understand technological progress and development with the examination of past as well as current technological practices,
Consequently ,this well-organized book help readers to realize the material in-depth and encourage them to compare sources and follow twenty two chapters in order to understand different approaches about technology as well as its history in the US.
Thus ,as this book is a professional reference and companion book , is suitable and helpful for American History American Studies and cultural studies students as well as professors in the same area of research , also it can be used as a good textbook. However as it is clearly-written one, it can be useful for others.