Saturday, February 11, 2012

C4T #1

I visited the blog site of Dean Shareski called Ideas and Thoughts. From the two blogs that I have read from him, I must say that I admire his thinking. He has caused me to question my own thought process and dig a little deeper into it.


The first blog I read was entitled,"A Tweet For Customer Service." Here he talks about a few bad customer service experiences he had and how the use of Twitter helped him straighten them out. The first bad experience he had was with Delta, when which case his luggage got lost. When he first discovered it was missing, he tweeted Delta's Twitter account and they responded by telling him to immediately file a claim, tracking it down, and telling him it would be delivered to him the next day between 6-10pm. As the last hour approached, the luggage was still not delivered to him, resulting in him going back to Twitter. Delta shortly contacted him and his bag was delivered at 2am. Delta offered him a free rebate of his luggage fee and a few Skymiles for his trouble. His next bad encounter was at a hotel in Orlando, where he was charged $14.95 for internet service. Once he attempted to make the internet connection, he was asked to pay another $14.95. He called the front desk to complain and they told him, that that's just how it is. Once again he resorted to Twitter, and a few minutes later the manager of the hotel took care of the charges. Dean Shareski says that he used to Twitter in these instances because he was mad, to tell others about the bad products/services, and to see if companies were paying attention.
I responded to this blog by sharing that I personally had chosen not to get a Twitter account because being that I already had a Facebook, I thought it would just be another distraction. I wasn't aware of how helpful twitter could be. This blog convinced me that maybe I should get a Twitter account just in case I needed to utilize it if I found myself in any of the situations that Dean Shareski wrote about.


The second blog post I read and commented on was called,"Understanding the Digital Divide." Here Dean talks about his experiences when visiting different conferences such as FETC. While at this conference he experienced a dominant use of technology and lack of conversation between guests. He said that he visited conferences in hopes of meeting new people and sharing ideas. The conference was mainly focusing on "tools and gadgets." This changed when he went to Educon, which took place in a school and was more conversational. After talking about his experiences at these conferences, he spoke about what he called "the digital divide," that he feels is occurring across the world. This concept basically says that technology and people are becoming "divided," meaning that there is a disconnect between the two. Dean says that he feels as if it's a problem that's bigger than him and he chooses to be with the "smart people" who still converse and share ideas, rather than letting computers do so for him.
I commented on this post by saying that I agree with his thoughts on technology. For example, in the beginning of my college career I found myself frustrated with the lack of real teaching and replacement of computers teaching me. It was almost like the teachers were babysitters and I did not feel connected with them. As I progressed in college, I had the pleasure of experiencing blended courses that were effective in incorporating the use of computers in the classroom.
In my opinion, there should be a balance between technology and teachers in the class.

No comments:

Post a Comment