Visual Literacy, Media Literacy, and New Media Literacies (Reflection)

Q1: How does efficiency influence your values of what is good, effective, and worthwhile?
I feel like, based on cultural cues, we are really taught to uphold efficiency as an indicator of quality. I get teased for having outdated products and it's generally seen as very backwards not to have the latest stuff. I never really thought about it before, but I tend to judge almost all of things I look at in terms of efficiency. I feel like I was brought up to equate it with success the way that many were taught to view it as success similar to the way it was viewed in the industrial age.

Q2: What does Scientific Management tell us about how we should use technology in teaching and learning as well as when and how we know it is good?
It's all based on efficiency. Technology should be used when it makes teaching and learning more efficient. If a technology is efficient in a given situation, it is good. If a technology is efficient in general, it is good. If it helps the 'factory' produce better, it has high value.

Q3: What are three things wrong with Laggards in Our Schools?
There are a number of things that are wrong with the book Laggards in Our Schools. The very first thing of course is the idea that children are "retards" for simply not being on par with standards of other children in a given grade. A second thing that is wrong with it is a failure to consider and acknowledge very important factors to "lagging" in the school system, such as economic factors and ability to speak English. The third thing that I have found to be wrong with the book is the endorsement and recommendation of treating schools as factories in order to get desired results. It is terrifying enough to see the results of the 'study' and even worse to turn around and say that they should be treated like machines being built to become unthinking machines when they are adults in the workplace. It is not helpful to anyway, especially in today's circumstances.

Q4: Why was it referred to as the "cult" of efficiency?
Cult is a word normally associated with a near religious devotion and worship of something. I can definitely see how that term can be applied to this country's relationship with efficiency. In the Industrial Age, efficiency was equated with the achievement of success so everyone wanted it. It became the answer to any and every question and was applied to all aspects of life. That certainly sounds like a near religious devotion to me. Even today, there are still a lot of places where efficiency is the application model and it is still tied to success, worth, and status.