The Socratic Seminars that my class participated in gave interesting and deeply discussed thoughts that expanded my understanding on points that were made by Aldous Huxley in his book Brave New World about how technology can have major effects on society. I found these discussions to be very enjoyable and challenging.
When preparing for the seminars, we were told to prepare for dialogue, not debate. The most interesting seminar was done on the first day that we began, Friday, October 8, 2010. This discussion turned into a debate between Natasha, Nelson, Sean, and Sadie about the expression of individuality in Brave New World's futuristic society and if our society will become so advanced in technology and mass production that a persons individuality will become unheard of. Natasha stated that technology, using mass production, will cause us to lose our individuality because everything made by mass production is basically the same. Nelson disagreed with her in pointing out that even though products are made the same and look the same, people can personalize those products to express their individuality. Ipods were the examples that both arguments used to make their points. Natasha said that Ipods are made the same way and look the same and have the same uses. Nelson countered her statement in saying that even though Ipods are made the same way, look the same, and have the same uses, different songs, games, and applications can be downloaded onto them keeping all Ipods from being exactly alike and taking individuality away from the society.
My class is always in a debate about something, so trying to make the Socratic Seminars dialogue was difficult. When debating, the arguments become intense and hardly anyone considers the other side of the argument. Dialogue is more challenging because all points and perspectives are supposed to be considered with an open mind. Speaking in front of my peers was also a challenge. I have always been a quiet person so I was extremely nervous about having to speak for a certain amount of time in front of a crowd while also being evaluated on my presentation. The last challenging aspect of the seminars was the research. When looking through Brave New World to get specific examples from the book to support our points, we not only had to reread many paragraphs of the book, but also had to "think outside of the box" to apply the society in Huxley's book to our society.
These Socratic Seminars were very beneficial to the class with the challenges that they held. I feel like I learned better discussing with the class rather that doing paper work on Brave New World and I would definitely love to practice this type of learning more in the future.
I too found the question--of whether technology and mass production will rob us of individuality--intriguing. Today, in the workshop I'm in, I discovered a very cool concept: Ignite. Ignite challenges people to create presentations that are exactly 20 slides that automatically transition every 15 seconds, with presenters using the slideshow to support a presentation delivered live or pre-recorded. This, I think, is a great example of how technology can actually expand creativity and individuality. If we view technology as merely a tool (rather than the be-all-end-all), then the effectiveness of the tool depends on the wielder of the tool, on his or ability to use it in creative ways to create unique, compelling products. What are your thoughts?
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