Reading Guide for "Technology has a Message" with Answers

1. Complete this sentence: "This notion fails to recognize that technology itself _embeds a message_.
   
   
2. Because technology is a response to God, we have both _freedom_____ and __responsibility_______.
   
   
3. Andy Crouch suggests two questions to ask about culture/technology. They are:
   
   1. __What does it make possible?_______________________________________
   
   2. __What does it make impossible or more difficult?________________________
   
   
4. Fill in the blanks: "In other words, __technology____ is value-laden, and these values make some things
   
   possible, while at the same time __making others more difficult___.
   
   
5. What does "value-laden" means? _Value-laden means that some values of the creators are embedded in the technology itself. 
   
   These values might be the importance (or unimportance) of efficiency, beauty, society, robustness, e.g. ____
   
   
6. Schuurman writes, "Furthermore, we are gradually shaped as certain ways of thinking and knowing are
   
   amplified and others are muted."  What ways of thinking are amplified or muted by Microsoft Word?  (Perhaps
   
   compare the use of it to writing on paper or using a typewriter.)   __Because word processors allow the user to
   
   correct mistakes quickly, the user does not have to have all her thoughts in a completed form before beginning
   
   her writing.  This is an advantage, as it allows the user to brainstorm and form ideas as she is writing.  It is
   
   a disadvantage as it does not force the user to develop her ideas first and then write them later.  This may lead
   
   to poorly developed ideas. __________________________________________________________________
   
   
7. Is adoption of technology unstoppable?  What would change if you gave up your cell phone or closed
   
   your Facebook account? ______For some people, they would be viewed as backward or unsociable if they
   
   did not have a facebook account or didn't have a cell phone on which to text "constantly". ________
   
   
8. What has the web made more difficult, according to Nicolas Carr? _ deep thinking _____
   
   ____________________________________________________________________________________
   
   
9. According to a 2009 research study, screen-based technology improves "visual-spatial skills," while at the
   
   same time it weakens __"deep processing"_______ and "mindful knowledge acquisition,
   
   inductive analysis, _____critical thinking____________, __imagination___, and __reflection__.