I chose to read Chris Anderson's Makers: The New Industrial Revolution
1. Anderson talks about how there have been three revolutions. The first one was the industrial revolution, the second one was the digital revolution, and now it's digital manufacturing. Nowadays you can have robots produce products instead of having people do it.
2. I think that this book connected with what we're learning in this class because it talks about innovation. The revolution Anderson says we're in currently is pretty much all about making things more efficient. Inventors are seeing a need and an opportunity, and inventing things that satisfy the need. People who invent robots to help speed up and standardize production saw that production was less efficient, and thought of an idea to help make it more efficient.
3. If I had to design an exercise based on this book, it would be to research a recent inventor of their choosing that has contributed to the digital manufacturing revolution. Next students would answer questions about this inventor and relate them back to the book and the class. For example: How do you think this person has helped contribute to the digital manufacturing revolution? What opportunity did this person see, and how did they decide to take advantage of it?
4. I never really realized that revolutions like the industrial revolutions have happened and are happening since the Industrial Revolution. We always think of the Industrial Revolution as a huge boom and how it was a huge deal, which it was. But now, we have come such a long way with technology just in the past 25 years. Cell phones made just 15 years ago are almost unrecognizable compared to today's cell phones. It's amazing how far we've come with technology in such a short amount of time, and I'm sure people years from now will look back on this time as a revolution, just as we look back on the Industrial Revolution.
I agree that it is amazing how far we have come with technology, it is almost a little bit scary. I wouldn't have chosen this book because this topic doesn't interest me. I'm not a technology person or an industrial person, but it was good that we had different books so we can read about different ideas. I also don't realize that there are revolutions happening day by day. I think your activity sounds good if students dove deep into the benefit of what these inventors have really contributed too.
ReplyDeleteHi Kimberly,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the book's concept. At first, I was not thinking that we were innovating by simply innovating, however that is not the case. Currently new inventions are based on making the quality of life easier. I think the exercise based on that book would be really interesting because people can see how entrepreneurs were able to invent new products and be inspired. It's kind of crazy how cellphones were invented like that and how advance it became. I can see how innovative plays a huge role in entrepreneurship. Thank you for sharing this insightful post!