Abstract

Excerpt from LGS presentation, April 2012:

“We are becoming slaves to our technology.” How does this happen? The technology is marketed to us in ways to make us think we are making our lives easier by having the technology do some (or all) of our work for us. But do we understand what this implies? We are giving control to the technology.

We need help processing increasingly larger volumes of data, but this ability to access and evaluate large data volumes effectively separates us from the data we are trying to interpret and gets us accustomed to the expectation of a quick answer. But if we fail to check the results relative to the input, we could be making decisions based on invalid interpretations. Ultimately our dependence on data processing leads to a failure to integrate and understand basic underlying principles and eventually forgetting how the process works. Think about how many of us still do simple math in our heads since the availability of the calculator, or how few of us learn to read a map since GPS. This process is now happening with computer generation of the maps that are the life blood of our industry.

It was this realization and the reluctance (resistance to change excused with economic factors) of my peers to utilize advancing technology and/or understanding the cost associated with the acceptance of a computer “interpretation” as a shortcut (most shortcuts sacrifice accuracy) in the data analysis process. Recognizing the dependence of the next generation on the use of technology, I decided to teach geoscience principles to geoscience students with the proper application of technology as tools to ensure understanding appropriate tool use in the interpretation process.

This teaching exercise has provided me with additional perspectives. I found that I have learned as much if not more from student feedback than my students have learned from my teaching. This presentation will illustrate some of the key points in my education.