Purpose

Cultural View of Technology is designed for the quick assimilation of fundamental IT skills, from the beginning of project planning using application such as MS Project to outline the project and MS Visio to design the system, to the development of websites and other Internet oriented applications and the use of leading desktop oriented software such as Adobe Coldfusion or Flash and Microsoft Access or Excel, many of which are widely used in web development and associated tasks.

On this site you will find not only instructive tools to help you achieve competency in html, css and off the shelf packages such as those provided by Adobe and Microsoft, you will also be provided with actual examples of how we deploy these resources to portray various aspects of human culture.

We will also look at technology from the point of view of romantic love; marriage and family life; the key artistic forms, for example, art, music and dance; plus communication and information technology issues, such as net neutrality and mashups; as well as commerce, finance, economics, social sciences, humanities and several other critical human cultural perspectives including discussions of our global rights in these technology driven times.

Role of Technology

We know that technology is an important aspect of culture and has a vital role to play. Just as it is true that culture impacts technology, it is equally true that technology impacts culture. The impact is both local and international, influencing global culture just as it affects every individual culture on the planet.

In the modern office you are considered unskilled if you are not proficient in MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint. And today's communication requires an understanding of skills such as HTML and CSS, buttressed by software like Dreamweaver, Flash and Captivate.

How the world communications is altered by technology. Just as presidents and prime ministers can communicate because of satalites and cables, villagers in small remote areas of the world can easily communicate by cell phone as well. At one time, young lovers wrote letters proclaiming their passion. Today very few people write letters at all. Today a text message is sent or perhaps an instant message or tweet. The idea of sending a message through snail mail would never occur to anyone. So even the culture of love has been changed by the availability of technology.

Of course, technology also changes in response to culture. In the last half century people have been constantly on the move. Whether they travel long distances for work or pleasure it is imperative that they are available to transact business or put out the flames of a family emergency. The cell phone is mandatory for modern life. At one time the idea of remaining constantly accessible would have seemed absurd. Today it is a financial and familial necessity.

To survive in the knowledge / information society of the modern era, one must be sufficiently competent in one area or another of Information Technology (IT) and also understand the all-pervasive impact of human culture on the development and use of IT.