The Glass Cage: Automation and You

By: Sarah, Megan, & Amanda

What is Automation?
Automation & The Workforce
● Limiting our skill sets (Degeneration Effect)
● Less human input/opportunities
● Reliance

Examples:
● Health Industry
● Soldiers
● Pilots
Automation Scenarios
● Your self-driving car is driving yourself and family on a
bridge. You pass some kids playing around on the
walking path. They push each other and one falls in the
middle of your lane…
○ What are the pros/cons to your car protecting you
at all costs?
Automation & The Human Brain
“What if the cost of machines that think is people who
don’t?”

● Tacit Knowledge vs. Explicit Knowledge

● Artificial Intelligence vs. Human Intelligence

“What really makes us smart is not our ability to pull facts from documents or
decipher statistical patterns in arrays of data. It’s our ability to make sense of
things, to weave the knowledge we draw from observation and experience, from
living into a rich and fluid understanding of the world that we can then apply to
any task or challenge.”
Automation & The Human Brain
“Memory is what enables us not only to recall past events
but to respond intelligently to prevent events and plans for
our future ones, any degradation in its functioning would
tend to diminish the quality of our lives” (p. 137)

● GPS and navigation

● Dementia
Automation & Educational
Technology
“With every skill we master, the world reshapes itself to
reveal greater possibilities… Technology, by enabling us
to act in ways that go beyond our bodily limits, also alters
our perception of the world and what the world signifies to
us.”

● What do you lose out on when technology does your

learning?
● What could/should be automated in schools?
Automation & Educational
Technology
● Attendance
● Security
● Data entry
● Report Cards (primary)
● Cafeteria line process

(Herold, 2019)
 References
● AMXtalk. (2016, March 03). Retrieved April 25, 2019, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdUmuUaQM_U
● Carr, N. G. (2015). The glass cage: How our computers are changing us. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company.
● Coelho, J. (2014, May 14). The Jetsons - Domestic Efficiency. Retrieved April 25, 2019, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsjgGOPanGI
● Herold, B. (2019, February 25). Automation, Jobs, and Education: 7 Key Takeaways From New
Brookings Analysis. Retrieved April 25, 2019, from
https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2019/01/automation_jobs_education_brooki
ngs.html
● Jennings, J. (2015, February 12). Hot Take: Automated Classrooms. Retrieved April 25, 2019,
from https://www.skyward.com/discover/blog/skyward-blogs/skyward-executive-blog/february-
2015/can-automated-classrooms-contribute-to-your-distri