As it is
Computers in the classroom already become quaint and passé when my second grade daughter has a smart board in every classroom, with plans to compete with other schools live (via Skype) and already interacting with material directly (if the reader is unfamiliar with smart boards you are encouraged to read further at http://smarttech.com/).
As it is, technology is inextricably washing over our classes. New York, Chicago and Virginia, at this writing, have various school districts shifting the textbook spending to I Pads (CNN, 2011). When asked about cost and how quickly technology becomes obsolete the speaker, Dr. Perry, countered that the average text cost per year per student in NY is $500 and that texts go into new editions (in this rapidly evolving digital age) as fast as every 16 weeks, making the I Pad both less expensive and more efficient. He went on to express the opportunity to access instructor talent through the device from elsewhere, and other advantages.
VOIP
The foundation was instant messaging, which quickly discovered that adding a microphone and using the existing speakers could allow a $300 / ten-minute call during “prime time” (to the other side of the planet) to cost nothing. Yahoo, AOL and others made and/or continue to make this available. Its confirmed value adds. Cost effectiveness and popularity have found the technology migrated into intranet sites, social networks, e-mail and other platforms. Today, VOIP (voice over internet protocol) is muscular. Many will gladly take your money to offer you such a free service if you go through them: Vonage, Magic Jack, Cisco, Go to Meeting, etc. Granted, there may be more or less functionality with a few of the latter examples, given their commercial targeted application (whiteboards, shared documentation and the like). Microsoft will sell you the software itself with Communicator®.
Skype, however, offers free video conferencing, and appears to be the singular standard for news reporting from difficult locations, which alone should say something of its accountability (though it does offer to charge for extras).
Going Virtual
There is a renaissance of 3D at this time. The writer humbly submits that this is transitional technology and part of a larger synergy (that includes video cell phone feeds and the like) on its way to holography. Holography has been making great strides. Within the near future the capacity to be online with others in a cyber-space that emulates an authentic ground class experience, replete with non-verbal communication, spontaneity and the like is very real.
Some of what will likely have to fold into this technology to get it there is other technology now surfacing. The advent of Microsoft’s “gesture technology” as a further iteration of the Wii is such a case in point.
Fold into those further aspects of the SIMSs, the now accepted practice of creating Avatars, the increased comfort level with being social in cyberspace (Multiply, My Space, Facebook & Twitter). One imagines we may actually be ready, if not on the verge.
Other Implications
Another moving part in the larger conversation of higher education, for which the time may have come, is going beyond what now constitutes a terminal degree. The transition toward establishing this new technologic paradigm (of real-time real-interactive cyberspace) may be the perfect opportunity to integrate such a possibility. As more and more acquire the degrees available, we approach a threshold, which makes the degrees less distinguished. One might say a baccalaureate degree in 2010 might not have been any more meaningful than a high school diploma in 1975. Although a separate meditation, to be sure, some suggestions might include demonstrated difference making and a wait time of a decade between a PhD (or other doctoral degree) and whatever this designation becomes known as.
As machine translation and other voice related technologies continue to become more muscular, how much easier these online universities will become to access from anywhere on the planet. It may be that classmates from Ecuador, Egypt and Estonia might never know each other’s languages, yet in the classroom setting, each having the freedom to interact comfortably and fluidly in one’s own language. One fall out aspect, which begs addressing, is the intercultural expression differences (which may be part of an admissions filtering at a minimum).
Among the implications is where we cycle back to the Ivies. As corporate entities would they not have a stake in being among the last standing as these universities start buying each other up? This movement seems inevitable. Who among these institutions will buy out whom, under what driving forces and to what ends?
Among such ends, there is the matter of standards. Who will rank such offerings? Already schools have fashioned online classes for which one has to wonder; gym classes where the student simply signs in with the promise that they did, in fact, exercise, culinary classes where somehow the practice of a sauté is included (by trust it is presumed), etc.
Among the greatest advantage those hallowed eight have are their standards. They must position themselves as guardians of those standards or risk being obsolescence.
As rigor to recommit to high standards develops, redundancies can be considered for the maintenance of said standards. If real checks are in place, students and faculty might enjoy as much consideration as Deans and Vice Presidents.
Conclusion
Therefore, we see the future, and it is practically here. What could get it here now … a business alliance of R&D money with the likes of a Sony, EA Sports, Disney, Apple and/or Microsoft? The higher education industry has never proven itself an income generator more than in the last quarter century. The implications for tie-in peripherals carry over technologies and the like should be proving themselves irresistible about now (one wonders why this movement is not already part of larger PR; except, of course, because everyone is otherwise occupied).
As an educator, this writer fully expects that before 2020 the online classroom is not the instructor and a collection of students interacting whenever they see fit in their pajamas with a PC, keyboard and monitor, but a scheduled class in a real time realistic virtual space with limitless resources at our fingertips. Such a virtual experience has real voice, real gestures and interactions and archived for future reference. Whatever gear we might wear or have would allow us to sit among whatever arrangement there may be (lecture hall, classroom classic, commons lawn or lunar surface for all it matters), stand, walk around, raise our hands, etc. This should certainly also include the ability to walk up to a virtual board and illustrate a point or collaborate on a work.
“Virtuality” is virtually here. The questions include how will it unfold, how soon and can we ensure an American advantage.
No comments:
Post a Comment