(Sorry for this one being a little late guys)
Twenty years since the Millennium, time flies!! and things are very different...
University has changed for students like Nathan, and they love it! There is no longer the need to worry about getting up early for lectures and Nathan can study from the comfort of his bedroom. What with his handheld Apple 'i-lap' (a smaller version of a combined laptop, mobile, mp3, camera and tv) there is no reason for him to leave the apartment. He has his digital timetable in his i-lap programmed to let him know when his lectures and seminars are about to start. Online lectures, seminars and tasks are all distributed to Nathan through this device with his responses being sent back via E-mail (or a newer version of the e-mail). Not only can lectures and seminars be sent through this device but Nathan can even have a face to face or rather cam to cam tutorial with lecturers. The 'i-lap' is also great for keeping in touch with friends it even has its own extreme social networking site where Nathan takes part in 'Video meets'- the new way of catching up with friends.
What with the internet now being Web 3.0 and a new version known as Web 4.0 being worked on the world is more digitally modernised than ever. Meatspace interation is now only required once as week and unlike in previous years all but one module of Nathan's course is online. One upside is that there are plenty of trees around the beautiful campus and surrounding areas, paper is less important as like in most businesses nowadays notes are taken on their i-laps and assessments and presentations are sent via web mail or video mail resulting in the decline of printing appliances.
There's only one downside to this new university regime; Nathan's been having some problems with his essays. His tutor has told him to go to the Univeristy Library and look through books and journals there, but Nathan just can't be bothered he's waiting for the day when all books and journals are online so that he doesn't have to walk to the library and look through an amount of books to find sources. Its boring!!!
Okay so some some of this is pretty farfetched, well it sounds it anyway. But who's to say that this might not happen, noone really knows whats in store for our techno-deterministic society. Convenience is definately going to be a must in 2020, the easier the better. In ten years time il be 31 and there's no doubt in my mind that guys like Nathan will be new digital natives and i'll be a sad immigrant trying my best to get to grips with all the new technology. Actually i'll probably still on the 'old skool' as it will be seen to be facebook! Isn't it weird how things change?!
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Yes it is rather scary thought, arh!
ReplyDeleteHowever I don't think we can be too imaginative now as with the talks of web 3.0, who knows what it will be able to offer us.
Maybe everything at the university in 10 years will be digital and taking out the problem of paper. Would be about time as aren't we suppose to be in the paperless time now?
Ha ha well we're meant to be in a more 'paperless society' but sometimes that doesnt always seem to be the case. But anyway thats a totally different subject lol.
ReplyDeleteAfter having a gander at your idea of a technophile, I realised (like I mentioned in my post) that some of my ideas are a little out there. I think it's just hard to determine what might be in years to come. I do think that digital online learning will used much more in subjects, particularly because the people that will be at University at that point will be native to most digital technologies by then. :) x
I think my ideas were a little out there too, especially if we take distance learning in account - although this may seem revolutionary to us, none of us really had any idea at how long is had actually been running for. I think that socio-determinism has allowed for us to picture these 'out there' ideas, because it isn't just technology giving us opportunities anymore, we can now shape them for ourselves! :)
ReplyDeleteYes that's a good point. I think the rate in which tehcnology is developing around us makes us kinds of think that it's going to be hi-tech and developed in the future. I guess it doesn't help that we always want the newer makes and models of things too. But hey you never know some of our ideas might not be as out there as we think Cara, we'll have to watch this space :)
ReplyDeleteooh this is all very deep!! We all think that these ideas are very 'out there' because our university lives are not like that. We can only imagine that this could happen, but who knows in ten years time the i-lap could be a technology of the past! As you have said the rate of technological developments is phenominal. Will there ever be a point at which developments will or need to slow down- how much can technology be developed; As the saying goes, are the 'possibilities endless'?....
ReplyDeleteI guess that you've already considered the 'Web 3.0 & Semantic Web' question? That seems to make much of what passes for learning potentially redundant? If the Web can understand what you want, and you can access it anywhere, anytime for any purpose -what information would you need to carry in your head?
ReplyDeleteWhy would you pay to go 'to university'? What would make one more popular than another?
Why would you have set times for learning together -with a tutor?
How impossible would it be for a poor person? How impossible for someone who hadn't picked up the technoskills? (What would pre-school and infants be doing?)
How would developing nations respond? Could China & India leapfrog the old academies as centres of online excellence delivered cheaply?
It makes you think doesn't it?