The future..

It's time for me to come clean. I'm a technophobe. There, I've said it. Not to say I don't buy and use new technology..I have an mp3 player and a pretentious little imac sitting on my desk amongst all the other toys. However, I'm a little bit worried about where its all heading. Sure we can do things we never dreamed of before. We have access to more information, we have more choices and so on. Are we any happier though? When ever I step out my front door I always seem to encounter a whole lot of stressed out and rude maniacs. I'm really not sure that all this “connectivity” is making us more connected. To me we just seem to be in our little bubbles, communicating with lots of people in really superficial ways. If I were to make any predictions about the future I would say there will be a big anti-digital movement in the not so near future as people become sick of the dehumanising effects of modern technology. Wishful thinking perhaps.

But maybe I'm being too pessimistic about our digital future. I think I'm a little grumpy from all the assignment writing. While digital overload seems to be a problem for people and super heroes alike, the advent of Web 3.0 may mean we are no longer bombarded with irrelevant crap as the web gets smart and gets to know our preferences. While the lack of privacy surely has some downsides, the idea of being able to find out about the interests of strangers on the street with our mobile devices could actually help bring us together.

As a future teacher, it is impossible to deny the educational possibilities of developments such as mobile learning and virtual worlds. In particular, I think virtual worlds offer some real promise. The fact that these environments are immersive and interactive means that it will be possible for students to get what is very close to 'hands on' experience in situations that would have been impossible or very difficult to create in the traditional classroom.