CathyAnderson on Education, Technology and Open Education

Change has changed.  The old saying..the only thing that remains the same is that things will change, holds true but how change happens has changed as well.    Some will believe, hope and try …to not play a role in this change, deny it, push back against it, all for good reasons.  It will impact their jobs, those values they have held dear for their entire lives, those simple pleasures of their lives.  It will change those things they looked forward to sharing with their children and their children’s children..reading a book, watching television, where they live and how they communicate..these things are all changing.    My thoughts on change have been driven by a book I am now reading.

I have finally picked up and dove right into Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Near, When Humans Transcend Biology, admittedly a lot of this is over my head, but as I read it I was not certain whether or not to become excited about the future of society that Kurzweil illustrates or dive under the covers and wait until the “epoch” is over.    In fact Kurzweil identifies and defines six epochs that define human society, some in the past and some in the future..what then is an epoch.  Dictionary.com defines epoch as follows:  a particular period of time marked by distinctive features, events, etc.; the beginning of a a distinctive period in the history of anything…

What then does singularity mean?  Kurzweil defines singularity as a future period, during which technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversible transformed. The changes in technology happen so rapidly that Kurzweil defines it as exponential, the law of accelerating returns. I am not going to describe the history of technology and computing here, as Kurzweil does it much better than I do.  However it is also illustrated here:

Timeline of computer and Internet history:       http://www.warbaby.com/FG_test/Timeline.html

A History of Artificial Intelligence:                   http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/AITopics/History

Living Internet;                                          http://www.livinginternet.com/

What we don’t know about the future of the Internet and technology may be defined by the user, what are their needs, what do they need?  The Pew Internet’s research on the future of the interest, based upon a survey technology experts and survey analysts maybe a good start, however it is just that a start, it difficult to determine trends based upon the observations of these individuals.   Their predictions include the following:  the emerging era of the blog, experts believe the Internet will bring yet more dramatic change to the news and publishing worlds. They predict the least amount of change to religion, we have already seen the changes to how our news is delivered, how we can influence the news, and changes to how we buy books.  This report also identified the following from this website:

• Some 77% said the mobile computing device (the smartphone) with more significant computing power will be 2020′s primary global Internet-connection platform.
• 64% favored the idea that 2020 user interfaces will offer advanced touch, talk and typing options and some added a fourth “T” – think.
• Nearly four out of five respondents (78%) said the original Internet architecture will not be completely replaced by a next-generation ‘net by 2020.
• Three out of five respondents (60%) disagreed with the idea that legislatures, courts, the technology industry, and media companies will exercise effective intellectual property control by 2020.
• A majority—56%—agreed that in 2020 “few lines (will) divide professional from personal time, and that’s OK.”
• 56% said while Web 2.0 is bringing some people closer, social tolerance will not be heightened by our new connections
• 45% agreed and 44% disagreed with the notion that the greater transparency of people and institutions afforded by the Internet will heighten individual integrity and forgiveness.
• More than half (55%) agreed that many lives will be touched in 2020 by virtual worlds, mirror worlds, and augmented reality, while 45% disagreed or did not answer the question.

As I interpret this information, other things I have read, trends, and the use of technology I ask myself what does this mean, what, besides newspapers, the music industry, and communications will be disrupted next.   Will publishing be disrupted with the prevalent nature of self-published  content on the web?  Yes.  It has already happened. I can write in isolation or publish  my writing and allow the reader to shape change and contribute to my writing.  Chances are self-publishing will become the norm as is evident by these sites:

Lulu:  A self-publishing site for authors, writers and photographers

MIxbook:was started with the idea that friends should be able to create books together. Though Mixbook software makes book creation easy and fun, it also allows groups of people to build books together. Now friends finally have a way to share their memories online!

How libraries are used has changed dramatically in the last 10 years.  Use primarily for their computers, Internet and ease of accessing resource the role of the librarian has changed to information technology expert, who understands the application of academic resources to certain discipline areas, the history of literature and writing to forward thinking technology expert.

The use of mobile technology i.e.) Ipod Touch and Cell phones provide for ubiquitous computer and any where anytime access to learning objects, resources and information.  This access to information around the world will support the tenets of Friedman and Bonk in their assertions that The World is Flat when it comes to globalization and business and The World is Open in regards to education.

It has been demonstrated by Google and other search engine technology that the parallel processing systems of the brain have been replicated by computers.  These interconnected networks of computers, as described by Stibels in his book Wired for Thought,  have allowed for pattern recognition  or optimal processing of the brain.  There is a certain uniqueness, non linearity and chaos if you will, to the processing of the brain, (a distractedness?) that this process may never be able to replicate.   What underpins new search engine technology?  What drives search engines such as Bing?Cuil? Cluuz?

Cuil: Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance.  Try it you might like it I know I did!

Cluuz: generates easier to understand search results through patent pending semantic cluster graphs, image extraction, and tag clouds.

The difference between standard search engines and Cluuz is in the fact that Cluuz does some work for you. A standard search engine shows links in a list. Cluuz instead peers into the searched web pages, extracts important terms and images, clusters them and gives them in chart format (semantic graph) and in a tag cloud where you can click on any entity to further focus your search…

Search engines abound. The focus is now on the “real time” web. What is the real time web?  What does this mean? According to Wikipedia real time web can be defined as: a set of technologies and practices which enable users to receive information as soon as it is published by its authors, rather than requiring that they or their software check a source periodically for updates.   On October 29, 2009 Mashable published this article on four emerging trends on the real time web.    These trends are real time collaboration, real time analytics, real time search and real time ecommerce.

These trends in technology will also impact education.  Education may be one of the institutions said to be slow to respond to change, but underlying currents of the economy, driving demands of the job market for high skilled workers, a continuous change in medical, communication, mobile technologies, and changes in the economy all drive a change in education.  In addition to that external pressures such as a rise in competition to the traditional education model will also drive change.  Open education resources, a more educated class of people from China, India, and other countries besides the United States have put increasing demands on the education system of the United States.

It maybe easy to scoff at models such at the University of the People, Peer to Peer, and the fact that Harvard is providing a free Master’s degree in education.  These initiatives may seem like a drop in the bucket to the huge education market, and taken singularly they are not significant, however taken as a whole they are, I believe the “perfect storm.”

Some people in the field of education are anxious for the change of open education to happen, for change to happen in the online world to the learning management system, for free textbooks, open access resources, and free education.  However, I feel it is critical to keep in mind that these people are in the minority, even though their arguments have merit in regards to the benefits of student and to student learning.    Reports are that students are already at the forefront of taking advantage of open education resources as they look for improved courseware and materials, from an open education institution, in courses they are enrolled in at a different institution.  In essence what I am saying is that students may enroll in a course at one college but access the course materials that are available at a different institution for a variety of reasons..but if they can access those materials and get through a course faster, have a better understanding of the course materials, and also do this for the purposes of convenience they will do so.

In essence what this comes down to is that it is the user who will drive where we go with technology. It is the user who is the innovator.  It is the student or the user who will ask for change in the status quo, and if they don’t receive what they are seeking they will find someone or some entity which will..that is the nature of what the advances in technology have provided us today.  Their needs will be underpinned by the economy, by their jobs, and the need for convenience and technical sophistication … they will question why not?  What if? and they will communicate what their experiences are with others..and not just their close circle of friends but with the world at large…

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