Thursday, February 26, 2009

Wildcard Response

I thought it was really interesting when one of the people in the film said something about how in today's society we cannot even imagine life without computers.  While this is certainly true, this made me consider technology's affect on our society in general.  I have similar feelings as I could not even imagine what college would be like without computers, internet, powerpoints, texting, email, facebook, etc.  However, as content and I am about our current technology, I cannot help but consider what the future will be like as far as information technology is concerned.  

Can you even imagine  how painful it would be going to the library, searching through books of shelves and scholarly journals in hope that you might find something of interest for research?   This would be a painful, slow process.  Today, we just punch in what we want in a search engine or database, and instantly know if information exists and exactly what we have to do to access this information.  Furthermore, this information can come from anywhere in the world as we are so interconnected.  It may seem we have reached the pinnacle of information technology, but I'm sure 30 years from now students will look at our generation like it was the stone age.  

It is both exciting and scary to think about the future of informational technology.  I envision a world where our computer is more like a friend than a machine, and it will be your voice, not your fingers, that will do most of the work on a computer.  Digital convergence will probably eliminate physical textbook and newspapers completely, and most of the information we receive will come from a screen.  People won't be typing papers and much as they will be talking papers.  I obviously can only speculate the future of information technology, but I can guarantee that it will not be what it is today.  What effect this will inevitable technology advancements have on future generations' learning and overall on society in general?  

If anyone's interested here's an interesting video about the internet's influence on information technology: Web 2.0

1 comment:

  1. I also think that the future of tech is going to be something that I can't quite imagine now. It is sort of scary. I hope when the time comes, we can adapt fast and our grandchildren won't be laughing at our slow brains.

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