Accelerating Technologyand Students The Musings of a Digital Immigrant K. Stuart Smith Computer Science and Information Technology Rocky Mountain College
Or Perhaps... “Ranting of a Technophobe (in Training)” Certainly, I am not “the Computer Guy” (And if you find him, send him my way... I have a bunch of stuff that doesn’t work.)
Uh... Yeah, We knew that! “By the end of the nineteenth century it seemed that that basic fundamental principles governing the behavior of the physical universe were known. “Indeed, many scientists said that the study of physics was nearly completed: no big discoveries remained to be made, only details and finishing touches.” --Quoted by Michael Crichton in “TimeLine”
A Few Years Later, When I was But a Little Tyke... • “Black and White” Television Wasn’t “for Effect” • Plastic Meant “Cheap” • There were no Satellites • Transistor Radios Hadn’t Been Invented--and AM Ruled the Air • There Were no Commercial Jet Aircraft • Caring Mothers Took their Children to Visit Other Kids Suffering Mumps and Measles • General Anesthesia Meant “Ether” • Alan Shepherd was a Super Hero... • And We Got to the Moon in 9 Years!
These Technologies Didn’t Exist! • Genetic Engineering • Pharmaceuticals • Nanotechnology • Xerography • Digital Anything • Tomography and its Variants • Electron Microscopy • Plastics,Ceramics, and more Plastics...
Ray Kurzweil’s “Law of Accelerating Returns” • Evolution provides positive feedback • The Rate of Evolutionary Progress is Exponential • The “Returns” of Evolutionary Processes Increase Exponentially • The Rate of Exponential Growth Expands Exponentially • Biological Evolution is One Such Process • Technological Evolution is Another • Paradigm Shifts Occur to Maintain Growth
Pentium IV Pentium 80486 80386 One Familiar Example... Moore’s “Law”: • 2X the Processing Power • 1/2 the Price • Every 18-24 Months
And There are Others... • George Gilder’s Law of the Photon: • Bandwidth (speed and capacity) per dollar triples every 12 months • Internet Traffic Doubles Every 120 days • Web Content Triples Each Year • Google Indexes > 4.3 of an Estimated 500 Billion Web Pages, Feb. 2004 • UC Berkley Estimate: 1.5EBytes of new unique information--each year • (An EByte: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000) • Richard Saul Wurman: Weekly Edition of NY Times • More Info than Encountered in an 18th Century Lifetime!
And That’s Just a Warm-up
Change Happens... Even to Good People • Technology Advance is Evolutionary... • And Thus, According to Kurzweil Technology Advance is at Least Exponential • Too Bad We Don’t Adapt That Fast • The Change of the Last Century... In 20 Years • And Again in 7 More...
Grandpa was a Craftsman • How does a Craftsman Use Tools? • Tools Extend and Enhance our Physical Bodies • More Precise, Perhaps • Sharper, Stronger, Leverage • What is a Computer? • Well... Would you Believe a Tool ? • One that Extends and Enhances--What ?
Too Young to Know?
Today’s World IS Different • 68% of Homes Are ‘Home Alone’ • Technology is a Surrogate Parent “Their rooms are filled with people, relationships and interactions that come through their computers and phones. They are equally comfortable with virtual, screen-to-screen relationships as they are with face-to-face relationships.” --Ian Jukes, 2003
Technologists From the Start Integration Multidimensional Homework Talking on the Phone Listening to Music Downloading Content Surfing the Web Multiple Online Chat Sessions Mason Browne (8:40:06 PM): I'm on my cell phone talking to evan, while talking to you and another person and evan online, and programming my Jamp app, and listening to music on iTunes, while eating toast. Multitasking. Being “Sent to Your Room”?
Do You Speak Digital?
Juke’s Digital Taxonomy • Native Speakers (Digital Kids) • Digital as a Second Language (Digital Immigrants) • Non-Speakers (Digital Aliens)
How Strong is Your Accent? • Do you approach technology warily? • Do you need a manual to “learn how”? • Do time and distance represent a barrier?
Can you surf, chat, view, search, eat, index, edit... • At the Same Time? (They can.) • And Wouldn’t You be Bored if You Could--and Would--but Weren’t Able? (They are.)
It’s Happening so Quickly (Remember Kurzweil?)... We Don’t Recognize It. Different Skills/Focus for A Digital Age... They’ve Spent 15 Years in Training • Game-playing (There’s a Lot of Reasoning Going on There) • Searching and Sifting • Communicating
They ARE Different • It’s not NEW for them--It’s an Integrated Part of the Environment • Neuroplasticity and Cognomics • Practice Makes Perfect... • And Substantial Rewiring of Neural Pathways
Slow and Controlled Release of Information Mostly Written and Oral Sources Linear and Sequential Presentation / Content Independence Just-in-Case High Bandwidth, Multimedia, Multitasking Pictures, Sounds, Video Randomly Accessible Content Networking Just-in-Time Listening to Our Accent
It Isn’t a Matter of “Right and Wrong”...
My Focus Group • Mason Browne, Senior High, Sr. • Evan Long, Senior High, Sr. • Paul Wicks, West High, Sr. • Kyle Bjordahl, Senior High, Jr. • Mike Hughes, Senior High, Jr. • Christopher Bennion, Skyview High, Jr. • David Brouillette, Laurel High, Jr. (Where have all the women gone?)
A Few Quotes “People have different personalities online.” “IM gives me a way to socialize while I am very busy” “Computers are just something I ‘do’.” “Google is the third half of my brain.” “[My computer] is not indispensable...yet.” “I probably never completely master anything.” “I don’t use the manual.” “Real life is just one more window.” (Not one of my kids)
References • Kurzweil, Ray, “The Law of Accelerating Returns”, published on KurzweilAI.net, March 7, 2001 • Jukes, Ian, “From Gutenberg to Gates: Education in an On-line World”, The InfoSavvy Group, 2001 • Jukes, Ian, “DK (Digital Kids)--Learning in the New Digital Landscape”, July, 2003 • IBM, Prodigy Ad Campaign, 2003 • Boese, Christine, “The screen-age: Our brains in our laptops”, CNN Headline News, August 2, 2004 • ... And a Number of OnLine “Googled” Data Points :-)
