What tomorrow will bring #edcmooc

The second week of  #edcmooc brings me new thought about near digital future.

Personally, I have two points of view.Well, initially we have perfect utopian word, where new technology is completely integrated with daily life and education.  A Day Made of Glass 2 shows us the world of glass technologies and featured “ubiquitous displays” of “interactive glass surfaces,” adding new “dimensions” to “ordinary surfaces” etc.  In the video a host of everyday items, from countertops to refrigerators to mirrors to dashboards, are enhanced to become giant touch screens that can also augment reality.  If this vision is likely to become reality, it is imperative that we consider the impact it will have on the humans who will be affected by it. The video focuses on the father and two daughters. As the characters work, learn, and play, the applications for specialty glass extend into the classroom, hospital, and home of the near future. Yes, it is best way to improve quality education and medicine, where technology application is the key to solve much important tasks.

Using this glass at school  helps student develop  their  imagination, creativity, and personal skills. They can learn many new things using visualization.  For instance, students have opportunity to learn more about dinosaurs or how to build a bridge models (Bridging our Future). These education solutions help teachers provide innovative, personalized and secure learning environments to prepare students for successful futures in the 21st century.

Many researchers in such area as medicine are interested in developing new tech, because it’s a good chance to cure incurable diseases. It can help to diagnose the patient on the distance if a patient cannot be transported.

Can humans determine how to work with the virtual without crossing into disembodiment or confusing it with the real? We shouldn’t rely only on tech. The human factor must be present.

The displays envisioned by “A Day Made of Glass 2” means that humans will be constantly interacting with them. Such interaction means that humans will be influenced by this new technology, for better or for worse. The main idea is what it means to be human in the networked information age.

Mary Kathleen Speckhard in her research ‘Patterns and embodiment: An examination of human knowing in "A Day Made of Glass" writes “Although Corning’s vision truly does enhance the vision of humans, adding to their ability to know, its vision hardly expands the ability for humans to use their sense of touch to aid them in knowing. The sliding of fingers, while embodied, does not allow humans to dwell in the information around them as well as a more tactile practice would. More concrete physical actions that involve more than just fingers or palms would allow people to incorporate tools into their bodies more concretely, leading to more skilled use that is ultimately more satisfying”

It looks like utopian world. But there is another point of view, which connects with the influence of technology on human nature. On the one hand, there is a concern with the question of technological determination, where what is held to be most definitive of human nature (individuality, consciousness, the senses, memory and the body) is put at risk. In the A Digital Tomorrow and Sight  howed our dystopian future. It’s scared. People are completely under the control of tech. Can we do this possible?

I’m agreed that the digital future (which is coming) brings new opportunities and challenges for generations. Everything depends on the person. To be perfectly honest, the human relationship will be changed. The new generation will adapt to new form of technology faster than ever before. They will be having constant access to information, everywhere, throughout one’s environment, being fully connected at all times to this information.

In the end of the 19th century many modern writers was predicting human failure. By nature, the human will always be human. The old value will never go away and they will always influence human. I think if one has the ability to turn technology off, one is much less likely to start thinking of the physical world as less real than the information around her, to emphasize pattern over presence, because  of the material presence that makes up the components of the technology. The technology is the key which gives human the ideas to visualize to things and allow human to have access to in depth knowledge.  The technology should add benefits to life without becoming a necessity