Since today is Bill Gates' last day of work at Microsoft, I thought it would be appropriate to make this post about him. Hopefully the challenge of Google has not run him off, but it certainly will be a huge issue with his successor.
At any rate, a few months ago, Bill went on the record, as he is wont to do, on a subject that is dear to him, and one that is dear to many of the rest of us. His prediction was that PC's will have natural interfaces that will use camera and speech recognition. The result, he predicts, will make print obsolete. As much as we printers might not like the prospect, let's examine what is behind his statement.
The foundation of his premise is the "natural user interface". This NUI will mean there will be a new interactive relationship with the user and the device. The tablet computer is an example, and where used often replaces textbooks. Voice recognition and video is also used, both ways, that is from computer to student, and from student to the computer via a special camera. Wow!
The above paragraph is my understanding of how it will work, and has me on the brink of overload with too much technical projection. Nonetheless, it seems prudent that, for our own good, we stay open to the possibilities.
On the side of "It'll at least take time", would be the whole computerization of the classroom. It is true that many districts have done wonders with getting each student their own computer. However. there are still many many more districts that aren't even close. Continuing with this line of thought, it would take several years for Bill's vision to become a reality in any volume.
Concluding with a touch of reality is a must though, and dictates that we must prepare, we must change our thinking and broaden it, and we must not believe that the future will look just like it is now.
The book is sacred to many of us, but the reality is that there are many technological threats out there that will change not only how we use it, but how it is seen, used, read, and experienced.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment