It’s no secret that I love an atmosphere of academia. As convenient as online courses are, if/when I go back for my Master’s, I’ll seriously do all that I can to try to physically be in a classroom rather than in front of my computer screen.
I love the acoustics of a lecture hall. I love the smell of chalk dust. I even love taking notes, and I especially love walking across the well-manicured lawn of some century old university and pausing to say hello to a friend, drop off a book at the library, or duck around a corner to avoid the professor whose class I missed the morning before.
Hey, I’m only human.
I enjoyed elementary, middle, and high school, too – running for class president, passing test answers notes in Mr. Hill’s geometry class, making plans with friends about where to hang out after the football games – though I didn’t fully appreciate how much I enjoyed it until it was over.
However, according to Chris Parry, the head of Britain’s top private schools organization, at least some of these experiences could come to an end in around 30 years.
From Brain downloads ‘will make lessons pointless’:
Chris Parry, the new chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said “Matrix-style” technology would render traditional lessons obsolete.
He told the Times Educational Supplement: “It’s a very short route from wireless technology to actually getting the electrical connections in your brain to absorb that knowledge.”
Wha-huh?!
“Within 30 years, sitting down and learning something will be a thing of the past,” Mr Parry said.
Oh my. You’re going to finagle around with the electrical connections in people’s brains? You’re going to shoot the information strait into them? What about cramming all night for tests? What about developing unbreakable lifelong friendships over a few shared answers?
What about the teachers?!
“I think people will be able to directly access, Matrix-style, all the vocabulary you need for a foreign language, leaving you just to clear up the grammar.”
Oh, well, at least the grammar teachers won’t be out of jobs then, is that it?
If this can be done, naturally I think this is impressive – but I don’t think it’s necessarily a good thing. This “sitting down and learning something” Mr. Perry speaks of is so crucial to us as growing and maturing human beings. When we sit down in a math class, we’re doing more than just cheating learning about algebraic equations. We’re learning how to take instruction. We’re learning how to work with others. We’re learning how to process information. We’re learning how to think, for crying out loud.
And we’re learning how to learn.
Aside from ensuring the information gets into one’s brains, I don’t see any real benefit from this “Matrix-style” learning. Won’t this do away with classrooms? If there are no classrooms, what will “school” look like? Will children still get to hang out during lunch period? Will there even be a lunch period? How will they learn to socialize? How will they learn to deal with authority?
And, once these kids graduate, are employers going to be expected to “teach” their new employees using this same method?
What are your thoughts?
Image: Newscom
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Ha, I laughed at that one myself.
I think, once this technology comes around, if it ever does, everyone’s answer will depend on whether or not they fear death.
I don’t, so I wouldn’t really want to be virtual forever.
However, it WOULD be cool for them to clone me digitally and then I could meet myself in the virtual world.
Then I’d beat myself up and steal my lunchmoney.
@ Robby – LOL! You apparently didn’t grow up with folks as obsessed with the “oldies” as mine were
I remember that song seriously freaking me out as a child. AS A CHILD I was freaked out by these kinds of technological/scientific advances. Now, after reading the article you linked to, I’m, well, even more freaked out. Let’s see…in 2050, I’ll be 68. Probably getting somewhat closer to death (if I haven’t died yet), and I seriously doubt – rich or poor – I’ll have any interest in having my brain/personality anywhere but my head. What about you?
What really cracked me up from the article was: “Pearson said that computer consciousness would make feasible a whole new sphere of emotional machines, such as airplanes that are afraid of crashing.”
So…what? What does that mean? The plane will be yelling “OHMYGODOHMYGOD” right along with me as we’re plummeting to the earth? Or, will it – like me – just flat out refuse to fly?
No, actually, but I just went to Youtube to find it, and yes, I suppose that’s the idea.
I went and dug around for some endpoint to these technological jumps, and found an interesting article about how science will one day be able to download someone’s brain/personality into whatever virtual world is around, allowing them to live forever on the net or even be ‘uploaded’ into another human body.
I guess if they make it halfway, they might as well take THAT kind of jump. The analyst predicts something like that being possible by 2050…
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/23/brain.download/
So much for fear of death…
@ cb – I agree. There is so much more to education that just “knowledge.”
@ Scott – LOL! Is that how you and Dexie are hoping to tell your kids about it?
@ Robby – Ever heard the song “In The Year 2525″? It’s what came to my mind as soon as I read this article.
Alicia-Wholeheartedly agree with your feelings on teaching students this way, but I’m 22 and just starting graduate school, and I can see volumes of writing on the wall when it comes to technology.
I’m not personally into MMORPG’s (although I have tried a few), but I have several friends who are. They get sucked in because they can be anyone and go anywhere without consequences. The next logical step would be for the millions of players to demand a new virtual world that can be touched, tasted, and smelled. Companies like Sony would gladly create such brain-altering technology because of how many billions of dollars they could make…plus the technology’s already being explored for use with long-time paralytics.
That’s where politicians step up and take that technology to the next level of information transfer. And why wouldn’t they? They could use the new way of learning, mixed with the virtual world, to train pilots how to fly a jet fighter without fuel costs or the risk of property damage or personal injury.
It all comes down to the potential for easy profit and convenience. Why waste 12 years of a child’s life teaching him in school when you could just zap him for a few minutes and then put him right to work?
Again, I wholeheartedly agree that this coming technology is riddled with problems, but I have to acknowledge that there’s not a lot we can do about it.
Absolutely, Alicia. This type of thing, if possible might be able to teach you quantum physics but learning how to live life is not something that can just be mentally injected.
It would make it a lot easier for parents to explain reproduction and sex to their kids though….~~Zap!~~ “there, now you know”
I think there’s so much more to education than knowledge! I honestly can’t see it happening
@ Scott – This is pretty reminiscent of the whole flying cars thing, isn’t it? And I agree – stuff like this doesn’t lead me to think we’re headed down the path of being reduced to mere computers (it also reminds me of that song “In The Year 2525″). I hope this guy fails miserably, haha.
It also seems like this little experiment (or invention or whatever it is) is just progress for the sake of progress. While I think progress is a great thing, I think it’s ignorant to strive to progress without pausing to think about the consequences. Helping children learn more easily? Great thing! Taking away so many of their potential skill-learning experiences? Stupid thing.
First off…didn’t they say some BS back in the 70 that by 2000 we would have flying cars and a bunch of other crap like that?
While I’d like to say this would be kinda cool…”I know kung-fu”…it’s a bit unrealistic, impractical and this guy needs to be tested for drugs.
Without that human side to us we would be reduced to simple computers, being able to hold a lot of information but could we really be able to do anything with it?