Week 8

IT future trends in education application domains. What is your view on the future trend described in no. 1?

      World is dynamic so do we. Information technologies are more vibrant. In 1940 first generation computers was invented. It used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and was often enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions. The vacuum was replaced by transistor which is called second generation computer era in 1956. But in 1964 transistor was replaced by the integrated circuit. It was the hallmark of the third generation of computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers. But in 1972 transistor have been replaced by the microprocessor with more advanced efficiency. Till date we are sing the fourth generation computers. The future generation computer is called 5th generation which will be more advanced than today’s one. Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development, though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today. The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality. Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face of computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.

Few decades before, the source of the education was only school. Teachers used to give lessons in the classes and notes in the black board by white chalk. Time is so powerful which changes everything even the education system. These days teachers and the course books are not only the educational source of students. Thousands of sources are available through the help of Information Technology.  One click can show thousands option of educational sites in the internet. The question is what about in the future???

Harvard University has the scheme of distance learning. Student can study from any part of the world. It offer more than 200 Harvard online classes through video courses and live web- conference course. I think in the future, students can study from the home. They don’t have to go class and attend lecture.  Lecture might be taken through online portals, like video conference, audio and video which is called ubiquitous learning. We are living in the smart learning era. Smartphones and tabs are no longer used for phone calls, moreover it used for internet applications. Many smart phone and tabs have thousands of the online journals which can be accessed free. After few years it all smart phones will be taken as ubiquitous learning.

Why ubiquitous learning???

Firstly, it will shift the classroom from a traditional to non-traditional context. Students don’t have to go class, attend lecture moreover they can learn from house. Secondly, prepares and encourages students to become life-long learners. In ubiquitous e-learning data are more reachable. Thousands of journals and articles can be accessed easily which will make the students long life learners. Creates an environment in which interaction is “free of stress”. Researchers had found that some of the people fell little bit nervous to interact face to face, than online. While talking in online they feel free and talk normally than talk in portals. Thus it makes students feel free to express their thought. Prepares students to face for real life. New technologies have become a part of our lives, and students need to learn how to use these technologies in order to prepare for their future careers.

References:                

      1) Anon. 2012. Britannica facts matter. In www.global.britannica.com. Retrieved March 18, 2013, from http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/256300/Harvard-University

 

    2) Webopedia Staff. (2-27-2013). webopedia. In www.webopedia.com. Retrieved March 18, 2013, from http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2002/FiveGenerations.asp.