Technology Forecasting

This podcast features a keynote session by Tracy Mitrano, Director of IT Policy and Computer Policy and Law Program at Cornell University. The speech is entitled, "Growing Up Tech: Beyond the Hype and Fear". It was recorded at the EDUCAUSE 2008 Western Regional Conference.

Why is technology often blamed when bad behavioral things happen? This session will address how higher education provide American society with leadership on how to understand the role that technology plays, not only in our classrooms but also in our homes and families, as a conduit for the creation of culture and as a medium for individual development and identity formation of youth.

Stephen Downes' post over at Half an Hour on the likely future of the Semantic Web has sparked a rich and fascinating discussion. Stephen's post started with web standards, but his wider message touches on issues of business practice, corporate vs OSS development models, identity and data management, and plain old user preferences, among many other issues.

I recently submitted a proposal to the ALT-C 2007 conference about personal archiving practices - investigating some of the ways that we take care of our personal data (or don't) in an era of fast-multiplying accounts (commercial and non-commercial) and ever-more-widely distributed personal data. Issues of trust are becoming critical - who can I trust to take care of my data? (See also the wiki notes for the seminar organised by Graham Attwell and the Bazaar team, "Hey Dude, Where's My Data?").

For me, it all starts and ends with the individual. So this is the section of Stephen's post that really spoke to me:

I recently came across three news items from the early 1930s in the London Times. All three pertain to an exhibition that showcased new "mechanical aids to learning," such as "talking film machines," gramophones, and epidiascopes. It's interesting to see that some of the concerns raised then about new learning technologies echo those that concern us now. Consider this passage: "One of the difficulties of bringing together the teacher and the machine is that the former is not usually mechanically-minded. He is accustomed to working with his mind, and is shy of having to manipulate knobs and wheels and switches which may go wrong." For those interested in how "the more things change, the more they stay the same," I've attached the three news items, in PDF form, to this posting. -- Mark

This 41 minute presentation by Jack McCredie provides coverage of the 2005 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference Session entitled An Eye to the Future with a Brief Look Back at the Past.

The CNet alert service just delivered this flash:

Rumor site pictures Photo iPod for holidays

A Mac news site says iPods with digital cameras built in may be under Christmas trees this year.

Friday October 08, 2004 10:45AM PDT

http://news.com.com/Rumor+…

The mind boggles. Yet another INDUCEment to copyright infringement. Music today, photos tomorrow.

And what of all the health clubs that have banned camera-equipped cell phones, a policy that may soon be backed by federal law? They can't ban the iPod; it's the gizmo of choice for music to sweat by. Perhaps attendants will now be equipped with duct tape or custom-fitted lens caps.

But hold on there a second. Although the CNet squib mentions "iPods with digital cameras built in", neither the CNet story itself nor the rumor page cited says anything about taking photos. The stories are all about larger capacities and built-in screens to display photos.

Note to CNet: Did you go and hire Dan Rather when we weren't looking?

Steve

This message reflects the opinions of the author, and not necessarily those of EDUCAUSE or its members.