A few years ago there was a prototype appliance that merged a refrigerator and the Internet. It had a computer monitor in the door and the cooler was online. As I recall, the idea was to have instant access to thousands of recipes; the online tie-in was to increase access to databases of cooking and recipe Web sites and even notify someone who is mobile to pick up a dozen eggs on the way home in order to have a complete set of ingredients. My memory is a bit hazier on this next one, but I believe the same general idea was applied to a microwave oven. As far as I know, this idea never took off and I haven’t heard about it for a few years. But I was reminded of it again this past weekend while browsing through PC Today, a freebie left in my Atlanta hotel room. An article discussed a service called E.V.A., an “electronic virtual assistant.” For a minimum of about $60.00 a month the busy professional can call (or e-mail) E.V.A. and a real live person will take a message and in turn e-mail the message to the intended recipient. This made me wonder, how much is enough? Wouldn’t it be just as easy to call the person, or e-mail her yourself? My two teenage daughters both bought new phones recently that have Web and e-mail capability. As with everything in the cellular world, these sorts of add-ons to phoning capabilities will be ubiquitous soon enough. Why would someone pay $60/month for a third-person party to do what either voice-mail, e-mail, or a phone call would do? My point is there is a time when we reach saturation with technology. More is not always better. I’m not a curmudgeon on such things and I do realize that pioneers in any field are going to miss a few before they hit a home run. In fact, I rather like experimenting with new technology. I dived into Vista probably before it was prudent and have been updating hardware and drivers left and right since. Of course, the flood of technology is not likely to slow. I tell my graduate students in their educational technology for school leaders that my motto is “technology cannot be stopped and youth will be served.” So the question becomes, how does one separate the wheat from the chaff, especially in a school setting? More on that tomorrow.
Wow! I hadn't heard of refridgerators being internet capable, but I have heard of them having flat screen TV's on them to guarentee a TV in the kitchen--as if one can not eat without watching TV.
And in regards to education, I think technology is great, but I am also concerned that teachers try to use it too much or so it does not fit into their lesson plans. They feel like they must use technology so they force it into their lessons only to hurt the students with their chopping teaching.
I also worry that students rely to heavily upon technology and end up not being able to perform simple additions without a calculator. With so much availalbe to students, sometimes I fear they stop thinking because they believe they can simply find their answers online or through a similar source.
Posted by: shelby205 | May 17, 2007 at 01:00 AM