Technology and the Now

Technology and the Now

For the second year in a row, I’m attending the North Carolina Association for Educational Communication and Technology conference in Concord, North Carolina (NCaect). I must say that I’m so very impressed with the modern facility where the conference is being hosted.

The new Concord Convention Center is an eleven story hotel with huge meeting rooms. They provide every service with friendly staff and luxurious rooms.

The sessions have been excellent. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach was the keynote speaker and really opened my eyes about the present and the future of education and society. She pointed out that the 21^st Century is here. It’s not some time in the future. We, the old farts in the audience, are the last generation that will have the choice to be technologically connected to the world. Our students will have no such choices. They need to become different learners, students who identify and develop their own unique strengths. Sheryl brought up the fact that knowledge is now doubling every year requiring the apprentice learners to control massive amounts of content. How successfully they are able to organize and develop the world’s rapidly evolving knowledge will largely determine how successful our country will be in the near future.

Nussbaum-Beach brought up the fact that people hop on the phone now and call for help on one issue or another and find that they are speaking with a person from India who is able to handle the problem quite successfully. In my view, that may just be a temporary push of the world pendulum. In recent years, it has been economically advantageous for companies to outsource services and components to countries where the labor pool is less expensive than the United States. But that is beginning to change. Many companies from across the world are beginning to set up shop in the United States to take advantage of the favorable currency exchange rate. In my estimation, the world has entered an exciting period where the general wealth of all people is gradually being redistributed more evenly. This pendulum will most likely swing wildly from side to side. Some trips will bring wealth and jobs to the US. Other swings will draw wealth and security away. The period of the swings will no doubt accelerate as the pendulum successfully seeks equilibrium. Eventually though, if by the time it comes to a rest, if we somehow harness technology and master the education process, we will have a workforce that is ready to take advantage of every opportunity. If we fail, the consequences will be dire.