When Class Matters

Digital media has opened up new, exciting avenues for the whole world. Interpersonal relationships, entetainment, business, crimefighting (and crime) and of course, education and learning. It is believed by many that to be a teacher is one of the mose noble things onecan aspireto be. With this digital dawn, will this change at all?

During my time as a student at UB, I've been able to experience several instances of this new-fangled "e-learning". I have to admit though, it's nothing really spectacular. The problm w fac with -lanring today, is that it is typically nothing more than a lacklustre conversion of what would normally happen in a traditional classroom and little else. Recording a lecture and uploading powerpoint slides to a resource managing portal or directory is not exactly making use of the vast possibilities offered by digital media. The same can be achieved with the simple use of a tape-recorder, photocopier and library. One might argue that "internet learning" today is much more convenient than that, and I would agree. However, many will also agree that by the same measure, it also takes away the essential motivating factors that drive individuals to learn. A grainy, jumpy recording of a lecture is hard to follow, even moreso when the subject matter is either complicated, dull or unfamiliar. Tests and assignments, done exclusively on the web, are open to a plethora of underhanded methods for students to "enhance" their grades. When delivered traditionally, other factors (like fear of being punished and/or humiliated by the teacher) might actually lead to better performances.

Of course, I am not lobbying for internet learning to be abolished. Only to be rethought. Those in the industries involved should take the initiatives, the risks, the chances that may open a whole new teaching model. A new way to learn. Be it via new methods or new technologies, this has to be done before the digital classroom becomes a viable possibility for our collective futures.

One of the new technologies that are emerging from the rapidly-advancing frontline of technology is Microsoft Surface. It takes the concept of "touch-screen" to wilder heights, to places few have imagined. If you are familiar with the films Iron Man and Minority Report, you may recall the futuristic, almost Star Trek-like computers that Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise fiddle with during the movies. At that point, most people would have dismissed the devices as science fiction, but in reality, the technology is close to being widely-available.

Early promotional videos for Microsoft Surface promise a radical new way to use and link the tools that have become so ingrained in our lives. The cell-phone, credit card, PDA, camera and of course, the computer. With this daring venture, could e-learning finally be somthing that UB students get excited over, rather than groan about?

Perhaps.

If nothing else, it allows a child to e-mail her finger-paintings to her teacher. And that's a start.