Blog Juice for Educational Technology

Like many my age, virtual environments do not really excite me all that much.  I’m intrigued by the technology of something like Second Life, it’s potentials, and to some extent, I understand its appeal.  But I come from a generation of information consumers.  I’m much happier reading a good book, or watching a good movie after a long day of teaching, programming, or writing.

While scanning my aggregator this morning, I was reminded of a job I held before I graduated from college.  I was a setup man at a factory in Gastonia, North Carolina.  My job was to read blueprints for engine parts made of magnesium and brass, and then set up (disassemble and reassemble) manufacturing equipment to produce the parts to specification.  It was kind of interesting work, except for the greasy metal splinters I picked from my hands every evening.

The plant is no longer there.  But if it were, the work would be done, not by manipulating machinery with Craftsman tools, but by repurposing robots by adapting their programming.  I’d be working the software instead of the hardware.

This type of work will likely change again, as indicated by a project at the Fraunhofer Institut Graphische Datenverarbeitung in Darmstadt, Germany.  Scientists there are developing a virtual interface that can be used to not only operate individual machines, but entire factories, and even factory design.

The system utilizes a multitouch table that displays a visualization of plant functions that can be manipulated by pointing, selecting, and navigating.  You can watch a video of the system by going to the project home page at:

    http://a4www.igd.fraunhofer.de/projects/48/

I am coming to realize that working within and through virtual environments will almost certainly be a huge part of our future — the future that our children will work and play in.  As frivolous as something like World of Warcraft and Second Life might seem to some of us, it is nothing less than arrogant for me to write this experience off as valueless to our students. 

Since they are the ones who will be inventing their future, perhaps we should be paying a lot more attention to how they work their play today?  There might be more clues there to how they’ll be playing their work in the future?

Pay attention!