In the fall of 2007, several large corporations were jumping on the Second Life bandwagon. By October, CBS announced that they would feature Second Life on their popular television series, CSI:NY, along with a launch of a role play. Watch the show! Solve the mystery in Second Life! Or so the story went.
If you do a quick search for “eCampus,” you will find articles wherein the writer enthusiastically proclaims, “these are the campuses of the future!” While eCourses come in a variety of forms, just how much do people learn, anyway? Moreover, how can students be measured beyond the standard regurgitation that is required for passing tests?
There are, of course, a number of eCampus software companies. Although, no research to date has proven this type of long-distance learning actually works, I would proffer long-distance learning is questionable at best and an abysmal failure at worst. For a number of reasons, the least of which involves ensuring the student meet the minimum criteria of viewing lecture material, submitting acceptable work, and achieving comparable test scores to those of the sister courses where such things as cheating (google anyone?) are much harder to do. Enter tomorrow’s teachers.
A friend recently pointed me to Prokofy Neva’s latest commentary regarding the revelation that Ray Kurzweil will be speaking at this year’s SLCC. Being an old-fart technophile, I will say this. Prokofy has some salient points that are well worth considering. Their comparison of Singularity to Fascism is also worth a read, by the way. Both compelled me to take my own history walk down AI-memory lane..
