This is one of my favourite Reddit posts:

http://theodecorte.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/photo.jpeg

Seriously.  Technology has pretty much evolved for entertainment purposes.  We seek out information on tablets, computers, and smart phones that interests us or illicits some sort of emotional reaction from us.

Personally, my favourite part of the technological revolution that has come about with the invention of the internet is our ability to communicate quickly with anyone around the globe… And hey, even in space.  In my own field of study, there are people researching the effectiveness of CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication) and the way that it affects how people communicate FTF (Face-t0-face).

The educational benefits of the internet are obviously vast.  Every fact that you could ever want to know is somewhere on the internet.  The only problem is being persistent enough to find it.  Most information is pretty readily available. Especially if you know how to use databases and search on avenues besides Google.

Even though all the information one could ever want is online, I don’t think that technology is destroying higher education.  First of all, online classes require a “technology” fee at most colleges and universities, so why pay more for a less interactive experience?  Also, many teachers are not competent enough at teaching online courses to make them a better option over a class in your average college classroom.  Secondly, a diploma still proves that you have been exposed to lots of information in a particular field of study, and your GPA reflects how much of that information you took in (according to your professors).  Without extensive questioning, how could a future employer know how much you know without a college degree?  You can learn everything you learn in college on the web, but you can’t prove that you did– or that you even sought the information out in the first place.

Side note:  The Paul Baran interview was interesting, but not completely accessible to someone who finds engineering a little boring– e.g. me.  The brief synopses in class that we were given about Baran was more interesting than the interview.  Makes me wonder how engrained sound bites are to my generation.  I was able to read the entire interview, so I don’t think that my attention span is permanently destroyed by my generations lust for pictures of cats and getting in arguments with strangers online.  Or 3 minute videos about Seahorses, because a whole documentary would be too much of a time commitment…

Reading links:

http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/introduction/

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/3881/?single_page=true

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.03/baran.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=