The Next Leap – Is 5G Tech the Secret Sauce That Will Enable the Next Mobile Revolution?
10 responses to “The Next Leap – Is 5G Tech the Secret Sauce That Will Enable the Next Mobile Revolution?”
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Hi Mitchell,
You mentioned that technology predictions can be dangerous, but how can we advance if we don’t predict? Your presentation was informative, and from a pedagogical perspective, 5G is inevitable, especially with the increased use of AR and VR. In online learning environments, 5G has significant impacts on various tools such as LMS. These platforms would be faster and the infrastructure more reliable. There would be greater use of videos since accessibility such as sharing and integration would not be so problematic. However, the downside to 5G in online learning is the increase in e-waste and the increased addiction to technology. There is also the ethical issue of technological equity since 5G may increase the greater use of technology. But, as the following article highlights, Get Ready for 5G – Reshaping Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age (https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/get-ready-for-5g-reshaping-teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age), we need a faster and more reliable infrastructure to advance in online learning technologically.
I could not agree with you more, re: predicting. I love the way you reflect on and think through all of this, Mitchell, bringing in examples that span the decades. You present your thoughts well, and are interesting to listen to. My own hope with 5G is that it will result in faster processing AR Apps, making them more viable.
I think you’ll agree that good storytelling technique absolutely has a place in Edtech.
I appreciate the praise and agree that it should bridge the hardware limitations of AR/VR/MR in the future.
Ha! Yes, absolutely I agree that good storytelling technique has a place in EdTech, and beyond just a place, it is often what makes a project shine.
Hi Mitchell,
I really enjoyed the way you presented your forecast – very informative and insightful! You hit the nail on the head for me while describing the struggles of network strength and the use of Chromebooks in Education. Though I feel very fortunate to have a class set of chromebooks at my disposal at all times, it is a daily occurence that I am met with complaints from my students regarding Wifi and connectivity issues. Their frustrations are understandable: when it takes anywhere from 5 to 25 (!!!) minutes to log onto a Chromebook to be able to access the task at hand, tensions are high and students get irritated. In this respect, your projection about 5G enabled Chromebooks is certainly an appealing one! However, this notion had me wondering about whether the roll out of 5 will provide equitable access to this transformative new network. How will 5G affect the existing digital divide, given that Education (and many other aspects of our daily lives) are becoming increasingly tied to the ability to “get online”? My initial thought was that surely 5G would continue to become available in developed countries first (from what I understand 5G is only currently available largely in the US and Asia), accentuating and perhaps worsening the discrepancies between urban and rural communities. I was quite surprised then to read a Forbes article that proposed quite the opposite: that 5G has the potential to level the playing field and provide improved access to underserved communities, thanks to low-band frequencies that can cover more distance in rural areas. Curious to hear your thoughts/projections on this!
I agree with the equity argument in education in theory, but it always bothers me in practice. Cost will cause unequal access to this technology initially, but will quickly democratize as the system price drops and its functionality becomes so important that investments have to be made. There will be an urban/rural divide as the tech does suffer from range issues and needs many more towers per km than 4G LTE. I want to clarify also that 5G and the 5GHz band of wifi which you probably have at home, and possibly work, are not the same thing. The Forbes article is likely noting the phenomenon where many developing countries have simply skipped the desktop computing stage of development in technology and headed straight into a mobile backbone; this is a very likely future for this tech.
Hello Mitchell! As someone who spends a fair bit of time on the internet gaming, and has recently decided to get a data plan for my mobile devices, your discussion of 5G is extremely interesting to me. Your discussion on the rapid rate of change and innovation of computing power and the amount of technology required to run some of these applications today is also extremely interesting; I wrote my own project on the use of Augmented Reality and its possible integration into education, and one of the biggest draw backs in today’s day and age is the amount and cost of the required equipment for these systems. That being said, like you mention in your video, the increase of technological innovation in these fields over the past few years bodes well for the future of these applications. The idea of having 5g networks become the backbone for these applications is an exciting concept, as it opens up a myriad of possibilities for these applications.
Hello Cody. It really is a different hardware paradigm. 5G definitely asks where you can best house computing infrastructure versus where you can most conveniently house it. Cloud gaming (and anything AR/VR) is definitely a better proposition with near unlimited connection speed.
Hi Mitchell, Thanks for your presentation. I work with many Communication Theory research faculty who are working in the field of 5G and 6G, and the way they describe this technology (as you elaborated upon in your presentation) is hard to wrap my head around. Really appreciated how you described the subscription models with cloud processing for academic purposes, and its future potential. The efficiency and speed of this type of technology will continue to increase in the coming years.
BTW do you still use your calculator?
Sadly, my TI calculator died many years ago in a freak “I’m done my last math-based undergraduate class” accident.
Alan Pan (https://www.youtube.com/c/SufficientlyAdvanced) who has a well produced and eclectic Maker channel on YouTube is featured in one of my favorite tech hardware documentaries as saying, “…when a software would come out [in the 90s] it would be so slow and then two years later it is ok, then 4 years later it is zipping along. It’s not because Microsoft made it faster, the computer just got faster for free [because of Moore’s Law]” 5G is like Moore’s Law on steroids. Moore’s Law posits a doubling of processer speed roughly every 2 years, whereas 5G could potentially push that speed to consumers so much faster than that.
That excellent documentary is here and is required viewing in the Future of Technology module in my high school Robotics class.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJ5cZnoodY&t=442s)