Hello everyone!
My name is Benson Chang. I am a high school teacher in the Coquitlam school district in B.C. This is my 5th MET course (half way point, yay?). I am currently teaching science, math and IT, so the exploration of the different ways that new technology is supplanting older traditional methods of study is a daily occurrence. Figured I should probably take a gander into what the rest of the academic world is thinking about this topic. Looking forward to reading everyone’s thoughts.
In any case, the above picture is of the now discontinued Google Glass. I chose the Google Glass as the focus because to me, the Google Glass is the embodiment of all the dreams and aspirations that new technology presents as well as the issues, faults, disappointment and short-comings that come part and parcel. The Google Glass promised to usher forth the future, one of extensive connectedness, with applications to revolutionize every industry. The hype months before and immediately after the release was tremendous, with supporters reimagining the future and detractors decrying the drastic change it may bring about as well as the privacy issues.
Some teachers I knew were excited about what Google Glass can bring to the classroom. A nature walk will no longer be limited by the knowledge of the teacher, Google Glass could potentially teach in real-time on the subject the students are looking at. Individualised learning at its finest. On the other hand, some teachers I knew were worried that the technology could make the class less wieldy and make proper accurate assessment drastically more difficult. Neither groups’ vision came to be though as the Google Glass fizzled. Part of the problem was that the technology was too expensive to be mainstream, and without being mainstream, the connectedness part does not deliver to its promises. I wonder though if the bigger part of the failure is that it was released too early.
