Instructional Technology - "The Borg" of the Future

In Trends and Issues In Instructional Design and Technology, by Robert A. Reiser and John V. Dempsey, we are posed a question, to whether the Internet and Web have had a major influence in Educational programs at grades K-12; Higher education (community colleges, colleges, and universities) and/or Adult education (in businesses, government and/or the military)(p. 29)? The answer appears to be obvious, of course. One need not look further than their daily habits to realize how the evolution of technology has changed our lives. As a professor in a community college, teaching reading and writing, the bulk of my classroom instruction and testing is not out of a book, but presented through the use of technology. I use hardware (i.e., computers, digital cameras, overheads, document projectors) and software applications (i.e., Blackboard, MyCompLab, email, websites, Ebrarys, plagiarism scanners, PowerPoint). I personally have replaced my newspaper, magazines and books with a Nook. I rarely feel the need to read anything in paper print form, anymore. I felt my age, when my daughter started texting, and tweeting and announced that email had gone out of style 3-4 years ago. Until this class, I did not read blogs or create them for that matter. However, all these technologies are out there and advancing and developing at an ever increasing rate. All of them, as quickly as they arrive, are being incorporated into all the above-referenced educational settings. The appetite for technology, within the field of education, appears to never be satisfied, and there is an ever increasing menu of choices (i.e., blogs, Flickr, feeds, Delicious) to feast upon. The better question is, when do you say, enough? Perhaps one day brick and mortar schools will become obsolete and schools of the future will be driven by technology and a technologist’s type of culture. Is this good or bad, you choose? Look at social networks that have evolved such as MySpace and Facebook to get a feel for how education might look like, in the future, with these technologies. All schools will be connected in one big educational network.