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“I prepared myself for a multitude of reverses; my operations might be incessantly baffled, and at last my work be imperfect, yet when I considered the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics, I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success.” (Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, 4.7)
“We will transcend all of the limitations of our biology,” and “That is what it means to be human—to extend who we are.” (Kurzweil 2006).
In The Historiography of Culture, Jonathan Sterne (2006) describes advertisers that have presented “digital technologies” as “. . . commodities to be integrated into everyday life rather than as epochal forces that will transform it.” This statement should encourage teachers and educators to re-evaluate digital technologies in the classroom, and whether those technologies transform the classroom or are just integrated into what teachers/students use already.
Bostrom has noted that “. . . if and when super-intelligence is created, it will be of paramount importance that it be endowed with human friendly values.” (Bostrom 2003). Who determines what those traits are? How will they manifest themselves? And how does this translate to the future classroom where students will have access, via external or internal connections, to the collective of human knowledge? How will human traits such as self-awareness and self-control be assimilated by them into the learning process?
In A Cyborg Manifesto, Haraway (2007) states, “we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machines and organisms” (p. 35). Haraway uses the cyborg as the metaphor for blurring of boundaries between man and machine. This could well be the classroom of the future where students, using technology embedded directly into neural pathways, will be able to access both human and machine traits in order to complete tasks and assignments. In that case, where does the teacher play a role? Will the traditional role of teacher be replaced or enhanced?
The film The Forbidden Planet, is an example of how artificial intelligence (AI) can motivate individuals to develop characteristics or attributes that enable positive contributions to society. It is also an example of what Frankenstein experienced when he unleashed The Monster without considering the negative consequences of his actions.
Two opposing views of technology are presented in the film. First, there is Robby, a robot designed to act as a tool to assist humans in manual labor and other things. He has been programmed with a limited array of emotions which in the film are displayed via warnings of danger and so on. These emotional outbursts are reactions to external stimuli and not expressed from innate desire to do so. Robby is an example of where AI is today. Second, we have the machine the Krell left behind. While designed to help the Krell in a variety of tasks and was extremely powerful in fulfilling that purpose, an unintended result was that the machine’s ability to tap into the emotions of the Krell was used for their eventually destruction. Dr. Morbius, using the machine for his own purpose but not understanding its power, suffers the same fate of the Krell. Much like Victor Frankenstein, both the Krell and Morbius unlocked the secret of immense power but failed to see the scope of what they had done until it was too late.
https://youtu.be/HHXfMjp2zqI clip from The Forbidden Planet, presented by Rinoa Spuer-Genius
In another example of the emotional reliance on technology is presented in the old television series The Twilight Zone. The story is of criminal exiled to a deserted planet. Through what his jailer believed was an act of compassion, the prisoner was given a female android that was programmed to behave just as a human would. The prisoner was resistant at first but became more emotionally reliant on the android as time went on. In the end, the prisoner realized his emotional tie to this non-human when he had to leave the planet without “her”.
http://bit.ly/2nDh6XS clip from The Twilight Zone, presented by videomotionzone
In the Clutches of Algorithms, author Chris Friend (2016) goes into some detail about how humans have become so reliant upon technology that concern over small, seemingly insignificant details of daily living are ignored. Technology takes care of everything. Even in the classroom, programs track student work during computerized assessments even to the point of timing how long a student stays on a particular page. And although this kind technology may seem convenient, Friend states, “But the more we step aside, the less involved we are, and the less we control our environment, our information, our lives. We are giving algorithms control over increasingly complex aspects of our lives” (Friend 2016).
http://bit.ly/2pRbub4 Article by Chris Friend
The technology that is being developed now is beyond anything that has been created or developed before. How nature will react to this technological intrusion on its domain is unknown and unpredictable. Perfect examples of this type of ignorance are Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer, who both had significant influence on the development of the atomic bomb. They both later admitted to not having a complete understanding of what “The Bomb” would do in terms of its destructive power. Again, similar to Victor Frankenstein, and even Prometheus. the power unleashed by their ambition could not be reversed, only controlled to a small degree, and then only very tenuously.
Over-reliance on technology may be easily applied to the modern classroom. Students traditionally learn with “pencil and paper” but through the introduction of advanced technology students now complete any assignment or assessment via computer or other digital means. The integration of advanced technology in the classroom can also lead to a realization of Kurzweil’s (2006) theory that humans can eventually extend themselves beyond being human. This is in keeping with Victor Frankenstein. He desired to break through scientific and societal norms by applying known and new technology to enhance the human experience. Teachers can lead students in just such endeavors. However, the danger, as expressed throughout this OER, is forgetting or overlooking basic purpose. Students, while being encouraged to seek their own horizons in terms of learning, still need clear direction for why such learning is vital.
ACTIVITY: In the future students will have increasing access to any information source on the planet but will this access translate into academic or vocational success? Not necessarily. Like Morbius, students may be able to access information but they may not have learned how to apply that information in more subjective ways to daily living or be able to fully appreciate the dangers of over-reliance on data they do not fully understand. This requires a subjective influence in the classroom, a non-digital, non-cybernetic teacher, with the education and personal experience to guide students through the world-wide information maze.
Prompt: Describe the role of the teacher, or instructor, in the classroom 25 years into the future. What roles will the teacher and student play? And, who will be the primary instigator of learning?