Today's lesson covered the various kinds of new and emerging technologies that are sure to revolutionise the way we do things, perhaps even in the following years to come. We realise that there are so many creative and potentially groundbreaking ideas out there that are not receiving the attention that they deserve. We also learned about the 4 "Smarts": People, Ideas, Money and Alliances and Partnerships. People with the creativity and will to translate dreams into reality, ideas that can work, money to make the ideas happen and other people who have the necessary skills and expertise the innovator doesn't. Increasingly, we find that there are many social and ethical issues that will arise from the development and subsequent use of emerging technologies.
I think the idea of augmented reality is really fascinating and it's definitely the innovation I'm most looking forward to. Apart from the idea of facilitating our movement around as presented in the video, augmented reality has a lot of potential implications on education and learning. When students go for excursions or field trips, they will be instantly able to view all the information pertaining to their surroundings. By supplementing existing worlds rather than create new ones, students will be able to understand the real world in context, comprehend what they learn better and even remembered it better as they can put a name or some information to an object. As augmented reality is likely to manifest in low-cost infrastructures like mobile phones, students will be able to move learning outside the classroom and into the spaces they are familiar with. They will then be able to form connections with their surroundings without the facilitation of a teacher, or having to spend much time on research. Augmented reality will also benefit students who miss classes, especially location-based classes, as the information they learn is easily accessible to them when they go out into their surroundings.
Having said that, while augmented reality's application into learning will be phenomenal, it is important to drive home the fact that teachers still play a crucial part to the learning process. The use of augmented reality applications should be seen as a supplement to daily teachings and not a replacement for the teacher. To realise the full potential of augmented reality, we must address the issue that most augmented reality projects rely on customised hardware. There is thus a need to ensure that the information presented inside augmented reality is constantly up to date and reliable.
Regarding the question on the positive or negative impact of Artificial Intelligence, I feel that it is really subjective. On one hand, these robots can perform tasks that are dangerous, complex or stressful in place of humans, perform them more efficiently and more accurately. On the other hand, they will blur the lines between human and robot and give rise to a variety of ethical questions and redefine human (or even robot) rights. Whether it will be for the better or worse really depends on what we choose to use artificial intelligence for and how we use the knowledge. One of the readings for this lesson aptly points out the greatest difficulty in predicting the impacts of these new technologies. That is, once the technical and commercial feasibility of emerging technologies is demonstrated, subsequent developments are just as much in the hands of the users as in those of the innovator. So new technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Nanotechnology can affect society in ways not intended by those who created them. What the world really needs is wisdom. And once again, technology is easy and people are hard. Judging from all the ethical and social debate about the uses of new and emerging technologies despite their groundbreaking nature, I too truly believe that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
Key Takeaway: Many emerging technologies are within our reach and they hold many promises for a better and more convenient life. However, we still lack the capacity to deal with the potential ethical and social issues that may arise
Overall Rating: 7/10
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