Open Course in Education Futures

My name is John. 20 years ago there was no internet for me ,I was 11. I spent hours in front of the television watching boring programs. I remember 10 years ago start using e-mail, making some eventual searches for an academic project and maybe a couple of things more, ignoring that about 360,000,000 other people did the same as I. Five years ago Internet had become a source of information quite interesting, allowing me to download some songs that I always wanted, build my virtual photo album and see some of the first videos on youtube. Currently, I am pleased that approximately 2 billion people today have the opportunity to connect to the Web and to participate in a new way of view, learn and communicate with the world.

Today the internet, is no longer simply a new service, it has become the channel through which I know, connect and transform my reality. As a psychologist, I keep thinking of the possibilities of this big experiment where millions of people and hundreds of different cultures feedback each other 24 hours a day, every day. For some, the Internet will remain a service that has to be paid at the end of the month. For others, the Internet has become a social phenomenon that accelerates exponentially and whose main characteristic is that it enables the connection and interaction of a number of human minds as never before.

Looking back, we can remember empires were knowledge was transmitted primarily through direct communication and fairly rudimentary forms of writing. Currently, huge quantities of information travel through the web constantly and rapidly. It is estimated that the New York Times in a week can generate more information than a person could process in his entire life in the eighteen century .It would be interesting to know what would cross through the mind of people like Vygotsky, Jung or Tesla if they could see what happens now.

The line drawn between the Web 2.0 concept and Society 2.0 is becoming more diffuse. The individual as a builder of his own reality from his speech begins to be the main actor, understanding that the value of his ideas are freely constructed by others like him.

It's really exciting to see how the vision of a man or a handful of minds changed the way we lived, but now, is more exciting watching how hundreds or even thousands have accelerated and broadened the learning process doing that knowledge is not longer centralized, giving to the people the opportunity to choose, not 100 channels but among millions of perspectives. In 2009 were approximately 31 billion searches on Google each month. Today about 210 billions of e-mails are going to be sent. The exponential growth is evident as the response of our brain. Today a child of 8 years has been exposed to much more information than a child of the same age 20 years ago. We are constantly amazed when the dwarf in front of us, reminds us how smart he or she is.

However, as everything, internet also has its weaknesses. In 10 years our society can be wiser and more aware of the world we step; a society that forgot how to enjoy the outdoors in the comfort of the chair facing the screen or perhaps both. Perhaps one more than another ... we'll see.