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Computer-based learning
Biochemical Education ELSEVIER
Biochemical
Education
26 (1998) 143
Features Section
Comwter-based I
Bill Gates: Vision with force I have just listened to the Microsoft CEO give an hour exposition to a large audience in Melbourne Australia on ‘the digital nervous system’ or less prosaically how new communications technologies will globally transform business, education and private lives. The ideas are familiar to the technologically aware, but the difference is that this is a man who a few hours before was being treated with reverence and rapt attention by the Prime Minister and cabinet of the Australian government. When Bill Gates says that the web is the backbone of future communications he is more than an astute observer, he is a powerful participant with billions of dollars to prove that his clairvoyance foreshadows a new reality. The message was predictable so I concentrated on the man, asking the question ‘would this man get a job as a lecturer?‘. As a communicator I rated him highly; he spoke confidently and articulately and organised his segments in a logical and interesting progression. He punctuated his talk with demonstrations that he handed over to those who had created the applications. This also made an interesting contrast because the assistants were rapt in their applications and did not inherently advance the big picture that Bill Gates was sketching. I envied Bill Gates the luxury of ranging so widely because I know that I cannot do this for a sustained period with my undergraduates; as soon as students catch on that a discussion is effectively non-examinable, a significant minority start to create a hostile ambience. However, every word from Bill Gates was received as if from The Messiah. As to the question of whether he would get a job lecturing, I suspect that any committee would note his communicating skills then quibble about inadequate grant funding received and lack of refereed publications (of course he would get the job if he made himself available). Not surprisingly the talk was keyed to a Power-Point presentation which was commendably functional (no
0307-4412/98/$19.00 + 0.00 0 1998 IUBMB. PII: SO307-4412(98)00098-3
Published
by Elsevier
Science
learning confusing backgrounds and spurious fade effects). An unfortunate attendant circumstance was low house lighting so I made only a few notes - this is one of my aversions against sustained presentation by computer in lecture theatres. However Bill Gates did not commit my other aversion to computer presentations of seeming to be a lecturer programmed by a computer. The Gates’ vision was of smaller smarter cheaper computers, from palm top communicators to full feature models, that will be transformed in the short term by new flat-screen display technologies. These computers will come to be driven by speech and hand-written messages and be clever enough to do what we want them to, rather than what they are told to do by clumsy key-boarding (Microsoft is working on this new reality). Gone will be the abstruse error messages and inconsistent commands between applications. ‘I think we can say that our grandchildren will ask what were computers like in this era of history and they will laugh to think that these computers could not see, could not listen and could not talk.’ The Gates vision is of every student having a personal computer and linking to the web. He compared the potential to that of the book and the arrival of printing presses in making affordable information available to a mass audience. Of course, books have not made everyone literate or prepared to rush to libraries for information, but the new accessibility of information may lead to a revolutionary leap in personal education. Schools were seen as transformed rather than replaced and Gates was generously donating to schools to achieve examples of new era classrooms. He was bold enough to say that established businesses (and even governments) would fail if they did not rise to using new networking technologies to integrate their internal and customer dealings. Of course those who are pro-active were promised future growth in a changing world. Graham Parslow
Ltd. All rights reserved.
Biochemical
Education
26 (1998) 143
Features Section
Comwter-based I
Bill Gates: Vision with force I have just listened to the Microsoft CEO give an hour exposition to a large audience in Melbourne Australia on ‘the digital nervous system’ or less prosaically how new communications technologies will globally transform business, education and private lives. The ideas are familiar to the technologically aware, but the difference is that this is a man who a few hours before was being treated with reverence and rapt attention by the Prime Minister and cabinet of the Australian government. When Bill Gates says that the web is the backbone of future communications he is more than an astute observer, he is a powerful participant with billions of dollars to prove that his clairvoyance foreshadows a new reality. The message was predictable so I concentrated on the man, asking the question ‘would this man get a job as a lecturer?‘. As a communicator I rated him highly; he spoke confidently and articulately and organised his segments in a logical and interesting progression. He punctuated his talk with demonstrations that he handed over to those who had created the applications. This also made an interesting contrast because the assistants were rapt in their applications and did not inherently advance the big picture that Bill Gates was sketching. I envied Bill Gates the luxury of ranging so widely because I know that I cannot do this for a sustained period with my undergraduates; as soon as students catch on that a discussion is effectively non-examinable, a significant minority start to create a hostile ambience. However, every word from Bill Gates was received as if from The Messiah. As to the question of whether he would get a job lecturing, I suspect that any committee would note his communicating skills then quibble about inadequate grant funding received and lack of refereed publications (of course he would get the job if he made himself available). Not surprisingly the talk was keyed to a Power-Point presentation which was commendably functional (no
0307-4412/98/$19.00 + 0.00 0 1998 IUBMB. PII: SO307-4412(98)00098-3
Published
by Elsevier
Science
learning confusing backgrounds and spurious fade effects). An unfortunate attendant circumstance was low house lighting so I made only a few notes - this is one of my aversions against sustained presentation by computer in lecture theatres. However Bill Gates did not commit my other aversion to computer presentations of seeming to be a lecturer programmed by a computer. The Gates’ vision was of smaller smarter cheaper computers, from palm top communicators to full feature models, that will be transformed in the short term by new flat-screen display technologies. These computers will come to be driven by speech and hand-written messages and be clever enough to do what we want them to, rather than what they are told to do by clumsy key-boarding (Microsoft is working on this new reality). Gone will be the abstruse error messages and inconsistent commands between applications. ‘I think we can say that our grandchildren will ask what were computers like in this era of history and they will laugh to think that these computers could not see, could not listen and could not talk.’ The Gates vision is of every student having a personal computer and linking to the web. He compared the potential to that of the book and the arrival of printing presses in making affordable information available to a mass audience. Of course, books have not made everyone literate or prepared to rush to libraries for information, but the new accessibility of information may lead to a revolutionary leap in personal education. Schools were seen as transformed rather than replaced and Gates was generously donating to schools to achieve examples of new era classrooms. He was bold enough to say that established businesses (and even governments) would fail if they did not rise to using new networking technologies to integrate their internal and customer dealings. Of course those who are pro-active were promised future growth in a changing world. Graham Parslow
Ltd. All rights reserved.