Technology has yet again prove its capabilities and advancements in society when dealing with online education and learning.  A few years ago, the only way to take a course was to sit in a classroom as the day’s lesson was being conducted by a professor or teacher.  Today, all of this has changed.  You can take a course, and not even know what your professor sounds like, let alone look like.  Starr Roxanne Hiltz and Murray Turoff talk about the digitalization of education in their work “Education Goes Digital: The Evolution of Online Learning and the Revolution in Higher Education.”  The article states, “Online learning is the latest in a long list of social technologies that have been introduced to improve distance learning by adding various augmentations, substitutions, or blending of new pedagogical approaches and technologies” (1).  Online education is quickly adapting to many higher learning institutes around the world.  About a year or so ago, I thought online education was the worse form of education ever.  I could not understand how or why students were expected to advance in courses without the physical presence of a professor.  After taking an online course my last year as an undergraduate, I soon was proven otherwise.  Online education gives students a sense of independence and more importantly, responsibility. 

            The article goes on to state, “Online learning is a new social process that is beginning to act as a complete substitute for both distance learning and the traditional face-to-face class” (2).  I found this statement to be very interesting because distance learning is or has become a more common form of learning.  There are more and more sections and courses being offered online and there are more and more students becoming enrolled in these courses.  Technology is making a huge change in every aspect of life.  A few years ago, online learning would have been like a foreign language to many, but today is so widely accepted.  My one worry with online education is the future of “face-to face education” as Hiltz and Turoff call it.  There is and will forever be changes in life and society has to learn how to cope with and adapt to those changes.  We either have the choice of adapting to changes or getting left behind because time and advancements waits for no one.  These authors quote Charles Darwin when he says, “Its not the strongest of species that survives, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” (Origin of Species, 1859).  This quote can be directly applied to technology and the many affects it has on society because we have to adapt in order to survive.

 

            When concerning technologies advancements for entertainment purposes Eeva Kangas and Timo Kinnunen’s article “Applying User-Centered Design to Mobile Application Development” served as a great example.  Today we use our cell phones and mobile devices for just about anything.  Technology has made checking your email, instant messaging, and sending images quite effortless.  We can take picture and send them to others within minutes.  Technology has also allowed us to communicate with others without actually having to converse.  We also have the ability to send messages to many people at one time.  What is more important is the design of this technology that allows us to have such a luxury.  The article talks about the design process as they try to eliminate all errors and flaws.  The article states, “The most important aspect of the design process is to provide the user with the real usage context.”  It goes on to state, “For mobile phones this means users need to be able to touch the buttons and see software that feels like it is actually working” (Kangas/Kinnunen 3).  No matter what the technological advancements are society will forever in one way or another advance from these changes, but we must first adapt to before we can ultimately learn and improve.