It is obvious that distance need no longer be a restraining factor in education. If you will let it, knowledge can and will now pour in to you from all over the world, wherever in the world you happen to be. You may not, in fact, know where anything comes from, and you certainly won’t know it as I know it – and you probably won’t know anything as anybody else knows it. Questions about the lack of human touch (always raised by people who first hear of this scenario) are totally beside the point. Try using e-mail and computer conferencing for a while – you will be more humanly in touch with more people than you ever have before! Surely it is more humane than the average mass classroom lecture experience.
Predictor: Dator, Jim
Prediction, in context:In a speech for the Seminar for Presidents of Community and Junior Colleges from Japan and the U.S. (presented at the East-West Center, June 8, 1993) titled “The College Classroom of the Year 2010,” futurist Jim Dator says: ”It is obvious that distance need no longer be a restraining factor in education. If you will let it, knowledge can and will now pour in to you from all over the world, wherever in the world you happen to be. You may not, in fact, know where anything comes from, and you certainly won’t know it as I know it – and you probably won’t know anything as anybody else knows it. Questions about the lack of human touch (always raised by people who first hear of this scenario) are totally beside the point. Try using e-mail and computer conferencing for a while – you will be more humanly in touch with more people than you ever have before! Surely it is more humane than the average mass classroom lecture experience.”
Biography:Jim Dator was a futurist who is credited with founding the first Future Studies program in 1971. He has been director of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies at the University of Hawaii. (Futurist/Consultant.)
Date of prediction: June 8, 1993
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: E-learning
Name of publication: Seminar for Presidents of Community and Junior Colleges from Japan and the U.S. at the East-West Center, June 8, 1993
Title, headline, chapter name: The College Classroom of the Year 2010
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.futures.hawaii.edu/dator/education/class2010.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney