As microprocessors and wireless networking grow cheaper and more powerful, it is rapidly becoming more feasible to design embedded capabilities (including speech, imagery, and intelligence) into common objects, thereby enhancing their educational value. Smart objects used for learning might include, for example, intelligent manipulatives for young children. Imagine a child stacking blocks by size, from biggest to smallest, to form a tower. When he picks up a block whose size is out of sequence, the block could say, “Not me,” while the correct block could light up and say, “My turn.”
Predictor: Dede, Chris
Prediction, in context:In 1995, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology commissioned a series of white papers on various issues related to networking technologies. The department convened the authors for a workshop in November 1995 to discuss the implications. The following statement is taken from one of the white papers, “The Evolution of Learning Devices: Smart Objects, Information Infrastructures, and Shared Synthetic Environments,” by Chris Dede of the graduate school of education at George Mason University. Dede writes: ”As microprocessors and wireless networking grow cheaper and more powerful, it is rapidly becoming more feasible to design embedded capabilities (including speech, imagery, and intelligence) into common objects, thereby enhancing their educational value. Smart objects used for learning might include, for example, intelligent manipulatives for young children. Imagine a child stacking blocks by size, from biggest to smallest, to form a tower. When he picks up a block whose size is out of sequence, the block could say, ‘Not me,’ while the correct block could light up and say, ‘My turn.'”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Wireless Technologies
Name of publication: The Future of Networking Technologies for Learning
Title, headline, chapter name: The Evolution of Learning Devices: Smart Objects, Information Infrastructures, and Shared Synthetic Environments
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.ed.gov/Technology/Futures/
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney