Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Disembodied Telepresence

This past chapter makes us wonder to what extent the internet is capable of going. There will be a day when the internet could possibly give a person all the materials to where he or she could accomplish everything. The internet expanding can be a great thing in my opinion, it could open a vast majority of opportunities in which we could explore different things we never thought possible. so in that aspect i do not think the internet is a bad thing by any means.

But it does have it bad things as well as the good. As was mentioned, learning and internships may start to become available on the internet. I, like Dreyfus, find it hard to see where a person learning or doing internships on the internet can be "proficient." Nothing can replace experiencing something actually in person. There is no way i would want a doctor to examine me or perform surgery on me if he learned by watching the teacher or surgeon on the internet. And I am one where i need to be present in order to understand what the teacher is teaching. Many times I would need help in the classroom and if I was learning by distant learning, I would be screwed. Those are a few of the bad things the internet expansion can hold.

I do believe that the internet has the capabilities to reach that level, but I think that society won't allow the internet to have that prfound of an impact and control our daily lives like people are afraid it might. I also think/hope people will see that distant learning will hurt more than help and society won't convert all schooling into distant learning....I think the future is bright for the internet, as long as we as a society keep it from getting too powerful.

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