Is Technology Really the Most Important Educative Tool for the Future?

Is Technology Really the Most Important Educative Tool for the Future?

            People may believe in their hearts that humankind must have some basic fundamentally reason for existence, some main goal that needs to be completed in a lifetime, some even can stress the point further by saying we are all set down on this magnificent ball of flora and fauna to reign supreme in a growing light, outreaching to even the darkest of continents, and fend off the wild nature that is best in us all. Survival, that seems to be the stagnant answer humankind uses as the reason for our existence, the proverbial end-all-be-all for our reason to make stake on this planet. We are all here to work, be entertained, and go-about our daily lives in this belief that nothing is greater than the survival of the species in the never-ending, insurmountable string of hodgepodge chaos that is life.

            We are partly orderly, and wholly ascending to reach goals we have set out to gain, battling mentally across the vast plains to reach that pinnacle of greatness, the perfection we strive to all grasp, even if it means for just a stitch in the course of history. Most of us, sadly, never gain that notoriety, and those who do are swimming in a much larger pond, with albeit, much grander beasts than themselves. So how do we rely on an outlet for this natural instinct for achieving those unascertainable feats? Some think outside the box, and head towards the patent offices for pushing conglomerate variables into an invention to change the world. Others head off to higher learning, in-hopes the knowledge they can attain will then be used to cause wonder, and aspire them to new heights, mounting new frontiers, so they too can plant their hypothetic flags of new discovery among the peaks that make up the limitations of our world, enticing us that limits are truly in the imagination and ingenuity of the mystified gaze of the beholder. Some simply start a revolutionary blog, or website, and gain millions of followers who hold sacred the same values as those expressed, and others just get to talking to those with the know-how becoming public or silent partners.

            The ends the goals we set as men and women are basically the same ones we all attempt to meet in the modern world, those the variables of how we get there are as complicated as they are accumulative. We truly are an imaginative being, perhaps the most imaginative, and most skilled to twist the natural world around us to meet our needs. No other creature, not even in prehistoric times, has left such an extensive impact on the Earth, ever. We rival Mother Nature in her destructive, and creative force, we stand like gods over insects, and fight off bacterial infections, and virus plagues, all so we can expand our literal, and theoretical spheres of influence all about the continents, and we institutionalize our mediums at the forefront, never faltering from any form of suppression, or stifled from any hindrance.

            Our goals as the human race seem a bit trifle in the spectrum of history, as we were not the first dominator, and more-than-likely not the last, but we have overcome in our minute time is stellar, that we forget most great advancements come from the few, and are institutionalized by the many, and so it is true with one of our newest institutions: video game systems, and computers.

           

            Most serious tech aficionados will banter over whether-or-not video games are a seriously important use of technology, and most are fair in their debacle over this form of mass media outlet. Others might be confused at the intent of what the point this article is making: “why would someone try to link greatness of all of mankind’s atonements, including everything from aqueducts to space rockets, to something as laymen as video games? How does Pac-Man factor into the importance of  Man’s creations, such as the Apollo missions?”

            The truth is, I’m not saying that space exploration is any more-or-less important as Space Invaders, that is not the intent of this editorial. My core belief is that just like other forms of mass media, and I cannot stress this enough that video game systems as they are today are by-far one of the largest upcoming form of mass media, we do not initialize our use of it enough.

           

            I recall several editorials of the past, many stating that video games will be as frequent in the classrooms, as they are now in the living rooms and bedrooms of the modern home. Some have even stated that text and video, as it is literally today, will have the addition of interactive media, like video game software, to help explain, or even teach certain subjects. I’m not of the extremities of the above statements being truth, but what I do believe is that if this is to become a standard, and that people can start to gain the notoriety they so desire from simply downloading cloud software from the giant, infinite space that is the internet, or buying a hardcopy disc from a retail outlet, I find it quite interesting to see how it will be incorporated so demographics of all-kinds can understand just how to utilize such a technology in the education area.

            I’m not sure if I can picture a world where we rediscover history through a first-person perspective, where World War I is fought in over-and-over to help dignify further than text how brave men would gallantly cross over No-Man’s Land all to fight off the Kaiser’s advancements, dodging landmines and gunfire. I’m not sure a virtual envisioning of the signing of the Declaration of Independence through a first-person perspective would be enough to keep even the most drawl student enticed long-enough. What I can imagine is utilizing interactive virtual characters from history to explain, perhaps in their own words, or reenact their own lives out in some holographic, three-dimensional form, similar to something like the animatronics of the Epcot Center, or virtual reality  where the user enters the world for the first time through the courses of history as we’ve laid them out.

            Surely gathering up the letters of great historical figures, and turning those words into lectures and insight perhaps not easily taught in the main classroom could be interesting, if not ecstatic, but the time and resources to turn a medium into a way of inspiring the youthful masses to then turn imagination into future technologies seems cost-disruptive, and a basic waste of technology and funds. So can video games, or more precisely, interactive technology ever be utilized for more than just mere sophomoric entertainment? I believe it already has, and can be even further in the future.

            I am a gamer, it’s a label that I wear not so-much with pride, but with conviction. I believe video games are for more than just blasting unrealistic-sized holes into one’s enemies, and fighting off surreal space aliens on floating vessels, I believe they can have a bit of truth, but it is how you intend to use that truth. I feel games featuring famous historical figures are interesting, and can be made interesting to the masses, perhaps even teach people more than they’d expect from a few hours of ample game play. I believe we can also efficiently turn the same technology we have today, and in the speculated future into useful tools that can educate and entertain.

            In a world where high schools would rather teach students how to proficiently use skills to benefit them in the future, which is great, but to then cut out the teaching of important literature for twang, robotic writing, are video games going to be the last resort for imagination? Are we going to be limited by the choices we are given as to how the public education systems will teach in the twenty-first century? I say no! I say we can indoctrinate new styles of teaching, and still maintain the dignity we would expect from new-age ways of educating. It may perhaps even grow to further the education of the masses greater than the old system. I might understand humanity’s desire to complete unrealistic goals, even to at times complete some extraordinary feats, but lets all be reminded that Einstein had found most of his greatest discoveries while working in a patent office, and barely a college education under his belt. There was no television in his day, the radio was practically the biggest invention of his era when it came to mass media, and he did his best thinking while riding the trolley, and placing pen to paper.

            So is technology always the answer to the stifled minds of the generation who thinks them  the greatest yet to have come down the pipes? Perhaps not, but I find that we will strive for greatness, and not always some manufactured greatness of a new phone, or new application to be placed on that phone, but it will be spectacular, and change the course of history again, and I’m sure all that person will need to make such a discovery will only need be as technologically advanced as a pen, paper, and an extraordinary imagination.