Sunday 2 December 2007

E-education?

Do you think the internet, or other new, digital media lead to more quality education?
Please take into consideration this video.

Digitalization all around

When I was (re)thinking about the all present digitalization, I remembered another new media or technology: the digital book reader.
It has got (almost) all the big ones have: it can store up to 200 books in its memory, it is wireless, it "dissapears" in your hands, it lets you make notes on documents and even send messages, you can be linked directly to (among other) the Wikipedia ...
I am talking about Amazon's Kindle.
Owners of a Kindle do not have to pay to use this wireless network, Amazon pays the access costs and only charges for any content downloaded to the reader. For instance: the subscription to the New York Times costs 13,99 $ per month, and newspapers that owners are subscribed to are automatically updated.
This and other e-readers can raise many pros and cons, and questions to discuss. What will happen with "classical" media (i.e. newspapers)? With going to the library and borrowing the book we were waiting for to be returned? Is more convenient to switch one button or to leaf through a book? What about the copyright?
The changes are present and they are happening. And we still have the alternative: to choose between the "old" and the "new" (digital) media.