What Changes
A while back there was a common aphorism in the information technology world: “The Web changes everything!” From our current perspective it’s apparent that we may have been over optimistic; some things have changed many have remained pretty much the same. What’s really difficult to comprehend is the effect of the changes or their possibilities. We’ve grown rather used to viral videos; in a stroke of masterful irony ABC even offers a television show which brings the weeks Web-TV to the un-wired. Perhaps there is something important about our ability to share video-bites, maybe it brings us closer. The real significance, however, may lie in the fact that the Web makes available things that don’t fit comfortably into a quick easily processed format.
Something that hasn’t changed for us is that people die. And it’s not really news that more than occasionally they do so with bravery, dignity, and even humor. Over the past few days excerpts from Randy Pausch’s last lecture at Carnegie-Mellon have been circulating on the Web, and television; there have been numerous blog posts and articles in the press. As you may know Pausch will shortly die of pancreatic cancer and if you want the sound-bite it’s: “If I don’t seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you.” The real value of the Web is that it gives us access to the entire lecture. Here’s the link. It’s in Windows Media format so you may need to download it to get it to play. It’s long, close to an hour but more than worth the time particularly for learners and for teachers.