Efficiency is not always the goal!!
1872 -- QWERTY is developed by Christopher Sholes.
The QWERTY keyboard pattern was developed to slow down typists, for the sake of preventing jamming that would happen doing the carriage return on old typewriters.
But as technology became more sophisticated, the jamming was no longer much of a concern...but yet, people still adhered to the QWERTY design!

Then, Professor August Dvorak of Washington State University used funds from Carnegie Foundation to create a keyboard that would be quicker and easier to learn, known as the Dvorak Keyboard. Yet, it failed to diffuse into our society, and to this very second, we are still using the QWERTY! I'm using it right now!

The question is, why? My guess is that the correct diffusion process was not used. You can have the most brilliant product in the world, but the bottom line is that if the public is not compelled by its value, (especially when the job is getting done quite satisfactorally with other methods all over the country and world), then the product might as well be a paperweight. In essence, the diffusion process of any innovation must be strategic. The innovator must rely on specific change agents who have the pulse of the mainstream, and the transformers within the mainstream.

I won't go into the details of the diffusion process (because I'm still in the process of learning it myself), but I will say that the implementation of a new technological artifact into our mainstream must go through a very intentional and strategic process. Essentially, it is marketing and communication. For more information on the diffusion of innovations, I recommend the book I am currently reading, "The Diffusion of Innovations" by Everett M. Rogers.
 

Use your common senses when you learn!
2050 -- Students learn history via virtual reality

In light of what this country is going through right now (September 14, 2001), I made an important realization: the emotional side of understanding history. When I had history classes in my earlier education, I was apathetic to it all. It just seemed like unneccesary homework to me. I now wonder if that is what kids learning history in 2050 will think of the events that we are going through right now.  There is an emotional context behind every historical moment that we don't really get taught about. When we are removed from it and see it as just factual pieces, we tend to get a narrow view of it.

Learning history via virtual reality can help in bringing students closer to the events. It is essentially all about humanizing the facts, giving the facts a complex human context that appeals to more than cognitive logic.

In Spring of 2000, the students at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign created a program called "Boxes and Walls".  This program was an attempt at providing an emotional understanding of oppression in America. Exhibit visitors were taken through eight rooms where they will interact with students who play the role of the oppressive groups. One room, for example, will show visitors how it felt to be a Jew in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Students acting as Nazi soldiers will confront the visitors and shout at them to get on trains so they can be sent to the camps. You can find more information about this program at
http://www.admin.uiuc.edu/NB/00.04/05boxeswalls.html

This program had to go beyond the classical textbook, or even video or online methods of information dissemination. It is my belief that face to face, interactive, experiential learning allows all of the senses to get involved, and thus allows for deeper levels of processing.