I have seen a lot of changes in what the seen as the prerequisites are for college since I left (only a few years ago…). Most of these changes revolve around the idea of the need to have a laptop. This argument is about the same as the high school students need for a cell phone. Both of these technologies are certainly convenient, and in a high school or college environment, they both connote a certain status…
The arguments diverge a bit here…the need for a cell phone, at least for a secondary school student, is for social status, social networking, and generally, being part of the group. A laptop computer also figures highly in these same attributes, but there is a notion that this tool may indeed aide in scholastic work.
In some ways, both of these arguments are very similar to comparable arguments made by people the same age about getting a car…only a decade or so ago! When I first went to college, having a car, and a cool stereo (for the dorms) were the ne plus ultra of status. Now having a cell phone, a laptop, and some sort of video console gaming center (whether a Wii, a Playstation, or an X-box…) are about the same thing.
I have harped many times in this blog about the fact that there is a revolution in technology, in how we use information, and consequently, in how we interact with one another. This would seem to be yet another means to showcase that this is indeed happening.
So…getting back to the idea of having a laptop as a prerequisite to entering college…I suppose that there will become increasingly more and more curricular changes to accommodate this idea (as in putting the cart before the horse!). Nonetheless, a laptop is certainly a powerful tool, and there are certainly many worthwhile uses that developed for any college class.
So far, most of what I have said would seem to be pretty straight forward and obvious. There are some interesting consequences of these actions, if you think it through. For instance, with the near ubiquity of every college student having a modern laptop (along with broadband access, such as in almost every dorm room) would allow any of these students to take comparable classes over the internet (versus having to get up for that 8:00 AM poly sci class).
This is the beginning of a slippery slope (at least for college administrators) in that these sorts of actions effectively decouple college classes, as well as learning in general from the needs to be in class (at least on a daily basis). If you were to follow this (slippery) slope a bit further down, you can start to see that the only difference between taking classes ‘in college’ versus taking podcasts from iTunes U comes down only to accreditation. These efforts effectively throw the idea of colleges as holders of horrendous amounts of institutional power into high relief. I guess people will then be able to decide upon how important it is to spend a few years of your life living in ivy covered brick buildings…
As I don’t really have a horse in this race, I will find it all quite interesting to watch from the sidelines…
Another interesting second order effect of the ubiquity of these emerging forms of technology for college students would be to see how fast this trickles down to high school, and at first (and primarily) 12th grade.
If all college students will be dealing with a lot of their work load in college via the use of laptops, it only seems to be reasonable to expect that 12th graders (especially those who are college bound) would be using their own computers at school.
While I don’t expect to see these sorts of things to happen next year, it would seem reasonable to be unsurprised to see these changes within less than a decade…
