The Perspective Change: The Naysayers Are Always with Us

Eight years from now, everything we currently hold dear about computer education will be a distant memory. In the past year alone, speech and handwriting recognition skills have passed from the realm of an interesting novelty into a full-fledged educational necessity

© 2002

Eight years from now, everything we currently hold dear about computer education will be a distant memory. In the past year alone, speech recognition passed from the realm of an interesting novelty into a full-fledged educational necessity.

In 2001, truly good handwriting recognition emerged in Office XP for the first time. The shift to speech and handwriting technologies is picking up steam. Some are saying, "You can feel the avalanche coming."

As we end 2001 and begin 2002, let's take a time warp back eight years. As 1993 ended and 1994 began, the Internet as we know it today did not exist. A barely known browser called Mosaic had given birth to a graphical world called the World Wide Web. Netscape Communications Corp. was working on their first commercial browser. Version 1 of the Netscape Navigator would be released in December of 1994. In 1995, business discovered the Internet. And suddenly, everything was different. Look how much has changed since the end of 1993. (And don't forget that the Internet revolution started in education, on college campuses.)

But let's digress another eight years. As 1985 came to a close and 1986 began, Windows, as we know it, didn't exist. Schools were struggling to work with 286 and 386 DOS-based computers. A mere 16 MB of RAM was considered a luxury. After all, just a few years earlier the first IBM desktop PC came to market. A few years after that, two applications, Lotus 123 and WordPerfect, created one of the biggest changes in business history. Back then, most schools still used labs of typewriters for keyboarding instruction. But, they were rapidly going to be replaced. Look how much has changed since 1985. (And don't forget that most Lotus and WordPerfect users were trained in Business Education classrooms. Continuing that trend, today, most Microsoft Office users are trained in our labs!)

• Sixteen years ago there was no such thing as Windows.
• Eight years ago the World Wide Web was in its infancy.
• Now, project ahead eight years.

Eight years from now, desktop PCs will become a thing of the past, and the new tools of computer input will include, speech recognition, handwriting recognition, OCR, and translation technologies.

It won't take long for this these powerful technologies to power their way into the k-12 and collegiate educational systems. (And, we will be able to look back with pride knowing that most speech and handwriting recognition users had their first exposure with these technologies in our Business Education classrooms. The Business Education team is essential to the success of technological change.)

The instructional base upon which all computer and technical education is based has shifted. The required technology literacy skills are now:

• Speech recognition skills
• Handwriting recognition skills
• Translation skills
• Reasonably reduced and safe keyboarding skills
• Scanning and OCR technology skills
• Wireless and handheld personal and Tablet computer skills

THE NAYSAYERS ARE ALWAYS WITH US

As you move your students forward with digital communication technologies, you'll encounter those who doubt, even those who may criticize, the new and emerging technologies you are implementing. It's difficult being on the cutting edge of change. Albeit, hopefully, we can look back and chuckle at some of the embarrassing miscalculations of the past. Consider these blushingly embarrassing stories:

A. In the 1980s, a group of Business Education teachers went to an unnamed district technology committee and asked to replace their typewriters with new IBM PC computers running a little-known program called WordPerfect. However, the district technology team, in their wisdom, vetoed their proposal, and gave the teachers a mainframe-based word processing system. The system was expensive, never worked, and was junked a year later in favor of WordPerfect and IBM PCs.

(The moral of the story... always listen to your Business Education Professional.)

B. A district computer coordinator once quipped in the early 1990s, "Why do teachers and students need e-mail? Only administrators need e-mail." A few years later, this same technician was building firewalls against intrusive student e-mail from the Web.

(The moral of the story... never underestimate student initiative when it comes to communicating with each other.)

C. Remember the Windows 3.0 day's? I remember a meeting where the proposal was made to purchase a new lab of "Windows" computers. A computer teacher vetoed the entire notion with these words, "DOS will never go away. No self-respecting professional would ever wish to take her hands off the keyboard to use a mouse! A mouse will slow her down and decrease her productivity!" The next year, this same instructor was inservicing teachers in Windows 3.1.

(The moral of the story... don't die professionally with a DOS albatross around your neck! Move with the times!)

D. I was working for WordPerfect when WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS dominated the market. I learned one afternoon that WordPerfect was in serious trouble. How? While conducting site visits of schools around the country for a WordPerfect educational initiative, I ran into a first-year Business Education teacher with the audacity to look three WordPerfect employees in the eye and say "Have you tried Microsoft Word for Windows?" and added, "It's soooo much better." Despite the efforts of her older teaching mentor, she proceeded to give a demo. Even though WordPerfect was releasing its own Windows product, I knew we were in trouble. WordPerfect was associated with DOS and users were migrating to Windows 3.1. It wasn't long before WordPerfect Corp. was up for sale.

(The moral of the story... keep listening to those first-year teachers!)

E. I heard a high-ranking marketing manager say, "The Microsoft Office Suite is no threat to our sales." That company is now out of business.

(The moral of the story... never underestimate Microsoft.)

F. In the early-1990s, a high-ranking executive for a major networking company said, "Why should we worry about the Internet -- there are more computers connected to our networks than to the Net. We just have to find a way to get all those Net users to buy and run our software!"

(The moral of the story... never underestimate the power of the "free" Internet.)

G. In 1994, a new Internet book was being prepared for publication. A naysaying professor reviewing the book trashed the content saying that entirely too many activities were dedicated to Web browsers. He correctly pointed out that the World Wide Web only accounted for 6 percent of Internet traffic in 1994, and instructed the authors to reduce coverage of the Web and spend more time on the "dominant" Internet technologies, Gopher and Telnet.

(The moral of the story... never underestimate the World Wide Web, and never overestimate Gophers.)

And the moral of all the stories is rather simple, GOOD TECHNOLOGY ALWAYS WINS! Stay on the cutting edge! It's always worth the effort in the end