Module 2

Singularity, Wisdom 2.0, The World is Flat, and A Whole New Mind

A Vision of Students TodayWeb 2.0SingularityWisdom 2.0The World is FlatA Whole New Mind

A Vision of Students TodayMichael Wesch, an associate professor of

cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University create a short video highlighting the most important characteristics of students today – how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime.

A Vision of Students Today 133 out of 200 students responded to the survey which yielded

the results. My average class size is 115. Survey: What is your average class size? Average: 115.0602

A Vision of Students Today 18% of my teachers know my name. Survey: What percentage of teachers you have had in

college would be able to recognize you and call you by name? Average: 18.2

A Vision of Students Today I complete 49% of the readings assigned to me. Survey: Not including this class, what percentage of

assigned readings do you complete? Average: 48.73

A Vision of Students Today Only 26% … relative to my life Survey: Not including this class, what percentage of

assigned readings do you find relevant to your life? Average: 25.95

A Vision of Students Today I will read 8 books this year. Survey: How many books have you read this year? Average

8.03 (ranging from 0-200)

A Vision of Students Today 2300 web pages Survey: On average, how many web pages do you read each day? Average

21.51

and 1281 facebook profiles Survey: On average, how many Facebook profiles do you view each day?

Average 12.2 I will write 42 pages for class this semester Survey: On average, how many pages do you write for your classes each

semester? Average: 41.96

A Vision of Students Today And over 500 pages of email Survey: On average, how many pages of e-mails will you

write in a single day? Average: 4.96

Web 2.0 Are you a Web 2.0 Educator?

What is Web 2.0?WebsitesBlogsPodcastsFeed Readers -- RSSWikisOnline Word Processors, Spreadsheets, and Presentations

Social NetworksLinks to the Web 2.0 ToolsWeb 2.0 Ideas for EducatorsReferences

Web 2.0 References

Shedding Light on Web 2.0 -- presentations, articles, and links about Web 2.0 tools.Wiki Collaboration Across the Curriculum – Presentation Notes

Bryan Alexander, "Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning?". EDUCAUSE Review, Volume 41, Number 2 (March/April 2006).O’Reilly, “What is Web 2.0?”, September 30, 2005.How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th CenturyWeb 2.0 in Education at shambles.net

Singularity What is Singularity? The Singularity is the technological creation of smarter-than-human

intelligence by means of technologies as artificial Intelligence, direct brain-computer interfaces, biological

augmentation of the brain, genetic engineering, and ultra-high-resolution scans of the brain followed by computer emulation.

In 1965, I.J. Good proposed that machines would one day be smart enough to make themselves smarter. Having made themselves smarter, they would spot still further opportunities for improvement, quickly leaving human intelligence far behind [singinst.org]. He called this the "intelligence explosion."

Vernor Vinge, Department of Mathematical Sciences, San Diego State University, originally coined the term "Singularity" iin his 1993 essay "The Coming Technological Singularity", in which he argues that the creation of superhuman artificial intelligence will mark the point at which "the human era will be ended," such that no current models of reality are sufficient to predict beyond it.

"Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended." - "The Coming Technological Singularity" by Vernor Vinge, 1993

SingularityRay KurzweilRay Kurzweil is an American author,

futurist, and inventor. He was involved in working on different projects such as:

optical character recognition (OCR),text-to-speech synthesis,speech recognitiontechnology, and electronickeyboard instruments.

SingularityRay Kurzweil’s BooksRay Kurzweil wrote several books:The Age of Intelligent Machines

(1990)The Age of Spiritual Machines (1998)Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough

to Live Forever (2004) co-authored with Terry Grossman

The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (2005)

SingularityLinear vs. ExponentialToday technology growth

exponentially.There is a big difference between

linear and exponential growth. If we take 30 steps linearly, one, two, three, four, five, we get to 30. If we take 30 steps exponentially, two, four, eight, 16, we get to a billion. It makes a huge difference.

Wisdom 2.0Wisdom 2.0 conference explores

how we can live mindfully and wisely, and engage the great technologies of our age in ways that benefit us, our society, and our world. It explores living with Awareness, Wisdom and Compassion in the Technology Age.

The World is FlatReferencesThomas L. Friedman (2007)

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

A Whole New MindReferencesPink, D. H. (2006). A Whole New

Mind. Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. New York: Riverhead Books.