Touch Screen Tech: Looking ahead helps us see our future

The Touchy-Feely Future Of Technology

This NPR audio and written piece looks at touch screen technology with a perceptive and wide lens.  As smart phones and tablet computers become ever more widespread this thoughtful article begins by looking at the science fiction origins of the idea that we can wave our hands or touch a screen to control a computer.

The author also discusses the implications and applications of touch screen tech in education, science, medicine, and sociology.

This article will help any educator interested in the near future application of technology for e-learning  to think more broadly. Just close your eyes and listen to the podcast.  Stitch together the ideas and prognostications as you imagine what teaching and learning online will look like in the near future.

Its easy for our thinking to get 'siloed' within a particular set of ideas. Our attention  takes narrows focus on specific elements of e-learning and we miss the larger picture.

This article will help you think about what is coming near term in technology. Taking the time to think may help you find where you might fit (now or someday soon).