Acceso usuarios
Chris Dede
The two articles that follow this introduction articulate visions for smart objects and intelligent contexts in education. The authors of these articles are alumni of Harvard's master's degree program in Technology, Innovation, and Education who took courses from me in 2007. The articles are shortened versions of papers those students wrote for those courses; together, they provide interesting, complementary perspectives on the development of ubiquitous computing for teaching and learning. My brief introduction frames the ideas in those articles within the larger context of federal and corporate investments in sophisticated information and communications technologies.
As the articles describe, ubiquitous computing is a different way of conceptualizing the interface between computers, networks, and people. In this vision of the future, tiny computers are embedded into nearly every artifact and setting, networked so that they intercommunicate. For example, a tree in Harvard Yard might be tagged with information about its botanical characteristics; the tree might also offer to show an historic image of Harvard Yard about the time it was planted or to describe the contribution it makes to reducing local pollution and greenhouse gases.
