EDUC 8848 Final Project

Emerging Technologies
Examining McLuhan's Tetrad and Thornburg's Six Forces on a school's use of an emerging technology that was obsoleted by another emerging technology, which may be on the way out . . .

For the Resources and Supporting Handouts for this project: Click Here

EDUC 8848 Module 6

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Closing the Global Divide
The question is: What can you do to help make emerging technologies valuable to others, while maintaining gender, cultural, and socioeconomic sensitivity?

Someone, somewhere along this scholarly journey once said that sometimes the best way to argue your point is to argue the counterpoint’s perspective first. I have decided to take this approach and boldly go where few have gone (slight distortion of Star Trek reference).

Soloway, Thornburg, and many others have proposed ideas and strategies to help close the digital divide not only within the U.S. but also globally. My scholarly colleagues, John and Lisa have made some excellent remarks and have posted some great resource links on the bottom of their blog pages which address closing this digital divide.

But for me, the most interesting statement came from Thornburg (Laureate Education, 2009) and is the second part of the opening question: " . . . while maintaining gender, cultural, and socioeconomic sensitivity."

I am all for fairness. I am all for equality. I am not against equal access to help others learn, grow, and achieve their dreams. But, let’s take a step away from this issue for one moment.

My American husband and I went to an Asian man’s funeral. We were the only non-Asians (so to speak because I am Asian, but born in this country) at the post-service buffet style meal. Every male went to the buffet table first. All women stayed seated until all men had gone through the line. Even the widow of the deceased did not approach the table. My American husband and I wanted to scream, “Woman first, especially the widow, what’s the matter with you people!” Of course we didn’t because “men first” is the Korean custom.

The point is why should we put our cultural beliefs on other cultures? Maybe they do not want equity. Maybe some societies still do not want women to have knowledge. Maybe their government’s success relies on having a percentage of poor, uninformed people. Not that I am a supporter of these types of thinking, but I am a supporter of respecting others, of varying perspectives, and of differences. It is almost ironic to me that we strive to support and respect diversity and cultural differences, but we want all cultures to have what we have. Is this like me saying, “Hey, woman should go first” because that’s the way we do it? Furthermore, is advocating digital equity a form of socialism and how do anti-socialists feel about that?

Soloway says every child should have a cell phone in school. But is that pushing his beliefs even on us as Americans?

Yes, in my perfect world, we would all be like Star Trek, where everyone gets along, everyone is equal, and we spend our time learning, thriving, and exploring, instead of fighting. But even Star Trek had a prime directive that stated that the fully developed, technological advanced Star Trek fleet could not interfere with the internal development or path of a society’s course.


Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Diversity and globalism. [DVD]. In emerging and future technology. (Available from MBS Direct Virtual Bookstore, http://www.mbsdirect.net/Index.htm)

Soloway, E. (n.d.). The digital divide: Leveling the playing field. [Podcast]. Laureate Education.
http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=3642809&Survey=1&47=5050260&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Soloway, E. (2009). Get cell phones into schools. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2009/tc20090114_741903.htm

EDUC 8848 Module 5 Post - Red Queens or Black Jack?

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In this week’s studies we are discussing if DVDs and VOD (Video on Demand) are an example of Red Queens or Increasing Returns. Red Queens, according to Thornburg (2008), are when two technologies are dominating the marketplace in a head-to-head fashion. The competition to stay ahead of the other benefits the consumer as the competitors constantly improve the product to stay in the game. (The term Red Queen was derived from the notion of Alice in Wonderland with the Red Queen in hand, running simply to stay in place.)

Increasing returns, according to Arthur(1996) in his article entitled, Increasing Returns and the World of Business is when two
two innovations also begin to compete but one clearly dominates the other into extinction.

I do not think that DVDs and VOD are Red Queens. When VOD services began, DVD rental places such as Blockbuster had to begin adding to their repertoire of services. For example, not quite yet in the VOD stage, when Netflix delivered movies to the house, Blockbuster added that feature.



Then VOD services began to gain popularity including Netflix, and Blockbuster began to offer VOD services.




I do not think DVDs can compete with VOD, and that eventually VOD will eliminate the DVD market. Currently, however, VOD has not completely modeled the increasing returns yet because, in my opinion, of the human factor of ease of use, need for a new piece of technology, need to learn new technology, and because VOD generally involves commitment to a monthly service. Beta, VHS, and DVD players were all generally the same: Insert a media device into a machine, play, FF, Rewind, Stop, eject. The concept of VOD is different. It will take more time for people to move over to the new way. Also, monthly fees may not appeal to many (like myself) who watch only 3 or 4 movies a year.

Red Queens or Black Jack?
Thornburg (2008) warns us not to extrapolate the future from the past, that changes occur in a non-linear, exponential fashion with the appearance of wild cards at any moment. (A wild card, according to Thornburg, is an innovation that seemingly appears unexpectedly from nowhere and takes over the marketplace.) Arthur (1996) discusses his model of increasing returns and the new management style needed to accommodate this new business model. In Arthur’s discussion, he uses the analogy of gambling at a casino.

Using Thornburg’s reference to cards (Red Queen) and warning about wild cards and using Arthur’s gambling analogy, I propose that perhaps VOD could even lose to Black Jack. Black Jack basically trumps all. So a Black Jack innovation could simply trump all in the video marketplace and could be easy to use, easy to learn, convenient, not requiring learning complicated technology, and appealing to all. Black Jack is like Thornburg's wild card, but in this analogy, it may not be a complete surprise out of nowhere. Also, the term "Black Jack" has the connotative meaning of "I win!"

McLuhan’s Tetrad
In the end, I do believe that currently, VOD is beginning to replace DVDs, yet both have similarities in McLuhan’s Tetrad. Below I have put the DVD into a Social Tetrad and the VOD into a technology tetrad.







References

Arthur, W. B. (1996). Increasing returns and the new world of business. Harvard Business Review, 74(4), 100−109.

Thornburg, D. (2008c). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.