Attack of technology

Well it had to happen sooner or later. It was ten years to this day when my prep school principle, Mr Brady, invited parents and pupils alike to an evening none of us would forget...or so we thought. Over 100 parents and children crammed into the Champagnat Hall (then converted into the prep school library at St Charles College) to hear some IT guru talk about the future of classrooms.

We were balled away to hear that in that coming year (1999 by my estimates) every pupil in St Charles would have an Apple eMate 300.

This personal notebook that was built by Apple to be used by personal assistants and students was going be the arsenal of the student of the future.

I had whet dreams about this technological wonder. With only 1MB of DRAM and 2MB of flash memory it wasn't much to be impressed with but I loved it nonetheless. I had daydreams of lines of SCC boys walking to school with no schools bags but their eMate's in their hands. When we were told to take out writing material we'd instead pull out our eMates and happily type away.

Unfortunately the eMate didn't make it's grand debut at St Charles, instead spending a few months in the library being lent out to boys who don't have PCs at home if not being the personal toy of the senior teachers. My dream was dashed and the techno revolution that was promised by the Apple salesman died at conception.

Imagine my surprise, ten years on, that schools in the United States are going through a phase where online courses, laptops, and virtual teachers are making textbooks, paper and notebooks redundant (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080707/tc_nm/usa_education_technology_dc;_ylt=Ase4bfR_slku9G.ryZS2M8IjtBAF) My dream realised. It has taken years of failed experimentation with Apple iBooks and other laptops for the world's frontrunner in technology to finally hail the coming of the virtual classroom.

The children of this era may be using Apple Macbooks that are far superior than their eMate predessesor, yet the result is almost the same. Classrooms have become the cyber cafes where students are supervised instead of where they are force-fed education. Children can learn those subjects which eeke them out in the most rudimentary way - video games.

The technological revolution is here and my only regret is that I am not in the classroom banging away my english comprehension test on my laptop.