The Desktop Revolution in Education

By Brian Jorgensen

Over the past two decades, desktop computing has brought the power of technology out of the laboratory and into the daily lives of people throughout the world. Even more recently, desktop computing has emigrated from the realm of convenience into the realm of dependency.

This dependency is not a bad thing—computers will always be around for those who depend on them. If anything, they will become more and more embedded in society. “Googling” has already superceded visiting the library as the number one research technique among students and professionals alike. Is this to say that today’s students are untrained in actual research? Not at all. The sheer convenience of the search engine has turned it into an indispensable tool which has proved itself to be more efficient than the Dewey decimal system—not to mention the availability of a search engine contrasted with a frequently closed library!

Educators have made noteworthy strides to meet the rising generation of technophiles within the school systems. However, as a member of this generation, I recognize and absolve their shortcomings. The full potential of technology as an educational platform will most likely not be realized until the members of this rising generation become the educators, the parents, and the taxpayers. Only then, armed with a priori knowledge of a modern education, will the leaders of our school systems realize the full extent of the desktop platform as an essential educational tool.

When this reform finally does occur in schools throughout the country and the world, the benefits will be far-reaching. Students will not be any less informed in math or science; they will simply learn it more efficiently through a new platform. They will not neglect history; they will experience it being brought to life in a virtual setting. The more ambitious students will teach themselves to program computers in their spare time out of interest. They will learn at school how to use tools which will make new abstractions possible—they will discover new things that will make their elders say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” The peer-to-peer file sharing phenomenon has done this. Napster, created by a college student, has created a whole new industry underneath the recording industry.

Another beneficial byproduct of technological advancements is that users of desktop technology no longer need to understand the underlying system to use it. This separation is welcomed because the result is improved accessibility for otherwise un-savvy users. Desktop software is developed with its graphical user interface as a top priority to accommodate those who are less computer literate.

This lack of understanding of inner-workings is not a hindrance to people who are learning to use desktop systems. Simply using software has become a skill in and of itself. Although software skills are now a necessity in the business world, they can be seen as much more than simply vocational skills specific to a field. Software skills are life skills. They are of as much importance as the knowledge of writing an expository essay, or changing a tire.