A liberating concept- destroying the preconceived technological boundaries between and among the instructors and the instructed. Gardner Campbell speaks in terms of cooperative-educational ideals, but idealism is often necessary to evoke change. If an increased focus on technology is “baked into” the curricula of higher education, and indeed even primary and secondary education, there is untold potential for a growing generation of young minds, burgeoning into their professional adult lives in an increasingly user-generated technocracy. Of course, there are bound to be breakdowns along the way, but how else can true education occur?

I can remember a time in my childhood when I became intrigued with the idea of moving past merely absorbing the boundless contents of the internet and actually contributing to it. The world, however would be spared news of my latest Lego triumphs or my important feelings about the newest episode of The Simpsons because, for the life of me, I couldn’t determine where to start. Sure, there were the prefabricated cookie-cutter outlets like Angelfire and MySpace, but I was looking for something that had personality. Unfortunately, I lacked any technical knowledge whatsoever and asking Jeeves how to get a website and write HTML, let alone, generate interesting content yielded more daunting suggestions than I was ready to accept. Elementary school computer classes did not abet my curiosity, but focused rather on the finer points of MS Word and Math Blaster (an intergalactic arithmetic adventure). Later, formal schooling only offered me the ability to type without looking at the keyboard. In high school, I finally gained enough know-how to create my first web venture, a page championing my favorite follicular phenomenon, sideburns, but I was beaten long before I even started. I will always wish I had pushed myself to discover more independently, as well that more formal “educators” had cast a few rays of light my way. I need to make up for the lost time and, with the help of instructors and peers, become proficient in my “personal cyberinfrastructure.”

Forget about learning anything relevant about computers! Muah-ha-ha!

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