Cyberpedagogy

Abstract

In the last two decades, everyday life in post-industrial societies has shifted from a wired to an increasingly wireless world. Cell phones have given us a new kind of mobility and freedom to send messages or talk to anyone from anywhere, to check our e-mail, access the web, or locate others by activating global tracking systems. Online shopping, banking, entertainment and travel reservations, and educational courses–they are all just a click away whether on the wired or wireless keyboard or cell phone touchpad. Anyone, anywhere, can now communicate and access information as long as the user has a computer and access codes to wireless networks (WLAN), or a modem, electricity and a cable or phone line which, needless to say, excludes twothirds of the world’s population. In the brave new digital world, everyone is said to have access to more information than ever before, which many ICT enthusiasts herald as the democratization of knowledge and information. Interactivity has broken the tyranny of the passive user (whether of magazines, books, or TV), as the cybernaut is now in charge of when and what is viewed and read. Connectivity has broken the tyranny of distance and time as instant electronic access to information and people located anywhere around the globe shrinks time and space. ATMs, internet, and phone banking have liberated us from the drudgery and “time waste” of banking queues. Online education courses enable students any time and from anywhere to log on and move through menued choices at their own pace and leisure.Wired or wireless–our everyday routines, social relations, cultural activities, and frames of reference have been irrevocably changed by digital technologies and global connectivity.