Looking Back and Looking Forward — This Time the Web 3.0 Revolution is Real

(Looking Back and Looking Forward takes a look at the articles and posts I found interesting from the previous week, along with reflections about how the trends they point to might shape my thinking about education, technology, and culture.)

You know that a technology revolution has occurred when there is a new wave of technology-led behavior that permeates diverse aspects of people’s lives across a broad spectrum of society.

Printing Press? Yes

Radio and television? Yes.

Telephony? Yes.

Computers? Yes.

The Internet? Yes.

Smartphones? Yes.

Cryptocurrency? Not so much.

In recent years, Silicon Valley investors and startups have pushed blockchain and cryptocurrencies as the “next big thing,” the foundation of Web 3.0. Tow what end? Bleh. Just another hyped idea looking for more money.

Meanwhile, just a few months after a more public rollout of ChatGPT4 and other generative AI products, it is quite clear that (1) the age of AI integrated into daily life has indeed arrived, and (2) it will bring about another technology revolution, just as impactful as the revolutions before it.

I like this explanation that Vicki Davis gives to her students.

Web 1.0 – the read-only web – We searched the web.
Web 2.0 – the read-write web – We went into the web and began writing and posting and sharing our lives on the web.
Web 3.0 – the semantic web – The web comes into the world around us and it became something we converse and interact with in the world as we know it.

On the learning and education front, there are a couple of important implications. First is the fact that, as with the advent of the Internet and search, we will see (or need to) an enhanced emphasis on teaching students how to find, validate, and manipulate information as opposed to memorizing it. This will undoubtedly be a challenge to educational institutions, as teachers/instructors adapt to integrating generative AI into their curricula and pedagogy. As George Siemens pointed out recently, “the future of universities will be determined by what we as a society are able to do with information. Technology creates new ways of being and acting that existing systems are slow to incorporate.” The same can be said about the future value of K-12 academies. How will we move toward an education system that teaches frameworks for learning and learning tools that can be adapted to different fields of study? How will we determine what foundational knowledge any person needs to have in order to use these tools?

Sorry, but digital literacy as we currently think about is going bye-bye.

Generative AI will also have a major impact on professional certifications and continuing education. As technology and information continue to evolve/expand with increasing velocity, professional certifications and certificates will necessarily need to incorporate and assess a learner’s ability to continue learning effectively on the job through the use of AI tools. Information literacy will be redefined to some extent and play a prominent role in professional (and social) mobility.

In addition, AI and Web 3.0 will force us to redefine the boundaries between what specialists need to know and what everyone else needs to know about technology and, well, almost everything. I can think of many learning experiences that contributed to my formation, but many most of those experiences — from memorizing bibliographic citation formats to learning basic animation techniques — will become irrelevant in the new world.

By the way, if you’re new to the generative AI scene and what to learn more about ChatGPT-4 capabilities, you might enjoy this awesome-GPT-4 GitHub page.

Buckle up and have a great week, everybody!

Looking Back and Looking Forward — This Time the Web 3.0 Revolution is Real

Further Reading

Higher Education

Workforce

Online Learning, Learning Design, and Education Technology

Technology and Culture