"The Profession" Written By Isaac Asimov: What He Got Wrong and the Growing Market for Personal Devices in the Educational Sector

The story Nine Tomorrows portrays a world society where author Isaac Asimov fears that technology, specifically computers, will control society and hinder education. He believes that technology will educate people “effortlessly” with computer programs. He is also concerned that reading textbooks will become absolute, which in his eyes is a dramatic program without education. I strongly agree that technology has changed the way students obtain information. Students that have papers due use websites such as Google Scholar and rarely use actual textbooks. Isaac Asimov also believes that using technological innovation for education is detrimental to the educational process; he is concerned that people will not obtain information from books. I completely disagree with him and believe the complete opposite. Finding information online is a much quicker process compared to sorting through textbooks to find information one may need. Personally, over the past four years in college I can count on one hand how many times I actually used a textbook for a research paper, excluding paper topics stemming directly from the textbooks required by the professor.

Educational institutions across the country are evaluating the amount of money that is wasted on purchasing hard copies of textbooks, as well as the educational value that they can bring. Not only are they more expensive, but also using electronic books makes it much easier for students to complete the readings. The state of California is one example of public school systems that have switched from standard textbooks to electronic versions. Using electronic books is the foundation of how technology is going to change the concept of schooling throughout the nation. This will make the education system less expensive and more efficient.

Universities throughout the country have been evaluating the educational benefits of supplying their students with devices such as the Iphone and Ipad. Seton Hill University in Greensburg Pennsylvania began supplying their students with Apple’s Ipad in September 2010. The Ipad allows students to download versions of their textbooks, take notes and share files. I believe this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to colleges and universities supplying their students with comparable technologies. Over the next couple of years as the economy becomes stronger and endowments are replenished from pre 2008 levels more Universities are going to implement similar programs to enhance their students’ educational experiences.

I think that Isaac Asimov made some very good predictions and was very accurate with a lot the assumptions that were made. The problem that I have with his theories is that he views the innovations in computers and technology as a negative rather then a positive. The innovation in technology over the past fifty years has been incredible. Technology has made it much easier for people to acquire information, which is opposite to what Asimov said would occur when people stopped reading books. Personally, I am much more knowledgeable of the world and financial information because of applications that I can download and access on my cell phone.

I believe that it is safe to say that the advancement in computers and personal devices that have occurred over the past few years is only going to increase. It will be crucial for companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple to release products that are incredibly innovative in order to maintain their strong market position. I believe that over the next few years the market for these devices will begin to trickle into the educational sector. Companies will even begin creating software and special features specially intended for educational use. It is market that is not fully capitalized, where there is a lot of room for growth.