The founder of the Discovery Channel, John Hendricks, is now planning a new foray into discovery — developing the virtual documentary. He says that with virtual reality technology advancing so rapidly, he wants to be ready to offer viewers virtual documentaries on everything from the Antarctic to the last of the Bengal tigers. “It’s really almost here” he enthuses. “The materials for headsets are becoming more lightweight and the hardware and software involved are being simplified almost daily, so that in a few years anyone should be able to sit…
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Is Technology Ruining Education?
Joy Ransom teaches English at Boston University, and she is beginning to despair of ever fully gaining her student’s attention during classroom instruction. The reason, as she sees it, is technology. “I have a rule that students must turn off their cell phones during class, and if they don’t and the class is interrupted by their cell phone ringing or sounding an alarm they have to read an extra 20 pages in whatever piece of literature we’re studying at the time. But in the end that’s counter-productive. I want my…
Technology to Save a Trip to the Doctor’s Office
You suspect you have high cholesterol, or want to know how fertile you and your spouse are. That means a trip to the doctor’s office, and then maybe a long wait. But new technology company EverlyWell is gearing up to help people make one less trip to the doctor by offering home test kits for things like lipids and lack of vitamin D. The kits are made of the latest lightweight recyclable plastic, and cost almost nothing to ship. The kits are mailed directly to the home address, with simple…