Automation and Labor Issues

Automation was an on going idea that was proposed in the articles, the positives and the (probable) negatives that could come about from it's use. With the technology of our time it is not impossible to envision a university classroom being totally automated in regards to communications between teacher-student or student-student. There was concern of the process as being abused by the inevitable corporate interests that this kind of "knowledge based" would attract. I also took note that to many professors and students unfamiliar with these practices may interpret an automated classroom as intimidating or the use anything but user-friendly (meaning they would have to go the extra step to be trained for automation).

In Noble's article I found the UCLA student trial interesting because of the results it yielded. Being a student myself and knowing how much I rely on technology, I thought for sure that other students would respond well to an automation system. The UCLA students voted down the initiatives for automation and valued face-to-face instruction better.

There was also the ongoing debate about faculty and if they were expendable. With a technological system as advanced as a fully functioning automated "class" or "major" or "school" then that would also equal many job cuts. People are expensive and last time I checked, software programs worked for free. It's almost like if a school were to introduce an initiative for an automated program, then the faculty affected would be faced with a join-now-and-you'll-lose-your-job-later verses a lose-your-job-outright scenario.