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The <em>real</em> future of Java

Where are we going with Java, and who is going to take us there?

By Miko Matsumura, JavaWorld.com, 01/15/98

I know the future of the Internet. Her name is Janet. See Janet boot the computer. See Janet run a browser. See Janet navigate to the Children's Television Workshop site. Run browser, run! See Janet download executable content. When Janet starts school, she will learn how to read the words on Tickle Me Elmo's home page. Janet is just 3 years old. Janet is the future of the Internet.

When we think about the future of Java, we are often constrained by thoughts of how we do things today. Most of our fanciful visions tend to be couched in barely disguised versions of our world as it is now. I know that when my own imagination falls short, it is due to my complete inability to synthesize the collective mass of changes to come. What we should realize, though, is that our world houses a significant population of people whose imaginations aren't limited by old ways of doing things -- children.

Imagine the world they are growing up in today: one where their schools are connected to the Internet and Barney, thanks to his new partnership with Bill Gates, talks to the TV. This latter example, a new product called ActiMates Barney, is a Barney doll controlled by a radio beacon attached to the television. Coded programs cause Barney to wake up and move around -- kinda scary if you ask me; too much like the movie Videodrome or that episode of Twilight Zone where the "Talking Tina" doll kills the whole family. But I digress. Today's parents worry about what their kids access on the Internet, but are about as successful at filtering it as they are at programming the family VCR. Let's face it, in many modern households, kids tend to the technical matters while adults deal with the small stuff -- like bringing home the bacon and frying it up on Sunday mornings.

Java in education

Most discussions of Java in education focus on the number of schools teaching Java. Scores of institutions have jumped on the Java bandwagon, and more are sure to follow. But Java is not limited to Ivy Halls alone. In the realm of computer-based training, MindQ has made a splash with its interactive Java training series. And Academy97, an online instruction academy (Java Web Server driven, no less!), offers a complete compile and execute environment contained within the browser!

It is clear that Java is becoming a basic tool of computer science and it is important that our children be equipped with the ability to exploit it to its fullest potential, but the possibilities of Java in education go way beyond computer science.

Before joining the computer industry, I spent four and a half years teaching and developing cutting-edge Internet tools at the Branson School. My summers are still devoted to teaching, but now I teach teachers how to program Java. I have great faith in the use of technology in education, and I strongly believe in the potential of Java as an educational tool. Educational Java applets explain far more than static Web pages, and I'm not the only one who thinks so! Educator and Java developer Gerald de Jong has tested his belief that Java plays an important role in education with his Elastic Interval Geometry Web site, which shows off high-level geometrical theories and concepts using Java. But, of course, creating such high-level applets is the domain of programmers, not teachers and students -- right?

 

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