Killer Apps in University Education

There are killer apps for drawing people away from school: messaging, Skype, email, not to speak of whatever else is available on the net.

Probably the biggest killer ap is the search browser--for finding stuff and for detecting copying of various sorts. Imagine the compliance officer checking faculty member's CV for accuracy and the articles listed as being authored then being screened through Turnitin.

Students use email to tell people about what is going on in class, so in one class I believe a student emailed an administrator that I was giving curriculum advice,during that class. For during that class I received an email from the administrator wondering if I should be doing that. This is not Big Brother--this is Big Idiocy.

Similarly, if you have a microphone or a webcam on your computer (and webcams are now ubiquitous on laptops, and often even on desktops), people can remotely turn them on and so observe you. Well equipped classrooms now can become broadcasting stations, whether or not the occupants are aware of that or not.

Pornography was supposedly the killer app for VCR, for DVD, for videotape cameras at the higher end so that you can make higher quality motion pictures and now for HD cameras and for manycameras like the Canon 5D Mark II that allow for quality video recording with terrific lenses.

The San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles is the center of pornography production and so we ought find lots of these devices and the needed copying and editing equipment in this area. Since pornography would seem to have low production costs compared to sales, improved equipment that makes a difference will be readily purchased. The cost of equipment is immaterial, it would seem.
Dating and searching for hookups is now done on-line with the supplement of Skype-ing to be sure that what you claim about yourself is accurate.

It makes sense to cover the lens of your webcam and perhaps disable the microphone on your computer (I'm not sure this is possible nondestructively.) since others can turn them on remotely.



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