The ultimate rose-colored glasses

egocasting pp. Reading, watching, and listening only to media that reflect one's own tastes or opinions. wordspy.com

Daniel Wilson, in his Popular Mechanic's article "10 Genius Inventions We're Still Waiting For":

Augmented Reality
Kids’ knees and noggins can be protected with padding and helmets—but how do we safeguard their delicate minds? The answer may lie with Augmented Reality (AR), a technology that combines sights and sounds of the real world with virtual information. AR eyeglasses could detect inappropriate sights and remove them from view, while AR-enabled earbuds would delete ambient cursing. Meanwhile, adults might wear glasses that substitute blessed blank space for roadside billboards, television commercials and the annoying corporate names on most stadiums. Professor Jie Yang of the interACT research center at Carnegie Mellon University recently laid the groundwork for this technology. His prototype digital camera picks out street signs and billboards from a scene and translates their text to another language. Next on his to-do list, we hope: figuring out a way to translate obnoxious on-hold music into songs we actually like. 

The ultimate in rose-colored glasses - or goggles. Put these on and all the "unpleasantness" in the world simply goes away. Gee, let's blank out not just commercials, but:

• people who are too fat or too thin
  
• people who are a different race or religion or culture
  
• poor people, street people, scary people
• any person with a pimple, scar or wart
  
• boys wearing those baggy pants that show their drawers
• people with bad hair
  

I can see this list might get very, very long... 

Here's the scary thing. Are people who egocast already using a "reality filter?" How much do any of us look only for like minds in the blogs we read, speakers we invite to our conferences, or journals we study and cite? Do we only work with the other teachers in our schools who share our educational beliefs?

I thought about this as the LWW headed out this fine spring day to tend her beloved flower gardens. Wouldn't it just be ever so much easier to wear glasses that would block the weeds than to take the time to pull them ?

Put a blogger you disagree with in your feed today. Read a real newspaper. Talk to the social studies teacher who lectures and hates computers.

Comments

[Betty]

I love this post. Blog commenters sometimes remind me of being in high school. They have their friends and only respond to those they like and know. It's like being one of the popular people. Going outside one's comfort zone is a way to make new friends and learn how others think.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Betty,

Thanks for the comment.

I think I wrote this to remind myself that I need to go "outside my comfort zone" as much as I did for my readers. It's tough reading those people with whom you are not philosophically aligned - especially when they make a good point!

All the very best,

Doug

[Artichoke]

Doug ... thanks for this post is the most perfect elaboration of my thinking this week about discusssions we seldom hear at e learning conferences ...

[Doug Johnson]

Thanks, Artichoke.

I hope every Blue Skunk reader follows up on your link. The post is great!

All the very best,

Doug