A Unique Winter Holiday

Schools in our city have been using a variety of technologies to improve their students’ learning experience.

If it had not been for COVID-19, Tom Watkins would have been in China, serving as the China partner and managing director of WAY American Schools, a private US school using the internet to teach students in China and offering them an American High School Diploma program.

Watkins is enthusiastic about education. As early as in 2005, he has written an article on e-learning reform. “I recall the blank stares I encountered both in the United States and China in the early 2000s when I attempted to introduce e-learning into the mainstream,” said Watkin. “There was little appetite to be early adopters of this teaching method in public and private schools in the United States and across the globe.”

Then suddenly, online learning has popped into the spotlight. In an initiative in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Michigan, to support its newly enrolled graduate students in China, allows students to join the University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute to take UM courses remotely.

In Watkins’ eyes, e-learning has its advantages, the most important of which are greater flexibility, personalized learning and globalization of education. By e-learning, one can learn 24 hours a day and seven days a week, access the study content an unlimited number of times, and easily tap global educators. If e-learning becomes a norm in the next few years, it may lead to restructuring, reform and reinventing in teaching and learning, Watkins said.

And the benefits are particularly concrete under the current circumstances when the pandemic is still ongoing. As the global pandemic has made it increasingly difficult for students to travel globally, the use of remote learning has enabled teaching and learning to continue without interruption. “When COVID-19 struck, wise policymakers and educators wasted little time casting blame or cursing the darkness but reached for new technology tools to enable quality teaching and learning to continue,” he said.

The Metaverse(元宇宙): The Future of Web Design and Development?

To many, the Metaverse might seem like this is something that is still far from becoming a reality. To others, it is the inevitable future of web design and development.

The Metaverse is an ambitious project that seeks to bring together many different web development and HiTech technologies in order to offer users a new experience of the web. Today, users view content on the web. On the Metaverse, users will be immersed(沉浸在)in the content thanks to technologies like Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Machine Learning, and other forms of Artificial Intelligence.

In brief, it is the next iteration(迭代)of the Internet where users will be able to navigate through a virtual space instead of the current two-dimensional screens. Although much has been said about it, there is still much that needs to be done, and this is both an opportunity and a challenge. Whatever the case is, it is the future of web design, and companies need to start thinking about how to reap the benefits of it.

One of the most important implications of this upgraded version of the web is the impact it will have on apps and websites. The rise of the Metaverse will not eliminate digital products as we currently know them. On the contrary, it will most likely be the case that both will coexist in new and more powerful forms.

This means that business websites will not become obsolete(淘汰的). As a matter of fact, they will probably become more relevant. Traditional websites will probably end up coexisting with the Metaverse, creating synergies(协同作用)that benefit users and businesses alike.

Aside from the impact on business websites, it is also important to consider operational aspects like the changes in the role of the typical web designer and developer. Digital product teams will have to rethink the tech stacks(一大推)they use in order to build interfaces and experiences for the user journeys coming our way.

Business decision-makers need to understand this and allow their teams to experiment with what might be the future of web experiences for users. Yes, it is a risky bet, but this is something that is gaining a lot of strength, and we might be hearing more about it sooner than we expect.

As mentioned above, traditional websites and other digital products aren’t going anywhere, but they surely need to be reworked in terms of what is expected of the future of web design.