"Future Shock"

Steven submitted the following:

"Immersed presently in the study of eLearning/Instructional Design, after having completed graduate education a number of decades ago, I hearken back to high school days (even more decades ago!) where our required reading in English one semester was a book called Future Shock, by 'futurist' Alvin Toffler.  The gist of the book, as I recall, was (and still is) that not only are things changing, but they are changing at an ever increasing rate of change. The things that were changing were technology and social structure.

Instructional Design has its roots in learning theories of education that came originally from philosophy, sociology and the once (and still) emerging fields of education as a distinct subject. Computers brought in the need for 'eLearning' and so the 'design' in Instructional Design came to include visual and audio elements that can reach and engage a learner distant in space and time.  

Developments in web-based, and cloud based content delivery now compete with the initially 'designed' eLearning module -- and social media allow interaction between learner and instructor, which can carry the learning experience to a new dimension.  

See at this link, wherein mention is made of educator and author Neil Postman apparently having first used 'future shock as a way of describing the social paralysis induced by rapid technological change.'  

The challenge now, in eLearning/Instructional design (and in life), is to minimize the 'Shock' while embracing and capitalizing on the 'Future' as best we can!"