Comments on: What’s in for the New Year? http://futura.edublogs.org/2007/01/01/google-zeitgeist/ technology, libraries, and schools Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:49:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: futura http://futura.edublogs.org/2007/01/01/google-zeitgeist/comment-page-1/#comment-118 futura Tue, 02 Jan 2007 04:49:56 +0000 http://futura.edublogs.org/2007/01/01/google-zeitgeist/#comment-118 I agree about the laptop initiative gaining steam. I think it's unclear yet whether it will be the laptops we now envision or some smaller version that is somewhat more portable, like the new Samsung models seem to forecast. I think electronic textbooks that are "living" entities are going to gain by leaps and bounds, too. Just putting a textbook online isn't enough anymore. It needs to be markable, interactive with web links and easily updatable, too. I wonder why more textbooks aren't considering audible textbooks either, like podcast versions? Some students would find that much more user friendly. I think part of the work involved is that many teachers don't have laptops themselves, so that seems an important step towards moving towards a laptop initiative. I agree about the laptop initiative gaining steam.

I think it’s unclear yet whether it will be the laptops we now envision or some smaller version that is somewhat more portable, like the new Samsung models seem to forecast.

I think electronic textbooks that are “living” entities are going to gain by leaps and bounds, too. Just putting a textbook online isn’t enough anymore. It needs to be markable, interactive with web links and easily updatable, too.

I wonder why more textbooks aren’t considering audible textbooks either, like podcast versions?
Some students would find that much more user friendly.

I think part of the work involved is that many teachers don’t have laptops themselves, so that seems an important step towards moving towards a laptop initiative.

]]> By: Karl Fisch http://futura.edublogs.org/2007/01/01/google-zeitgeist/comment-page-1/#comment-117 Karl Fisch Tue, 02 Jan 2007 04:20:31 +0000 http://futura.edublogs.org/2007/01/01/google-zeitgeist/#comment-117 Just to be clear, 2020 Vision (you can link directly to it at http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/11/2020-vision.html ) was completely made up and should not be construed as actual predictions. As I said in the post, I think some of these things will come to pass and some will not, but most likely the truth will be much stranger than my fiction. In the education space, I think there's a good chance that 1:1 laptop initiatives will really take off in the next 2 years. It will be because of the convergence (to paraphrase Thomas Friedman) of lots of factors: declining price to performance ratios in laptops themselves, finalization of the 802.11n next generation wireless standard (a lot of school IT departments will be waiting on that before deploying full-scale wireless), increasing flat-world pressures, more educators using technology purposefully and well with students, pressure from the $100 laptop project, more web 2.0 goodies, and pressure from the students and parents themselves. I think we all have a lot of work ahead of us to make sure we help students use these tools wisely. Just to be clear, 2020 Vision (you can link directly to it at http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/11/2020-vision.html ) was completely made up and should not be construed as actual predictions. As I said in the post, I think some of these things will come to pass and some will not, but most likely the truth will be much stranger than my fiction.

In the education space, I think there’s a good chance that 1:1 laptop initiatives will really take off in the next 2 years. It will be because of the convergence (to paraphrase Thomas Friedman) of lots of factors: declining price to performance ratios in laptops themselves, finalization of the 802.11n next generation wireless standard (a lot of school IT departments will be waiting on that before deploying full-scale wireless), increasing flat-world pressures, more educators using technology purposefully and well with students, pressure from the $100 laptop project, more web 2.0 goodies, and pressure from the students and parents themselves. I think we all have a lot of work ahead of us to make sure we help students use these tools wisely.

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