Tablets and higher education

I believe Tablets are way more than super PDA's or laptops with pen input. Their vertical format is a big plus. This opens up a possibility that tablets could be a tool that could replace textbooks and enable textbooks to include time based media. IMHO the big problem with e-Books, as they were first implemented, was implementation of them on computers that included such non-book things as horizontal formats. Having keyboards on on a laptop or notepad made e-Books much less convenient than books, even when trying to view a page as a vertical. This is not an issue with a tablet.

Also, tablets could replace paper notepads. Paper notepads are still the standard note taking tool during class lectures. For a lot of folks today paper notepads are a better way to take notes during lectures than laptop computers based upon keyboard input. Some people don’t keyboard as well as they write, plus keyboarding limits people to just text input. Tablets are better than laptops because of the ability to input data in dynamic ways. As well as inputting text you can draw, and circle text and objects. With a tablet computer you can create objects and draw lines between things that define relationship as you input. You can embed time based media, such as sound or video clips into your notes. Isn't that what multimedia is all about? A tablet computer is more portable than a laptop and it is like having a built in Wacom pad. I think notepads can do for input what graphical displays did for output.

I think that tablets could replace laptops. They include the ability to do what laptops do and so much more. With docking ability they can function as a tablet, a laptop and a desktop! It is hard to use a laptop while standing and walking. This limitation forces us to design labs with students anchored to chairs. This, in turn, limits collaboration.

I think tablet computers are real "disruptive technology" (as defined by Clayton Christensen in his book the Innovator's Dilemma) that just needs vision and evangelism to take off.  I am really looking forward to getting my hands on one and showing folks what I think it can do!

Scoble news and views

In his blog "Scobelizer" Robert Scoble talks about Technorati Tags he also is on a recent Gillmor Gang show with Steve Gillmor. I will definitely have to check all of this out! Also, I am interested in the MacTablet petition that Bob mentioned in a recent post. When I talk to our Apple rep about that, he does not seem to think there would be much demand for such a product. As I have mentioned before here, the lack of a MacTablet is a particular frustration of mine. I hope a lot of folks sign the petition!

Last, Bob's 40th birthday is coming up on the 18th. Perhaps then I will write the story of the nice lady named Kathy who came up with the name Scobelized, when she said in distress, "help, I have been Scobelized!" This was back when Bob worked for me, back in the day, at SJSU.

I can't imagine Bob is 40

Favorite MacWorld 2005 stuff

My favorite cool things at Mac World 2005 are...

• DiskStudio
  Think Partition Magic for the Mac!
• iPod Shuffle
  Man this is great for Podcasting!
• Mac Mini
  Think Mac Appliance, stuff a mac in a corner, put a mac server in your home DMZ, great soho web server!

Great stuff all!

MacWorld 2005, Where is...

...the rest of the show?
Honey, who shrunk the MacWorld? I went over to the north hall to see the rest of the show, only to only discover there was no there there.

...the posters?
It is hard to believe Apple announced a new computer and there was no poster at the show! What is up with that?

...Quark?
They are at the show! After so many times not being there it was great to see them there! WOW! Then I met Shellie Hall, a Product Marketing Specialist for Quark and she was really nice and helpful.

Live from MacWorld 2005

Live from MacWorld. I am sitting in the hallway blogging from the floor. So far, it has been a good show. The new Mac Mini is a great box and should open up some good options to deploy Macs as appliances. It is almost the size of an OQO? If they can get this close, why not go all the way? A Mac OS OQO would be great!

I am frustrated that somebody leaked the news about this year's Apple new product releases. It is kinda like having your bigger sibling tell you what your getting for Christmas.

Once again, my "where-is?" list for MacWorld:

• Where is the Mactablet?
• Where is the video iPod?

Susie and I watched the keynote in the comfort of our living room via an Apple stream. Is it available via download? If not, why not? This would have been a cool thing to videocast!

I missed connecting with Michael Eakes at Rojo. There was a time mixup and I went down the wrong street in the city. By the time I got there I had missed our connection.

Fooey!

Beyond RSS readers - Attention.xml

RSS readers allow you to aggregate a lot of content of weblogs (and other changable web content) into a compact and concise list of entries that can be quickly scanned allowing you to sift through a pile of information quickly. But, with the explosive growth of the web and real-time web content, even RSS and RSS aggregation may not be enough for educators needing to stay up to date in their field. How do you get through the stack of data to get to the needles of critical information? The answer may be attention.xml!

Tantek Celik is among many working on this new specification that looks at solving this problem. According to a developers forum on Technorati's website:

Attention.XML is an open standard, built on open source, that helps you keep track of what you've read, what you're spending time on, and what you should be paying attention to.

This is something worth keeping an eye on. And, if anybody can do this, it is Tantek and the folks at Technorati!  These folks are really sharp.

Recommended Blogger!

Here is a good blog to check out. This is Michael Eakes blog and he is a great source of information on some emerging technology ideas. He is responsive, energetic and enthusiastic about new ideas for technology and social networking. I met Michael at the Scoble dinner and have been in contact with him since.

XFN, Nvu, FURL and Overload! Musings on new technologies

I am using a new editor for creating blog entries. It is a freeware program called Nvu. So far, I am very impressed with it! The thing I like about the most is that it supports XFN! The other day I was talking to SJSU professor Dennis Dunleavy. He told me about FURL. This is another exciting technology worth looking into! It is all so much, so exciting and so hard to keep up with. I remember listening to Robert Scoble's talk at Bloggercon III on overload. I think the world of Bob, but I don't know how he does it. I can't generate a fourth of the material, or have half of the depth of knowledge, that he does.

New Geek dinner photos here!

Here are some new photos from Bob Scoble's geek dinner last month.
It was great fun!

Click on the photo above to see more pictures from the dinner and the party after.

Great time at Geek Dinner!

I had a great time at the Bob Scoble's Geek Dinner last night in San Francisco! I talked to a lot of very smart people who were very generous with their time. I learned that a Technorati is not an Italian sports car with a lot of gizmos and that some of the folks I had previously only read about are really nice people. Here is a posting by Thomas Hawk whom I spent a lot of time talking with. We had a great conversation! It is pretty informative and links to a great photo of Bob (and friends!)

Matthew Mullenweg was very generous in opening up his home for a party after the dinner! Too much fun. These are folks who attended:

Robert Scoble | Steve Gillmor | Steve Sloan | Dori Smith | Farida Paramita | Michael Eakes | Dan Gould | Christopher Carfi | Masha Solorzano | Scott Rafer | Dan Farber | Lisa Canter | Marc Canter | Mimi Canter | Lucy Canter | Lyndon Wong | Ron Lichty | Tom Conrad | Marc Novakowski | Pierre Wolff | Nadeem Bitar | Kaliya Hamlin | Brian Hamlin | Ian Jones | Nicole Lee | Kevin Marks | Thomas Hawk | Neal Drumm | Tony Chang | Zack Rosen | Kieran Lal | Jasmeet Singh | Jason DeFillippo | Ian Kallen | Kevin Burton | Brad Neuberg | Renee Blodgett | Jeff Minard | Om Malik | June Parina | David Sifry | Jonas M Luster | Micah Alpern | eleanor kruszewski | Jim Grisanzio | Tantek Celik | Rebecca Eisenberg | Curtis Smolar | Russell Beattie