Dave, et. al.,
I was directly involved in people learning to use and maintain a great
variety of equipment for a bunch of years, and I certainly don't doubt that
equipment has become simpler to maintain; that's often the case. I also saw
great frustration from people who used equipment and either didn't know how
or didn't want to learn how (a LOT of people do not feel comfortable with
fixing ANYthing. Anything.); they just wanted to be able to DO things.
I am sympathetic to the idea of kids connecting more intuitively to the
equipment...at least SOME kids. Remember, MANY kids aren't that way! It's a
brain development thing.
So how do *the rest of us* manage? Remember when the Mac was created,
ostensibly for "the rest of us"? Even today, in my much more limited
connection to electronic technology, I field email from people who are
asking me questions such as, "Why is the web page on my screen bigger than
the screen? It won't all fit on there!"
And this is not an uncommon level of question. My point is that we can
*pretend* all we want that people, especially "young people" (who get
everything!) will just "get it" and things will be fine. That is a setup for
failure designed to serve the limited view of people who are designing
something they want to have out there and they don't have a solution for
this other stuff, so they merely explain it away. I don't buy it. It not
only sets up such a project for failure, but the message then is that the
PEOPLE are failures for not being able to figure it out.
As for the limitations of the ipod as a training too, I agree. Part of the
appeal of it for me is its size. It is so small and easy to lug around and
you have dongles to connect to everything else. it is the universal hard
drive that connects to other less portable media to do stuff. It's not the
holy grail, by far. I also really like the mpeg players that are built into
wireless phones. They are a little bulkier but they offer triple
functionality: phone, ipod and internet for web and mail. and they don't
require a wired network infrastructure.
For the moment, I am wanting to see what can happen with a bunch of ipods.
they are cheap, light, small, etc. I mean, I don't even own one, but I have
seen enough to think there is more than coolness happening. It feels a
little like early Google.
Steve Snow
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave A. Chakrabarti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [DDN] Nicholas Negroponte- ISTE NECC Speech
<stuff snipped for space>
Stephen,
The Ipod is definitely an intriguing tool for training (I should
convince my boss to buy me one for, er, training purposes). I'm
wondering how long it'll be before someone comes up with a Linux distro
that'll run on it, or before Apple releases OSipod, adds wifi, and takes
over the mobile computing market in one swoop.
For the price, I'm actually not sure the Ipod's the best educational
tool (though it has "cool" value in attracting users to it). A little
more than a video Ipod will buy you a mobile tablet that will not only
play audio and video but also connect you to the internet, handle office
documents, email, etc. This strikes me as a more useful tool for all
kinds of training...
<snip>
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