This is what technology should do!
Technology should be a seamless enhancement to daily life. One of the reasons I buy only laptop computers is that I don't want to have a lot of space dedicated to supporting a computer. In fact, as soon as I get ahead of the game I'm going to work on getting my house wired to stream media and data anywhere I need it. With any luck Microsoft's Ultra-Mobile PC concept will herald the eventual death of the PC as we've come to know it.
Yahoo! News reports another college is using information technology to enhance the way classes are constructed:
"Administrators at Pennsylvania's Mansfield University want to use podcasts broadcast messages that can be downloaded to iPods and other players to recruit high schoolers to the 3,000-student campus. The school also used a podcast to address student and faculty concerns after a New York man who had contracted anthrax visited campus with a dance troupe."Sure, students have recorded classes before now. Think back to the scene in Real Genius (1985) when the character Mitch Taylor noticed that the number of tape recorders increased over time in proportion to the decrease in students in attendance. Mansfield's use is more pervasive and signals the paradigm is being redefined.
Mobile phones gradually becoming portable data devices is where we will likely see greater development. Third generation (3G) networks now in place and expanding allow high speed movement of data further heralding the slow demise of traditional PCs and laptops. I'm looking forward to it.
