A Shifting Landscape

Lenovo ThinkPad

I've been guiding work on a major technology plan since midsummer.  Major decisions are impending on curriculum, cloud hosting, ebooks, and teacher training.  But the centerpiece of the study has been the road map for our 1:1 computing program.  And the biggest immediate decision concerns the device we will use next year on our journey.

It's incredible how fast the computing world around us has been moving.  Since we started this study . . . .

* Our current provider, HP, has plotted to leave and then later after firing its CEO,  support its hardware division.

* We examined three HP Touch Pads that were discontinued shortly after they arrived.

* We just received a cool Lenovo ThinkPad tablet that was only released a few weeks ago.

* We saw an iPad2 demonstration knowing full well that if adopted we would likely be using iPad3 by next school year.

And of course the laptop market is evolving as well.  We have too many choices and too little certainty.  All this convulsiveness is exciting but stressful.  Essentially we can barely see the future as it may appear a year from now, let alone what  it will look like when our incoming freshwomen will graduate

Crisp September Links on Touch Devices

Amazon Challenges iPad's Dominance

While Bezos is looking to battle Apple in the tablet market, he is also mimicking the company's focus and its founder . . .Steve Jobs.

http://bit.ly/on8lLM

 

MIT Researchers Use iPhones to Detect Cataracts
Here’s another way the iPhone is revolutionizing medicine — it’s now a cheap, portable tool for detecting cataracts, the leading cause of blindness worldwide.


http://bit.ly/rkj9Br




HP Shutters web OS Phones and Touch Pad
Turn out the lights on webOS as HP is discontinuing all devices running its OS acquired from Palm for $1.2 billion. This includes all phones and the just released TouchPad tablet.


http://zd.net/ppJ6yG 

Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

 Amazon.com "is on the verge of introducing its own tablet, analysts predict, a souped-up color version of its Kindle e-reader that will undercut the iPad in price and aim to steal away a couple of million in unit sales by Christmas.


http://nyti.ms/pLFEFt

Ipod Touch Resources

The iPod Touch and iPad are very user friendly. However, there are still tips and tricks you can use to make better use of your mobile device.

http://bit.ly/mGxsf4

The iPad's Cool but It's No Substitute for a Real Laptop

I've been using and loving Apple laptops as my main digital work platforms since 1996, and have been an iPad 2 owner for just going on eight weeks, but early days though it may be, I have to say the alleged iPad "magic" continues to elude me.

http://bit.ly/pfRq67

Analysts:  The iPod is Dying
The nail in the coffin may have been Apple’s recent decision to replace the iPod touch as its back-to-school discount workhorse with a $100 iTunes discount card.


http://bit.ly/qpDw3Z

Mac OS X surges in business, thanks to the iPad

Research shows that Apple is growing significantly in the enterprise as more companies offer it as an option to employees -- and as most employees take up the offer.

http://bit.ly/ribcnE

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Flickr CC Photo by Mark Adsit

Front Burner Techie Projects

Flickr CC Photo by basb

I am a project oriented person, and for better or for worse I tend to have three or four things going at once.  I find that I manage this pretty well until about two-thirds of the way through.  Sometimes I then get a little bored and let my mind drift to new projects. Not this time!  I am very geeked about the following techie initiatives that I can pursue as an administrator:


* Developing our school web site to incorporate a "Student Show Case" and integrate all of our sports teams' information.

* Deploying M-Hub so that students can use our web site to find  school community "experts" for career, project, and college search information.

* Developing coherent and robust curriculum for video instruction (long range)

*And the grandaddy of them all: conduct a thorough review of our school's technology use through surveys and focus groups as part of a project to take our technology infrastructure and tools into the future.

Hmnn . . . . The last one is sort of three or four in itself.

Well, I posted these as part of an effort to hold myself to following through on these.  I'll check beack with you in four months and let you know how they are going!  I have lots of help for the first goal, but if I take my eye off the other three, I will fess up.  Hopefully, I'll have good things to report down the road.