Technology Recycling for Excellence in Education
Is The PC Doomed?
I read a Twitter post yesterday about a new mini-laptop (I think the new term is going to be netbook) that may retail for as low as $98. According to the YouTube video and various blog sources, it has built-in wifi, a 1GB flash drive, a card reader, 3 USB ports, and Ethernet connection. It apparently runs a custom version of Linux which includes Firefox and Abiword among its apps. This is just the latest and cheapest in a series of increasingly popular netbooks, which provide what most people need from a computer in a very small form factor.
Is this the future of computing? Are we soon going to see the demise of the big, standalone, do-it-all desktop or laptop computer? Predicting anything in technology is risky, but we could be seeing a fundamental change in how the typical consumer uses and purchases a computer.
My guess (and it's defnitely a guess) is, we are going to see a fairly long transition, during which time there will be a strong market for both traditional hefty home/office computers and inexpensive netbook laptops. At a $98 price point, it may very well be that the netbook becomes yet another peripheral for one's home/office computer. A person may have a full-featured computer running Windows, MacOS, or Linux and doing the job of storing files, streaming video, and hosting heavy-duty apps such as MSOffice, Photoshop, etc. In addition they may have one or several netbooks, which function mostly in the cloud, surfing, checking email, and accessing the home server via the web. The netbook becomes a semi-thin client, effectively allowing us to take our home computer anywhere in the world.
What does this mean for education? Some good things, mostly. One, there will still be a need for the do-it-all PC as servers and for heavy-duty apps. Two, a real, useful, under-$100 laptop will be a boon for school budgets. Three, a move to netbooks will free up thousands of older computers which can be refitted for an extended useful life in schools. Four, increased use of cloud-based computing means more portability and accessibility of curriculum and resources. Five, we'd better keep up!
Is this the future of computing? Are we soon going to see the demise of the big, standalone, do-it-all desktop or laptop computer? Predicting anything in technology is risky, but we could be seeing a fundamental change in how the typical consumer uses and purchases a computer.
My guess (and it's defnitely a guess) is, we are going to see a fairly long transition, during which time there will be a strong market for both traditional hefty home/office computers and inexpensive netbook laptops. At a $98 price point, it may very well be that the netbook becomes yet another peripheral for one's home/office computer. A person may have a full-featured computer running Windows, MacOS, or Linux and doing the job of storing files, streaming video, and hosting heavy-duty apps such as MSOffice, Photoshop, etc. In addition they may have one or several netbooks, which function mostly in the cloud, surfing, checking email, and accessing the home server via the web. The netbook becomes a semi-thin client, effectively allowing us to take our home computer anywhere in the world.
What does this mean for education? Some good things, mostly. One, there will still be a need for the do-it-all PC as servers and for heavy-duty apps. Two, a real, useful, under-$100 laptop will be a boon for school budgets. Three, a move to netbooks will free up thousands of older computers which can be refitted for an extended useful life in schools. Four, increased use of cloud-based computing means more portability and accessibility of curriculum and resources. Five, we'd better keep up!
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