No more pencils, no more books...

Just moments ago, I looked up at my printer and saw that this week's reading had printed out without me even hearing it. It was just there. I have to print tons of readings for my classes because I absolutely cannot remember things I read on a screen, so I've become totally immune to the sputtering, whirring noises of my HP Deskjet. I miss the days when teachers would distribute handouts in class already printed out, but I guess as long as someone is saving paper, it's a positive.

Here's a forum of educators discussing the shift toward online learning, in conjunction with the Apple Store: http://isenet.ning.com/forum/topics/the-end-of-the-textbook-as-we

It got me thinking--eventually everything we read will be online, or at least on some kind of electronic device like a Kindle. I already turn in many of my assignments online, and I know that the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, a recently-founded school that a friend of mine attends, has an entirely online library as they are working to acquire more physical buildings for this fledgling university.

Printer sounds will soon be foreign to students.

We were discussing how having the physical, tactile object of a book or packet of papers helps with information retention in class. I think this is definitely true for me, but I also know people who have no problem reading on the computer. It's also true that online textbooks and online assignments would save a lot of money.

I feel sad, though, for the future students who won't be interested in smelling old books.

Tribute to Earth Day

...Earth Day was technically yesterday by now, but here's a neat little tidbit I found that was related:

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/22/go-green-use-last-ye.html

I think it's a good idea to go back to the approach of buying things with the intent for them to last. I always think about this when I go home and drive my car after a long time of not driving--I know absolutely nothing about fixing cars if something went wrong, and it means that I'm probably wasting money.
Go sustainability!

Hopefully this smart-sounding post will prove that I am not a product of the internet's mass mediocrity.

In reading excerpts from "Distracted" and "The Dumbest Generation" by Maggie Jackson and Mark Bauerlein respectively, I thought of a topic we've discussed in class--mass mediocrity. It seems as though the influx of media, of entertainment, isn't just making our output mediocre, but it's making us mediocre--things like the whiny, misspelled blogs of preteens and 20-second video clips of drunken frat party antics aren't just products of LiveJournal or Youtube, they are reflections of the people behind them. The equalizing nature of the internet isn't what makes the content dumb--it's the lack of attention span resulting from the ease of distracting ourselves with the vast amount of media available. There's a mass mediocrity of personality.

This brings to mind something I saw on my floormate's blog for her Honors Humanities class:

I wonder if we'll evolve or find a way to function so that our attention spans are used to the best of their ability-- as Bauerlin mentioned, there is such a rich array of information that is underused. Maybe people will find a way to make this information into entertainment in a way that will foster actual understanding, rather than superficial bullets or outlines. I mean, I'll admit that I don't go out and seek news just for the purpose of enriching my knowledge, and I'm not very well-versed in what's going on in the world. I don't like to watch TV or listen to the radio, though, so maybe I'm not quite the same demographic described in these two excerpts--at least, I hope I'm not!

Tasty snippets-Del.icio.us restores my faith in people's intelligence

These were the top tags on del.icio.us as of 10:05 PM, Wednesday, April 15, 2009.

• design
• blog
• video
• software
• tools
• music
• programming
• webdesign
• reference
• tutorial
• art
• web
• howto
• javascript
• free
• linux
• web2.0
• development
• google
• inspiration
• photography
• news
• food
• flash
• css
• blogs
• education
• business
• technology
• travel

I was really surprised by them. I've never really perused del.icio.us seriously before, but I'm impressed. I would have expected further evidence of the mass mediocrity effect of the internet, but it truly does its job as a tool to find the best of the internet. All of the items on this list seem like topics that are really relevant and useful--not inane tagging of things like celebrity gossip or lolcats. From this list, it seems like the majority of people on del.icio.us are actually interested in cerebral or cultural things.

It's interesting how general the top tags are. I guess it makes sense--things that are more specialized aren't going to have the most tags.

I just thought I would share that. Despite the abundance of whiny preteens on Livejournal and the flood of status updates begging you to invite 20 friends to find out what Disney princess you are, there's still hope for our brains!

Who would have thought?

(image from http://www.currentmarketing.com/undercurrent/index.php?s=gel)

Wow.
I actually thought this was a joke when I saw it. But it's real.
An air-powered car.
It's called the AirPod. I can already smell a future collaboration with Apple.

Here's a screencap from the MDI website:

No, it doesn't fly like the Jetsons' car, but who knows? These cute, alien-like little things might be the next great innovation for hybrid cars. They're debuting later this year in Europe, where SmartCars are already a common sight in cities. I'm not sure if even city-dwelling Americans would warm to a car that only goes 40mph, so as of now it might be equivalent to a scooter or moped, but if later versions of this car perhaps combine electric and air power, this might turn into a viable option for commuters.

Personally, I can't wait to see the day when I can buy an eco-friendly dually truck for my future horse trailer that I can fill with air, like the cute little Airpod, instead of getting less than 14 miles to the gallon.

One thing I do wonder, though, is if Americans will ever, as a whole, drive less. I know that when gas prices were really high, it was hard to avoid driving, just because of the distance from my house to school and work, and I think that's true of a lot of Americans. We're much more of a commuter culture, and in general we rely on technology so much more than Europeans, it seems. However, we might want to take a hint from them--they've adopted the Smartcar much more quickly than we probably ever will in cities. It's much more worthwhile to really get behind technologies that are useful and beneficial to something more than yourself, rather than flipping out over the newest iPod every few months.

Netbooks--Not Just a Novelty

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/technology/02netbooks.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Has anyone else seen people carrying around these supertiny laptops in class? They're netbooks--basically laptops that don't have much besides internet capability. I've actually seen them much cheaper at Best Buy, but that might be a model with just the absolute minimum in features.

It seems like a great idea to me--most college students don't use much more than the internet and a word processor anyway, and maybe Powerpoint. Most of them run Windows XP, which the above article suggests is a weakness, but I haven't met a single person who likes Vista, so I'd consider it an advantage over buying a PC and being forced to accept the OS that comes with it.
I found a Youtube video that has a Hello Kitty Netbook actually running the beta Windows 7, so I'd say it will hold up in the future, once this Vista silliness is done with.



Most of the people I've met who have Netbooks already own a traditional laptop, and just use the Netbook to take notes for class. That might have to do with the fact that many UMD students are upper-middle-class and can afford to do things like that. I think there's a lot of potential, though, to use Netbooks to reach out to demographics that normally wouldn't be involved in the whole "New Media" sphere of communication and interaction.