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Apr. 25th, 2005 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trickykittyThe House of the Future...Today
I can picture a virtual classroom where students sit at the desk/table and press a button that activates a PC notebook-like screen built into the desk. A stylus is available to take handwritten notes on a virtual tablet which can then be saved to your school account storage and is accessible via the internet. (Hm, I can already do that using the VPN and saving experiments and PDFs on our lab's file server.) For those who prefer to type, a virtual keyboard can be turned on to allow students to literally type on the desk. Books will be ebooks in which you can place searchable bookmarks, add highlighting and notes, and "carry around with you" (read: access) using a laptop. When I was enrolled at University of Phoenix - Online, all of the materials where found via their web site, including class notes, class discussions, virtual real-life training programs, class books, etc.
I wonder if I would prefer spending say $2000 on a PC Tablet rather than having to spend $200-500 per semester on class books. I'm really not sure about that. I enjoy writing and have plenty of analog notebooks lying around to prove it. I really wonder if I would want the analog notebooks and reading books to go the way of the dinosaur. Ah, wonderful technological indecision.
I can picture a virtual classroom where students sit at the desk/table and press a button that activates a PC notebook-like screen built into the desk. A stylus is available to take handwritten notes on a virtual tablet which can then be saved to your school account storage and is accessible via the internet. (Hm, I can already do that using the VPN and saving experiments and PDFs on our lab's file server.) For those who prefer to type, a virtual keyboard can be turned on to allow students to literally type on the desk. Books will be ebooks in which you can place searchable bookmarks, add highlighting and notes, and "carry around with you" (read: access) using a laptop. When I was enrolled at University of Phoenix - Online, all of the materials where found via their web site, including class notes, class discussions, virtual real-life training programs, class books, etc.
I wonder if I would prefer spending say $2000 on a PC Tablet rather than having to spend $200-500 per semester on class books. I'm really not sure about that. I enjoy writing and have plenty of analog notebooks lying around to prove it. I really wonder if I would want the analog notebooks and reading books to go the way of the dinosaur. Ah, wonderful technological indecision.
Or how about this:
Date: 2005-04-26 05:47 am (UTC)LIterally, a book of around 200 pages, each page made of a 'smart' fibre/polymer that can react to a single instance charge signal transmitted to the page.
each page can be individually 'printed' to form a whole book, or compilation of stories, or a printed version of your livejournal, or....
The electronics and printing chips hide in the spine of the volume, and a socket in the top of the spine can connect to a computer via a USB/ any other port you like. The book can have storage of several volumes, come in various sizes, and can re-print many thousands of times.
The pages are roughened, so as to retain some of the look and feel of celulose based paper, even though they bear more relationship to a hybrid of magazine print and a fiber optic tube. Once printed, it takes no charge to retain the print, and obviously the pages have static protection.
It would combine the pleasure of having a tangible object to hold, with the flexibility of not having to be 'plugged in' to provide you with information. Also reduces eye strain, and paper waste.
Need new textbooks for this semester? Download them all into your 'Study' book. Hit the appropriate button on the inside of the cover, and you are holding the right text. Wipe them, and 're-print' for your next year's study.
Download and read dozens of crappy novels on the bus, for years to come, and not worry about storage, cost or the environment.
That's what I can imagine.
Guess I should patent the idea...
If only I had the first bloody clue how to design such a thing....
Re: Or how about this:
Date: 2005-04-28 06:43 am (UTC)