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By Raj, August 25, 2009 10:13 am

Back in April, I posted about a PCWorld article talking about how the future of computing might very well be “good enough” rather than working with “top of the line”. Today, I spotted an article, this time in Wired, talking about how the makers of the Flip cameras used the “good enough, near enough” model to produce one of the most popular video cameras out there. Wired nails it on the head quite well:

We now favor flexibility over high fidelity, convenience over features, quick and dirty over slow and polished. Having it here and now is more important than having it perfect.

The article talks about how this idea has hit the military and is now moving into health and law. But my question is, now that it is in those fields, when will it hit education? And, can we stop it?

Ironically, to build something “G.E.N.E.”, the people behind the product or service actually need to know quite a bit, even though on the surface, it seems that there are numerous compromises and shortcuts that are taken. To build the ext iteration of of G.E.N.E. device, you need to know where and how to cut all the corners you can to be able to maximize the convenience or cost targets that you are gunning for. If we apply the same model to education, are we going to be training students to “fake it ’till they make it”? Are we going to become reliant on Google or other services to store the knowledge and become content with students merely returning the proper result from a query without putting any thought into it?

Or is the thinking about this looking at things the wrong way? Are we producing tools that that deal with the drudgery that as a civilization, we’ve commoditized? Look at the pen, once ornate masterpieces are now disposable to the point of being litter. Watches are the same, clocks used to be one per town, now one could put a clock into just about anything one could want to. We still write, and time is more important than ever. But the technology and knowledge base required to deal with clocks and pens have been eclipsed by other technologies and knowledge bases. The pen and the clock have become the computer and slowly we are getting to the point where the basic computer is also an afterthought. Granted these “afterthought machines” are not very capable, but just like with everything else, we’ll be able to see more features coming.

Einstein is quoted as saying that he never remembered (or bothered to memorize) his phone number because it was in the phone book. He went on to think up some pretty complex stuff. Perhaps some of the “good enough” elements that are creeping into education today (the Google generation) are going to be the same way. They don’t need to bother filling their heads with something that was once considered important, because they are getting ready to move into fields that are far more complex and may not even exist.

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By Raj, August 13, 2009 7:58 pm

A little while ago, I wrote about my hashtag, #yegruns and today I’m thinking that it’s about time to retire it. It was more work that it was worth to get it to be used by anyone and for a while, we had a couple of users, but that stopped over the summer. In that previous post, I had mentioned the Nike Sportband. I’ve finally found one and now that I’ve got everything set up, I’m just waiting for my next chance to run. Not only am I pumped to find out “in real time” how my runs are going (metrics make everything fun don’t they), I also get access to the resource that I was trying to build in Twitter. I should have figured that my “free” efforts were not going to go as far (one doesn’t often respect that which is free) as a paid solution that is “backed”. But that being said, it was certainly a way to find others while it lasted and I’m sure that I’ll find others through this system as well and I’ll certainly enjoy the world-wide races, my first being Sept 24th, a 10k.

I’m hoping to get my first run in tomorrow and hopefully it will update the widgets I’ve got installed on both blogs in addition to posting to Twitter and Facebook.

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By Raj, July 28, 2009 8:55 am

I saw this a few days ago, then I heard an interview on CBC about it and then it showed up again this morning in my inbox, I was awed when I heard it the first time and the more I see it and think about it the more amazing it seems. The idea that you can get “just enough information” with a basic set of tools is really appealing, especially in medicine. The ability to spot, share and track the information that would be coming from these devices is indeed going to be valuable, regardless of how developed a community is.

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By Raj, June 24, 2009 11:08 am

The popularity of running seems to be increasing again – it seems to go up and down through the decades. One of the things that is likely helping out this time is a little bit of technology from Nike and Apple (or you can get the non iPod version of the sportband). Wired has an interesting look into the Nike+ system, showing how a simple piece of technology has been leveraged to change things around for people. The key part of the Nike+ isn’t the technology, it is the social system in the back. People have started running because they can now all of the sudden track their own stats and share their stats with others. For many, the motivating factor seems to be this social element, something that seems to be key, especially for girls.

This simple widget has taken something that is often an intensely personal activity and made it more public. But I think this can all be done with an even simpler bit of technology… Twitter. I’m certainly not the only one who is posting run times, tracks and other related errata so it occurred to me that I might as well start pushing a hashtag – #yegruns – Edmonton Runs – (archive). Effectively this can do the same thing as the Nike+ system, but you don’t have to have anything more than the watch and the computer that you already have, keeping inline with the theme of running – it’s simple and you don’t really need anything fancy.

So why this post today? Well for the first time in 2 years, I’ve broke 5min/km.

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By Raj, May 8, 2009 12:07 pm

Much of my interest in games and learning came from my youth playing games as seeing that there were potentially a really effective tool to deliver content. Though at the time I was playing those games, I wasn’t thinking about teaching and learning. I only saw how playing games about an age or time helped me understand that age or time a little bit better and at times it helped out in class as well. So now, with a new driver in my life, I’m looking at games again, but not as anything more complex than the act of doing the game – nee playing.

Coming back from the break that I took when my daughter was born, Ideas had a set of podcasts waiting on babies. This included “The Hurried Infant“. Even before listening to the two episodes, I was thinking about just how I might do best by her in terms of giving her all the tools that I could to succeed at being a complete person. Two elements of being rounded for me included the ability to take intelligent risks and solve problems. These are two principle elements of games, but they are also very important to play. Certainly through history, there have been many brilliant people who have done great things (with or without being recognized) and each of their parents must have done some thing to help them along. Not knowing what that might be, I can only assume that a common thread would be how they played or were allowed to play.

Between what Sir Ken Robinson has done on creativity and numerous resources commenting on the value of play, I think I might be on to something. For all the technology that people might think that I will use with my daughter, I think the most important thing will turn out to be play – with and without technology. I am certainly not buying into the Mozart theory and the idea that enrichment is best idea.

If I can tell stories in addition to reading, pretend and dance as well as watch a screen and build and stack as well as read, I think I’ll be giving my daughter a pretty good start. I certainly hope I don’t raise her to be one of those kids who is afraid to raise their hand because the might not know the right answer.

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By Raj, April 23, 2009 8:01 am

Slashdot picked up a PC World bit of sci-fi yesterday and that might very well be the history that we see looking back several years down the road. With money being tight all over and pennies being pinched just about everywhere, I can see the use of Linux and “good enough” hardware being the route to go. While the collaboration thing might be a bit much, I can certainly see a number of boxed solution providers fading over the next few years as upgrades start to fall off.

Truth or not however, this story does point out just how overpowered todays machines are. For typical needs, there isn’t much lacking anymore.

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By Raj, April 20, 2009 10:56 am

Reading this NYT article, it certainly seems that the day will be shortly upon us when one might expect to hear that, desktop PCs, at least in the home will be antiques that a few know how to build and a few more know how to setup. The rest of us will see them as connections to another era. But is this really going to happen? Well I can see the day coming in homes – where there is one static machine handling mass storage, networking and other utility like functions, while netbooks connect into it and the ‘net to get resources, dock to larger displays to edit photos and video and generally do everything that the “desktop” used to do. I can also see it happening in the office, where dumb clients will connect to Terminal Servers, saving space and support time. But what about the classroom?

This is the one place that I don’t hold up much hope. Schools have invested in large spaces to become labs, these spaces could host thin clients, but then they would bear little resemblance to what students see at home, even though it might be what they will one day see in the office. Schools are unlikely to hand out even the cheapest ‘netbook for fears of loss or some other computer related missive (perhaps as much an accounting issue as an admin/policy one), so kids are stuck again with old technology that is neither here nor there.

Granted, this is very pessimistic and there are many teachers and instructors out there who are already making use of laptops, netbooks and handsets, but the majority are not. Between lack of time, interest and training, it will take quite a bit to get teachers to adopt technology en mass.

But … and hold on to your hats for this one… maybe the Smart Board or some similar touch/pen input technology that is a computer but not a computer is what is needed (considering what a doubter I am of current smartboard technology, this is quite the admission for me). If a touch display can take the place of the classroom computer, allowing students and teachers to interact physically with the content that is stored locally or in the cloud, schools may just have a chance. It would be great if teachers, used to using a black/white board could “migrate” to using this touchboard to write out notes by hand, or to display notes that are already prepared without having to use a special pen. It would be even better if the teacher could then send this information out to the students by dragging and dropping, with the materials landing on some personal device.

If something like that could happen, then the classroom has a chance, otherwise, it will end up as the museaum bar none for the grandfather computer.

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By Raj, March 27, 2009 11:02 am

Crunch Gear posted, asking the question – “are we heading into an era of dumb tech”. At first I thought it was another one of these “is Google making us smarter/dumber erer” posts, but it turned out to be a look at the devices that instead of doing everything in one gadget, they are doing one niche thing and doing it well, after all the “all in ones” are a collection of compromises that likely lead to the development of the simple device in the first place.

I think they hit it pretty close to the mark (I’ve thought about this before), but I would hazard to suggest that they might have overlooked one thing – there are two major bins that the gadgets that they are talking about get thrown into and there are two types of users as well.

The first is the “So small a niche that really, it only has to do it’s thing well enough”. This is were things like the Eye-Fi would come in (though I’m thinking that they are going to come out with a 3G version of that and I’m praying for a CF form), where there isn’t something to really be compared to. The second bin is where I think the Peek finds itself. It will be compared to the iPhone and the Blackberry – and yes, it is doing the core function of the ‘berry cheaper, but if they wanted to stick to that function and be an alternative for those people who don’t really need more, why are they adding Google Maps? Now they are offering up competition to the iPod touch – which is not a bad thing – but at the same time, people are going to expect it to compete against an established device with more features. Not because it should, but because technology is available that it can.

These two niches are also influenced by those users who care enough to geek out about what the device does, and therefore will tolerate a more complicated device. Conversely, those users who don’t really care about the niche, but need to get something done related to it won’t want to deal with anything more complicated than pushing a button. In the end, the level to which tech will “dumb down to” will depend on the niche and the user. Users that don’t care about what the device does will want dumb and dumber devices, users who care will want smart and ever smarter devices. The good thing for those people wanting to make these devices is that both groups are strong and growing – it just depends on what you are selling.

The good news for schools in all this is that capable devices are getting cheaper and easier to use, allowing for a greater range of exploration by students and allowing the technology layer to drop away as being a factor in the qulaity of their work. Ideally, some students will take a greater interest in a given activity and then want to get into some of the “smarter” tools, allowing for even greater exploration.

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By Raj, November 3, 2008 11:53 am

This is an old, but interesting article, talking about how as often as not, re-jigging is more important than building from scratch.

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By Raj, October 31, 2008 10:29 pm

This post started off as a post about the format wars shifting from physical to digital and then it moved into some looks into why things may not be so clear cut as physical and digital. But then talking about it with my wife (explaining that it is hard right now to think “long thoughts” as it is very tiring… kinda like being pregnant from what I hear), she said something that made everything fit together… it isn’t about needs, it is not about greed… it is all about convenience and collecting. Physical media will stay around as long as people want to collect the physical artifacts that are associated with the media. And the dominant form of the media will only change when it is more convenient to adopt a new system than maintain an old one (think film vs digital). Even though today it is as likely to get new music via download as through a CD, people will still buy CDs and rip them (just like dubbing tapes off of records) and even though photos are now almost all digital in origin, a significant portion are still enjoyed as physical prints, even with the rise of photo frames.

So with the talk of Blu-ray dying a slow death at the hands of the upstart downloads or the entrenched DVD, should those people who, like me, are just getting into Blu-ray be worried about getting into a Beta-max in reality? Should we have held out/saved up for a system that can handle downloads? I don’t think so. Regardless of the format the content is delivered on, it is the manner in which it is enjoyed that is going to be the kicker – and this is a format war that the media companies won’t be able to decide a winner on.

But wait… what is that you say – DVD vs BD (Blu-ray Disc)? Well even there you can see that there is going to be a valid market for both formats (and it certainly seems that the studios are game) as Special Edition versions of DVD are still selling well – and these are often at the same price point as the BD and it is likely that the people buying those DVDs are going to be game for upgrading to BD – assuming they can upgrade their systems to handle the new format – and with the arrival of $200 players (even if you need to get an HDMI switch for $30-$60), this certainly seems to be doable.