According to what was said on the Engadget coverage, MS is thinking of Vista as the most game friendly operating system in history. To me this sounds like more of the same, games are the major movers of PC hardware and they have been for a long time. I don’t see too many companies upgrading video cards on the spot because there is a new version of their workflow software coming out – they will stay with the old one unless there is a major need to move up, gamers will build a $3K (used to be $7K) system just for the new id game. I’m guessing to do this effectively, MS will have a Vista Home (throw away), Vista Pro (average user/custom) and Vista Extreme!!! (Edit – added May 30) (for the gamers).
But the interesting announcement is the Live Anywhere, it’s a ubiquitous presence across a range of devices and it seems without needing an MS OS (they talk about receiving files on a Moto cell and editing a car there). Of course, I think the MS OS will be required for the marketplace (buy once and use everywhere). The ubiquity of the latter is interesting (especially with MS complaining that people don’t like to be locked into a device like the iPod) as it will likely be web driven and muscling into areas that Google others are trying to get into as well. This could be the killer app for ubiquitous computing.
While writing this, I am thinking that maybe the problem that edtechs like those who often read this are having is much akin to Chicken Little or the Boy who cried wolf!. People are generally learning about technology through osmosis outside the classroom, but on a more superficial level. We are all running around telling them that more has to be done to ensure that technology doesn’t leave our students behind. “They” (admin and the like) see this as noise, because they see the kids with the phone and the blogs on places like m_s_a_c_ and think that is all that needs to be done is being done already, after all, there were never lessons on how to use the phone or the radio or the TV where there? This is where the point is being missed by “them” and perhaps by many others. What we need to try to encourage is the use of technologies in the instructional process that further enable students to explore their capabilities. It’s more a media argument than anything else (like telling people how to make the best use of videos in the class, but now the video doesn’t play unless the viewer solves a problem – worksheets in real time!), we need to be sure we can make the most of all the new media that is out there and not limit the kids of today to our past experience.
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