Thinking of what education might look like in the next decade, one quickly realizes that the trends in technology are leaving a large number of our students behind. We no longer live in an age of visible movement when it comes to progress and innovation. Today is an age of exponential change. New and ever-improving technologies are popping up every day and in every corner of society.

Educating the best and the brightest in this brave new world will take a new and improved educational paradigm. Allowing our educational tools to age in the corner of the classroom will be the mistake that may cost us our future. Throwing away masses of children to inequitable access will ensure that we languish at the bottom of the global pool of employable workers for decades to come.

The New Toolbox

I was at an auction a few years ago and noticed a few old woodworking tools that I thought I could use. For a few bucks, I was able to snag an assortment of hand tools that may have been in someone’s toolbox for a generation or more. As the next decade passed, I used these tools in my shop for a wide variety of projects until my projects outgrew these old, dull tools. My woodworking creations continued to improve as did my skills and artistry. I quickly discovered that using improved tools would translate into improved craftsmanship. As any woodworker will tell you, new tools require new skills.

Woodworking is a great metaphor for shaping and molding students. There is simply no good substitute for a sharp tool. If you want to build the best projects possible, you need to use the best tools possible. Thinking in terms of the next decade for our country, we will be sorely disappointed in our projects if we fail to improve our tools.

Over the course of the next few days, I will attempt to paint a picture of how technology will shape the way we educate students in the next decade. I will attempt to show the amazing possibilities that lay before us if we will simply walk through the doorway of opportunity that is open to us.

My main focus in this series of articles will be this idea: Transforming the student from being a passenger to becoming a “user.” You may be wondering what I mean by this. Let me explain.

Ask yourself what it means to be a “user.” A user is not simply a person who uses. For the student, being a user should involve using the latest technology in a free and autonomous manner. This new-found freedom will allow the student to become an active participant in his/her education instead of a passive passenger. No other time in history have we been so able to make this a reality.

In our current technological society, being a user also means being tracked. Tracking has become a major part of our daily lives and is precisely the engine that should drive our educational process for the foreseeable future. Tracking a student means having the ability to target education toward weaknesses and strengths. The ability to accurately customize curriculum to the individual has been the holy grail of educational philosophy for many years. This golden age of technological development may soon enable this dream to become a reality.

Current educational curriculum and individual assessment is arbitrary at best. Being able to accurately asses a student can only be achieved by using modern tracking and database technologies. The means by which we can make this a reality is readily available and only needs to be taken off the shelf to be used. If Congress is looking for a shovel-ready project, this may be the one.

Imagine a world where every child has a tablet computer with ready access to the App of virtual photographic memory (internet). Further, imagine that every student can access all the knowledge of humankind freely at any moment in time. Continue to imagine a world where a misspelled word brings up a spelling challenge application instead of an auto correction. Try to contemplate what it would mean for a teacher to have a database of every misspelled word, every misunderstood concept or every missed equation for each of their students. Try to envision a teacher with the ability to customize the experience of the individual “user” with minimal effort. Imagine the curriculum being automatically targeted to the user through an intuitive educational platform that knows every strength and each unique weakness. I could go on, but I think you get the point.

The company that makes this standard available to the educational community will be the company that shapes the future of humankind. Will it be Google, Apple, Microsoft, or some other yet unknown pioneer?

Continuing from the thoughts in my last post, I would like to elaborate on the idea of the student as a user of a new standardized educational platform. It is obvious to me that the future of education will always mirror our everyday lives in one way or another. If you examine how technology has influenced your daily life already, you begin to put together a snapshot of what it will mean to be educated in the next decade.

In the last few hundred years, most individuals would consider an education as something you receive. You often hear the question asked, “Where did you receive your education?” As we proceed through the next decade, education will slowly move away from reception and toward being custom designed for the individual user. New technology will not only allow us to receive an education, but also develop an education. The question we might ask in 10 years is, “How did you develop your education?” The question of where will still be important, but the how of the matter will be the focus that defines the individual.

To make this a reality we will need a standardized platform from which to develop a student’s unique education. This standardized platform will allow us to tailor a custom curriculum that will be matched to talents, interests and life goals. For the educator, a standardized platform will create a way to assist the student in discovering a true purpose in life through a unique educational experience. The basics of reading, writing and arithmetic will not be taught as much as they will be discovered and used. Learning will become a reciprocal experience between the teacher, the student and the machine.

Under a standardized platform, each of these three participants will have a role to play. The teacher will be the facilitator, assisting the development of the curriculum and inspiring the direction the student takes. The student will be the user, gathering resources, skills and knowledge in an efficient and measured sequence. The machine will do the work of data gathering and analysis, which will assist the teacher and student in refining the curriculum. This data gathering work of the machine will also free the teacher from the burden of record-keeping and tedious tasks that currently distract from the real job of teaching and learning.

Under a standardized system, grade level will be far less important. Achievement and progression will be measured by accomplishment and intelligence as a benchmark for success. The question of failure or success will be irrelevant and replaced with a standard and consistent measurement of potential and overall intelligence. Information will no longer be missed but continually rehearsed and monitored for retention by the machine.

In our current educational paradigm, the teacher is in charge of arbitrarily constructing curriculum. This approach to curriculum development is based on inexperience in some cases, outdated materials, inadequate funding and a shortage of time. Measuring the success of a specific curriculum is currently impossible. With a standardized system, comparisons of curricular success can be made across the entire spectrum of education and then continually reformulated and enhanced by the machine.

Sadly, teachers today are bogged down with an assortment of mind-numbing tasks that would be better suited to an off-the-shelf automated system. Tasks such as data tracking, reporting and record keeping are currently accomplished manually. These tasks could easily be delegated to an intuitive database. Developing a standard to follow would eliminate these tasks and free the teacher to do their main job of teaching students.

Education 3.0

Throughout history, man has sought to pass on knowledge to the next generation. This process started with oral tradition, storytelling and writing. With the advent of the printing press, knowledge and information slowly became available to the masses. The amount of information that could be gained by one human in a lifetime was severely limited by his access to printed materials and wealth. The majority of learning was gained through observation and imitation. We can call this Education 1.0.

Education 2.0 starts around the late eighteen hundreds with universal literacy movements throughout newly industrialized regions of the world. Improvements in education slowly transitioned from apprenticeship to formal education and training. Despite our movements toward universal education, access to knowledge and opportunity continues to be inequitable throughout the world. Even with the arrival of the computer revolution, access to the tools of learning continues to define the learner.

The next decade may mark the moment in history when all men are granted equal access to the greatest treasure a soul can possess. I use the word may in the last sentence because there is the chance that we will miss this golden opportunity. Access to Education 3.0 will only be gained through investment and universal standardization. If we continue to divert wealth toward fruitless goals and corporate greed, this opportunity will be lost or hopelessly delayed.

Education 3.0, when it arrives, will be the age of universal enlightenment. Platforms for education and learning will slowly standardize and become globally accessible and affordable. The poorest to the wealthiest will have access to the machine that runs the platform.

The thought on your mind at this point is most likely wondering what machine I keep referring to. The machine in question is the one we have been so busy teaching and training since roughly 1969. You’ve probably guessed it by now that I am referring to the internet. The great cloud of knowledge that we call the internet is precisely the mechanism that we will use to build the platform of Education 3.0. When the platform is finally in place, the decade to follow will see the greatest amount of wealth, discoveries and use of human potential that we have witnessed during our time on this earth. The only question that remains to be answered is the point at which I will leave this series of articles.

When will we allow the user to use the machine to its potential?

By: Steve McClard

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We’ve all seen one of those futuristic movies where the human character interacts (usually by voice) with a supercomputer or robot. The classic science fiction movie,2001: A Space Odyssey is a case in point. If you recall in the movie, the spaceship’s onboard supercomputer, HAL, interacts with its astronauts as the ship travels to Jupiter. Eventually, HAL evolves to a point where it turns on its two astronaut “colleagues” out of self-preservation.

Then there’s the Terminator series in which a supercomputer system known as “Skynet” becomes self-aware and begins to propagate other computers to terminate all human life.

Hopefully, this is not what we can expect from the future when it comes to our use of computers and in particular, voice controlled technology.

Today, we see voice recognition technology in use almost everywhere. From the voice-dial feature on our cell phones to the OnStar feature offered in newer GM vehicles, voice controlled technology is here to stay, to improve and to make our lives more comfortable and easy.

The future of automatic speech recognition or ASR, is still very much on the cutting edge as the technology continues to improve and its practical use expands. In the medical arena, patient history is easily translated from dictation by doctors into a medical record. Meanwhile, in the legal profession, court reporters make use of the technology during courtroom settings.

As I mentioned earlier, the telecommunications industry is already using ARS whenever you make a hands-free call or when you call in to pay your bill. The customer service savvy companies are even using special soothing or sexy sounding voices to assuage angry customers and improve customer feedback.

Even the U.S. military has a critical need for this type of technology. “Electronic crewmembers” will reduce human casualties and loss of human life and won’t question a command of a human operator during times of combat. ASR is also becoming a valuable asset to military members during times when an immediate and accurate language translation is required.

Over the next few years, ASR technology will become more prevalent among everyday computer users. Perhaps the standard keyboard will begin its exit much like the horse and buggy? Either way, voice recognition software is here to stay and will help reduce the likelihood of repetitive motion injuries while improving efficiency and productivity.

And while this technology continues to improve in ease of use, performance and pricing, you can certainly enjoy the current technology through products that bring you rest and relaxation.

By: Andy A Johnston

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The word ‘technology’ is often associated with ideologies about the future and the advancement of society. Although this statement may be true to a limited extent in that technology is about foreseeing the future, technology and advancements in technology are also largely about the present. For example, younger generations are now more skilled in the use of Internet as well as there being an increase in the popularity of computer games. Hence, although there are some negative impacts associated with spending too much time on the Internet and using the Internet as a primary source of research, the present level of encouragement for using technology in schools has helped us as a society prepare for the demands of the future.

Firstly, in an extract from a survey about Internet and schools, it was found that a “recent informal census conducted via voluntary reporting over the Internet estimates the number of teachers and students (individual and classroom accounts) in the U.S. using the Internet, either directly or indirectly, at almost 250,000.” (Parker, 1992, p 22-24). Hence, the increased usage in Internet services has ensured that school-aged children are better adapted to meet the challenges of technology. Although use of the Internet has increased due to both growth in research and uses for entertainment purposes, there are some negative impacts associated with school-age children relying on the Internet as their primary source of research.

Becoming over reliant on the Internet for research due to the level of convenience may result in a lesser range of reference materials used for essays and academic arguments. Also, it creates a bias in terms of the amount of information found. For example, authors in societies that do not have access to the Internet may be marginalized due to the lack of this skill. Also, most Internet sites usually have advertising, and this may cause distractions to the student’s concentration. Therefore, though it can be argued that the Internet has provided access to a larger range of resources and has ensured that communication is a lot more effective, it can become ineffective if people become too reliant on this source of information as their main medium for communication.

The debates involving the Internet are extremely contentious, depending upon the various views and interpretations of different members of society. However, one thing is certain, and that is today’s generation are better able to adapt to the changes and demands of technology. For example, Washington Reuters stated that “nearly one-third of American Internet users surveyed said they go online just for fun rather than to check e-mail, read News, or use a search engine, a sharp increase from a year ago,” (Reuters, 2006, p 1). Hence, this means that as a society, although there has been an increase in software engineering of games and programs, society has kept up in terms of spending time on the computer in order to use these software and programs.

In conclusion, today’s generation has an increased ability to enjoy the benefits of technology and Internet due to the increased usage and reliance on technology. Although the issue is still debatable, as negative effects such as over-reliance on the Internet can affect the functioning of society, benefits also exist, and when used appropriately the Internet can ensure a higher standard of lifestyle.

Bibliography:

California Department of Education, Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, California Education and Data Processing Association, “California Student Information System: A Study of the Feasibility of Implementing a Statewide Process for Electronically Sharing Student Information,” Sacramento, CA.: California Department of Education, October 1992.

LaQuey, Tracy and Connie Stout, “High Tech Highway,” America’s Agenda: Schools for the 21st Century, pp. 26-30. New York, NY: Scholastic, Spring 1993.

LaQuey, Tracy, with Jeanne C. Ryer, The Internet Companion. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993.

Lipinski, Michael (1998) ‘Some thoughts on the use of the Internet in schools.’ http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow3/oct98/ (Accessed: 16th February, 2006).

Parker, Tracy LaQuey, “Cisco Routers Contribute to the Global Schoolhouse Project,” The Packet, pp. 22-24. Mountain View, CA.: Cisco Systems, Inc., Fall 1993.

Parker, Tracy LaQuey, “The Internet – K12 Connection: How Students and Teachers Are Using The Internet,” ConneXions: The Interoperability Report. Foster City, CA.: Interop, Inc. April 1994.

Washington Reuters (2006) Thirty pct Internet users go online just for fun, http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=InternetNews&
storyID=2006-02-15T233907Z_01_N15241681_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTERNET-CONSUMERS.xml (Accessed; 17th February, 2006).

Weston, Rachel, “Networks: Where Have You Been All My Life?” Proceedings, Connecting with the Future Today: NASA and the Center for Educational Statistics, February 1994.

By: Bernice Ly

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Today, we have the Internet, e-mail, and social networks. These social networks are now experiencing a new wave of innovation with text messaging and real-time updates to the life experience. These tweets and text messages can be shared with others. Some might call this the friends and family program on steroids. It is definitely a disruptive technology, but it seems to be geared towards the way in which humans naturally communicate.

That is to say, it is somewhat an extension of our social interaction. Is this current technology too disruptive, and where is it going? And if it is too disruptive now, might it be even more so in the very near future? Some believe so, but let me give you a scenario so you can think about this yourself.

In the future there will probably be an implant device in your brain which takes your thoughts, and changes them into ones and zeros and allows for storage of all your thoughts, and instant transmission to others whom you’d like to share your thoughts with.

Sounds like Sci Fi? Hardly, but let’s ponder this for a moment. One philosopher and acquaintance of mine in considering this notion and future progression of our current technology stated; “Yes, I can choose what to believe and what not to believe, but only in some cases- a lot of the time we are subtly and uncontrollably affected by an overwhelming world.”

This was in response to the scenario that others would be sending you their thoughts, and you would be taking them into your brain and it would be changing the way you think, with those in your thought swapping group, thought swapping social network, or friends which you’ve subscribed too. In other words, the interjection of thought into your brain would change who you are and how you think.

But, isn’t that happening already? And if you believe that the thoughts that you take in, or the ideas that you read in books are introducing new ideas that change how you think, then this is already happening and if you allow them to this it will be similar in the future, only a much faster transition.

This should not stop one from taking a gander at the bigger picture, or entertaining thoughts that perhaps, invade one’s belief system. After all, currently, one cannot have experienced every situation from all angles, thus have the advantage of multiple perception impressions, but with thought-swapping, one can get closer to that reality. I hope you will please consider all this.

By: Lance Winslow

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If, like most people, you managed to make time to watch Back to the Future during Saturday afternoon this weekend, you would have thoroughly enjoyed the romp through one of the best films ever made. If you were also watching it for the umpteenth time, you might also have picked up on bits that you missed the first X number of times you watched the movie. I know I did, for example, when the De Lorean is first presented by Dr. Brown, its rear number plate reads ‘OUTATIME’, quite a fitting personalization. Marty McFly also fastens a hairdryer to his waist when he visits his father in the night as Darth Vadar. Biff also says to George McFly at the start of the film, “If I turn in my reports in your handwriting, I’ll get fired”. For those who work in offices in today’s environment, can you imagine saying that now?

At the time, Back to the Future was showcasing exactly how far the world had advanced in terms of technology. Marty’s clock radio is umber retro in today’s eyes, as it’s lacking a digital display, the video camera they use to film Einstein’s time travelling exploits would never fit into a handbag for a night out, personal cassette players have been replaced by iPods and the TVs have most certainly changed a bit too. In fact, the only thing that hasn’t ‘advanced’ from the film would probably be the Flux Capacitor (it’s what makes time travel possible!). I can certainly say that I’ve lived through many of the changes in the film, for example, I can’t imagine which part of the TV I’d slap to get the picture working now that they’re flat panels and I went up through the gears from a cassette walkman to a CD player, stopping briefly with a MiniDisc player before settling upon an iPod. Watching the film again, it was at times hilarious to think back to what technology was like in the 80s, and perhaps even more so with a classic movie that actively promotes technology.

I’d like to ask you all to take a trip down memory lane and share any technological changes that we’ve lived through. A case in point is the world’s first Blue-ray all in one home cinema system as the price of a cinema ticket increases exponentially, it’s little wonder that home cinema systems are popping up more and more in the living room. Whilst the concept of experiencing your favorite films rather than just watching them has been around for some time, you can feast your eyes upon Samsung’s Blu-ray 7.1 home cinema system – the world’s first high definition theatre system.

The HD-BD2R is a phenomenal piece of engineering. Not only does it provide flawless high definition viewing as well as a spine tingly experience, but it looks superb as well. I really like the design, especially the playing unit itself. Samsung’s TVs have always been held in very high regard when talking about aesthetics, and this home cinema system certainly doesn’t disappoint. The sound pumped through the 7.1 audio channels at a total of 1100W is frighteningly sharp, which is little surprise as it supports the latest Dolby technology. The unit itself also has BD-J technology, which provides users with a wealth of additional entertainment. Without going into too much detail, this provides extra features such as picture in picture displays and bonus features. This is truly the future of home cinema viewing. It’s simply brilliant and extremely hard to describe. Just know that it’s quite brilliant and that this is the first of undoubtedly many Blu-ray all in one home cinema systems.

Perhaps when one contrasts these two systems of modern technology one can reflect on how far we have come and how far we might go. It seems that the possibilities are endless. Manufacturers are constantly going backwards and forwards, improving or removing what was before as well as planning for what can be. With such progress the tech boffins should have plenty to mull over.

By: John Kaduwanema

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A transformation from intelligent to emotive – no, it’s not your girlfriend during an argument. According to Philips, it’s the future of technology. While the trend in recent years has been to produce self-thinking (intelligent) products, the people at Philips believe that in another decade or so there may be a shift toward products that are more intuitive to human emotion.

Philips Design Probes program is a “far-future research initiative that tracks trends and developments that may ultimately evolve into mainstream issues that have significant impact on business”. The program uses research in five areas – politics, economy, culture, environment and technology – to stipulate what the future might hold. Though the language on Philips Web site is a bit obscure, the ultimate aim of the program seems to be to try to get a sense of what life will be like after 2020, and identify how technology products will fit into that world in new ways.

And, so far, the Design Probes project has resulted in a number of innovative ideas. One of those ideas is for SKIN: Dresses (pictured), which are dresses that use emotive technology to read a person’s mood and respond with color and pattern. This idea is part of a whole SKIN area that posits a shift will take place in technology from “intelligent” products to “sensitive” products. These sensitive products will use high-tech materials to sense emotions and the surrounding environment. So, an individual wearing one of the dresses could see its appearance suddenly altered as it senses her emotions change.

Along with the SKIN: Dresses, another related idea conceived by Philips is SKIN: Tattoos. According to a video on the Philips site, these tattoos would expand and change on the skin based on mood and sensation. In the video, the emotional states of two lovers are visualized by tattoo transformations on the skin. Certainly, the idea of items like clothes and tattoos communicating human emotion is an intriguing one – even if it still seems like science fiction at this point.

But the Probes program is intended to encourage product designers to think outside the box. While many of the ideas may never be produced, the program creates anything from narratives to prototypes to help get the ideas across, and stimulate debate. Philips also hopes that looking into the far future will eventually help the company improve the way they innovate.

For companies, developing new tech products can be crapshoot. Essentially, you have to look into the crystal ball and hope you don’t waste time developing a product (a) people won’t want or (b) that is no longer relevant at the time of its release. And, according to figures in Business Week, “up to 96 percent of projects fail to meet the targets for return on investment.” Such numbers have led Philips to believe there may be better ways of creating new innovations. And, who knows, in the future when your girlfriend gets mad her dress may turn a burning red and her entire body may become covered in demonic tattoos.

By: Shad Connelly

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Look at the calculator on your desk. Chances are the sun powers your calculator. Just check for the familiar small, dark gray panels on the front of the calculator. If they are there, your calculator operates with solar panel technology.

How does that little solar cell do its job? It uses photovoltaic cells. Photovoltaic (PV) comes from the words light (photo) and electricity (voltaic). Photovoltaic cells or modules (groups of cells) convert the light of the sun directly into electricity. It may seem exotic to use photovoltaic cells to power a small hand calculator, but solar panel technology is being applied to more every day.

Here’s how PV cells turn sunlight into electricity. They are made of materials called semiconductors. A frequently used semiconductor is silicon. When the sun strikes the semiconductor, the silicon soaks up some of the light. This transmits the energy within the sunlight to the semiconductor.

The energy breaks the electrons free, permitting them to flow unrestricted. To make something useful of all these free-floating electrons, the cells use electric or magnetic fields that drive the free electrons to flow like river, creating a current.

By inserting metal contacts at the top and bottom of the PV cell, we can extract the current to power something outside the cell. And there you have the basics to all solar panel technology. The total wattage (or power) is determined by the extracted current added to the cell’s voltage.

Advances in solar panel technology may actually see the panel itself disappear. The newest and most promising advance is the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) technology. In 1991Michael Gratzel, a chemist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology pioneered DSC (also called Gratzel cells).

DSC solar panel technology is designed in layers. A photosensitive layer composed of nano-sized, ultrathin semiconductor crystals over a fine layer of titanium dioxide. When sunlight hits the photosensitive layer, the loose electrons collect on the layer of titanium dioxide and produce an electrical current. A dye made of amorphous organic material covers the titanium dioxide — the dye absorbs sunlight and attracts free-flowing electrons, which creates a charge.

DSC lends itself to thin layers of photosensitive film. This transparent, lightweight, flexible and low-cost, sheets or dye film can be applied to the windows of your house or car, even to your sunglasses. The film generates a charge that can be applied to a small battery to power anything, including your phone or MP3 device.

The military even has applications for the DCS solar panel technology. The film can be applied to tents to power lights and laptops. In larger applications, it could power entire command centers. It could cover backpacks or be made into wearable solar panels and power a soldier’s electrical devices, eliminating the need for bulky and heavy supplies of batteries.

By: Jeff Fisher

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More research and development is put into military technology and innovation then any other industry or field. The evolution of the battlefield has occurred right in front of us, yet many people are unaware of how advanced the weaponry of the United States army and its allies has become. The battlefields our troops currently fight on are occupied by drones known as MQ-9 reapers and Predators, as well as a variety of unmanned land vehicles such as the SWORDS weapon system. Also we can’t forget about the advances in Fighter technology with the F-22 Raptor being on the forefront of aviation innovation.

The evolution of military technology has allowed the US military to move many of its troops out of harms way by implementing precision weaponry coupled with unmanned technologies. In the near future our battlefields could look like something from the movie Terminator with robots fighting each other and actually operating on artificial intelligence. The machines deployed in unfriendly territory will actually be linked to each other and communicate with soldiers and commanders to warn them of enemy positions or suspicious activities. Also systems like the YAL-1A airborne laser that the United States air-force has developed will keep our skies clear of ballistic missile threats.

Not only have the ground and air reconnaissances and attack vehicles been converted to unmanned applications, rifle and gun technology has developed at an incredible pace with applications such as the as50 British accuracy Sniper Rifle or the objective individual combat weapon. The Military technology that the soldier will be working with in the future will include upgraded ammunition and assault rifles as well as better and lighter armor such as the Dragon Skin system. There are many more new weapons system applications that seem lifetimes away but are being developed as we speak.

By: Jon Burton

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UMPC’s, the new wave.

Laptops are everywhere. They’ve replaced many desktops in the home due to their ease of use, mobility and performance. No longer are you confined to a desk in the corner from which you browse the web. Add in a decent wireless connection and you can even spend time in the garden enjoying the good weather whilst you write articles for your favourite directory. The only problem with a laptop is the size. Yes, they’re portable but you still need to sit down with a decent amount of space in which to work. Imagine leaving all this behind. Being able to carry your laptop in your pocket sounds ideal. True, many mobile handsets offer browsing and text capabilities but these aren’t enough for mobile workers or even users who need that little extra.

PDA’s did a relatively good job of bridging the divide between mobile phones and laptops but didn’t quite hit the mark required by many consumers. Battery life and processing power were another factor that prevented the adoption of the PDA as a productivity device.

The advent of low heat, low power consumption CPU’s has opened the way for a new generation of mobile devices. Admittedly, the Intel Atom is new and hasn’t been widely adopted yet but products such as the Intel A110 have been adequately powering XP based devices for some time now. Various terms are used to describe this new generation of mobile tech: Ultra Low Cost PC (ULCPC), Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) and Mobile Internet Device (MID). For this article I’ll stick to UMPC.

There is debate amongst analysts of exactly successful the UMPC market will be. Personally, I think it’s going to be big. Home users may not buy wholesale into this market but businesses will. Reducing the hardware size whilst maintaining a full productivity suite is a compelling sales pitch for any business. Many hardware vendors recognise the potential value of this market with the likes of Samsung, HTC, Asus and Acer releasing hardware to the market. Oh, don’t forget Apple. Did you really think the iPhone was simply a ‘must have’ mobile phone? No, Apples knows how the market works. The release of the iPhone api and integration into corporate networks shows that Apple is determined to capture a large slice of the mobile worker market.

The only aspect that slows the adoption of the UMPC as a true business device is processing power. As shown earlier, the Intel A110 was widely adopted for devices such as the Q1 Ultra running Windows XP. The advent of Windows Vista has shown that a new generation of CPU’s will be needed to give the devices the punch they need. Yes, Linux is alive and well in the UMPC market. Adoption of this Operating System will grow as more businesses integrate open source products into their infrastructure. For now we’ll just say that Linux is happy to run on older hardware.

The Intel Atom solves the CPU issue. Dual core processing power crammed into a device the size of a penny, whilst reducing power requirements and heat output – problem solved. But, as yet, not many hardware vendors have announced the inclusion of the Atom in future products – this will change. The UMPC future is looking good.

By: James Redden

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Knowing what technology will shape