01-31-2010, 04:31 AM | #16 | |
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only for academia?
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The final product would have application outside of academia, but the salient features would reflect the expressed needs of people in the academy. Thanks! |
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01-31-2010, 08:01 AM | #17 |
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01-31-2010, 09:00 AM | #18 |
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Fixed! thanks again LDBoblo.
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01-31-2010, 10:05 AM | #19 |
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KenK
What is your opinion of Evernote as a replacement for OneNote in your requirements? |
01-31-2010, 11:52 AM | #20 |
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Ok ok,
I am a person who does research for living and who is very interested in ebook devices since more than three years now. First of all, The Entourage Edge is really a kick-ass device for the job. The only thing that kills the edge is that it's too bulky and a bit unappealing. The Que reader is super for reading, but stinks as a research tool since it does not have stylus support and doesn't allow notes and scribbles...etc A device that might really work is a device that would not use the current technology of eInk. It needs to have a very quick refresh rate that allows scribbles, notes and web-browsing. Color is not a very important issue, and backlighting is big No-No. I see the perfect device using one of the new technologies (like Liquavista). The device must be able to serve three purposes: 1. Very efficient eTextBook reading experience. 2. Usable Internet access with the ability to download, view...etc documents 3. Word processing capabilities, mostly in the area of note writing and sketching. The device also needs to have a very fine and precise handwriting support. Hope that helped |
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01-31-2010, 12:55 PM | #21 |
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Has anyone seen a liquavista display in action?
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01-31-2010, 01:07 PM | #22 |
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There were a few at CES as demos, and there are of course a few videos available via YouTube and other sources. You can also check their website.
They're not on the market yet, just like Qualcomm's Mirasol. Those will, with any luck, be available on devices within a year or so. |
01-31-2010, 04:16 PM | #23 |
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If we can include elementary, middle, and high school as well, I think that the ability for teachers to access, live, and control what is on student's readers/computers is a must. Similarly, they should be able to access and review the notes, work, jottings etc. that entered by students. This would allow for reduced paper use and increased ability of teachers to understand what students are doing.
Consider a math class. A teacher, able to see live on their tablet, thumbnails of the screens of all students in the class. They can zoom in, checking student work seamlessly, and identify and then HELP those students who need it most, while letting those who 'get it' know that they are on the right track. There's a professor at UVIC (the University of Victoria), in the education department, working on something like this, and the possibilities are, I feel, very exciting. |
01-31-2010, 04:38 PM | #24 |
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I'd love to see a form factor like the iPad (10" touchscreen color). With the following:
- Collaborative wifi apps, so I can share my screen with 1-100 other screens and optionally have them write on the document or just view it. - Wirelessly share the tablet contents on huge monitors. - Comprehensive highlighting, annotation and indexing capabilities. It would have to be able to open a PDF, epub or txt file and let me add notes/highlights anywhere. - Copy and paste any chunk from the ebooks into other documents like I can with PDFs on a laptop. - Ability to use a pen stylus I like the scenario where I am sitting in a lecture hall with some class mates and we are collaboratively working on tablets/laptops and seeing work appear on a large screen in front of us as well. |
01-31-2010, 08:43 PM | #25 |
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For me (Uni student) the perfect Academic E-Reader would be something that;
- can handle reading PDFs. - Able to read PDFs that are scanned pages (a lot of academic journals are scanned documents). - Ability to open more than one document at a time and switch between with ease (think of tabs in Firefox). - With the size screen (9.7" or close to) non-glass substrate, so one of the new plastic based ones. - Linux based, no Windows based devices. - Support bookmarks. I don't need to annotate, don't need touchscreen, my needs are simple. |
02-01-2010, 02:39 AM | #26 |
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I think that collaboration and networking are very valuable additions to a full-featured academic tech solution, and that there's plenty of potential in developing computer software for this purpose. A few years ago, I taught some classes in a computer lab with some very badly designed software to control the class network. With the client software installed on all the computers, I could set them up to be manipulated by the central server in a few ways. I mostly just used it for broadcasting images/slides/videos as one would normally do with a projector and screen, but saw that there was potential there.
Of course, that's using local hardware. What if the students had their own computers/tablets? How willing would they be to install some bloated crapware on their device, just to participate in my class? If we move this to a simpler web browser-based login, many teachers will worry about students dicking around and doing other things like gaming or social networking. Keeping the LAN off the internet isn't really a useful solution either. However, that's mostly inside the classroom, where student independence is generally somewhat sacrificed in the interest of time efficiency. In the classroom, I have not given much thought to a paradigm that could connect all the dots without rage and frustration. Outside of the classroom, on the other hand, is a completely different kind of story. Connectivity allows a lot of conscious collaborative work, but it must be quick and convenient. A software application would need to be benign and unobtrusive, with a well-designed UI that would encourage its adoption. I remember when I first tried WebCT several years ago, and thought it was pretty much just a hassle and waste of time. I've been out of that loop for some time though, and I don't know what kinds of inroads it's made, if any. But perhaps before all this connectivity and community and collaboration and whatever other C words come up, a device must be attractive for autonomous use. Multiple document handling, web browsing, annotation, all these things must seem fairly natural, and not just a gadgety contrivance. Good UI, relatively light weight and thin, and good battery life. Speed will be key. It may not seem like much of a problem, but a lot of people do not want to use their computers in classrooms due to space conflicts and speed (boot speed in particular). Anyway...I'm optimistic, but there's a lot that needs to be done on the independent research device side of things (though most of the pieces are available, they're not being integrated) before extending their functionality in terms of collaboration and classroom use. Seems pretty damn ambitious for just one or two independent research groups. |
02-01-2010, 06:53 AM | #27 | |
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Quote:
2) I don't spend time in classrooms. Both my children do, and I'm strongly interested in what technologies will be used to teach them. However, more than half your questions are phrased in ways I can't honestly answer. I could, I suppose, point my kids at the survey. The older one is interested in ebooks and might have useful feedback for you; the younger would be limited to demographic data. |
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02-01-2010, 06:57 AM | #28 |
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I want to thank everyone who has contributed so far. Your input is very interesting. So far 9 people have taken the survey and the result has been a wealth of information about the ideal device/software for academic use. My organization needs a sample size of 50 to begin to analyze the results and construct hypothetical use cases for specific user profiles. So as more participants take the survey, we will be able to move forward.
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02-01-2010, 07:02 AM | #29 | ||
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re: Elfwreck
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Quote:
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02-02-2010, 02:57 PM | #30 | |
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