I had the opportunity of hosting a workshop recently titled “The New World of Tablet Computing” where the point was to display the feature sets and capabilities of four new (and market leading) tablets:  the Nexus 10; the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″; the iPad 4th generation; and the Microsoft Surface RT.   Market leading is deceptive.  iPad leads the market by light years, and the Fire and Nexus can only be mentioned as distant competition with the Surface not even appearing on the charts if sales is used as the standard.  Nevertheless, since some actual competition to the iPad now exists, I...

The new Microsoft Surface starts at $499 for the tablet only, without a type or touch cover (the detachable face cover with built-in keyboard), but including preview versions  the Office RT apps: Word RT, Excel RT, PowerPoint RT, and OneNote RT.  This review may be an extended effort to not only tell you about the Surface, but to attempt to answer the question “What were they thinking?” I am attempting to type this review on the membrane touch cover, which I opted for as a $120 addition, but things are not going well.  I think I have already pressed the Backspace key more often than the other keys...

This is a continuation of my interview with the Academic Technology Systems Administrators about technology planning at Palomar College.  In this part we focus on some rubber meets the road issues like paperless environments, AV technologies, telephony, and lots of other issues.  The written response of the technicians is provided in the post below, and the audio of an interview with them follows the post. Additional Questions for ATRC Staff 1.  Would you support a goal of creating a paperless environment at Palomar College, if it meant that you would not have access to printers and would have to rely...

Here is the second part of my interview with Lee Hoffmann, Audio Visual supervisor at Palomar College.  In the Q&A section I try to summarize Lee’s responses to some specific questions about AV technology on campus, and at the end the audio of the interview is available. Q: Would you support purchase and installation of newer AV technologies like short throuw projectors onto smart boards, or large screen LCD monitors in place of digital projectors? A: Yes and No.  Smart Boards are good in certain instances, but the ADA laws requiring that the bottom of the board limits their utility.  Their...

I sat down with Lee Hoffmann, supervisor of our Audio Visual department, to talk about the AV profile and plan for Palomar College over the next several years.  I am part of a small committee responsible for writing a new technology master plan for the campus, and we are in the information gathering phase of our project.  Lee’s input, then, is critical.  When you ask professors about classroom technology, the first thing they mention is “the projector.”  In informal surveys when we have asked professors attending our semester orientations if they use a digital projector to teach, we...