talkingDigital

photo credit: Extra Ketchup

Fast Company is one of our favorite magazines. In their September issue they ran an article entitled How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education. I strongly recommend that you read this article. While reading, think about how this same thought process can apply to other means of education and communication. Get used to the term edupunk, you will likely see us write about it more often on talkingDigital.

How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education | Fast Company.

photo credit: ajmexico

Believe it or not, there are still people switching from dial-up to broadband Internet. For almost a decade, these people have been saying stuff like, “I don’t really need fast Internet,” or “All I really ever do is email.”

If you are one of these people who is just now discovering that dial-up and broadband are really two totally difference species of Internet access, here is where you should go to discover a whole new universe of fun and productivity.

1. Google Earth – You have to download and install it, but Google Earth allows you to look at any place on Earth in dozens of different ways. View the Vegas strip in 3D, pinpoint every McDonalds on the planet, stroll down the street you grew up on.

2. Skype – Skype lets make video and audio calls to any other broadband user in the world for free. If you want to pay a little, you can also call any telephone in the world for prices far below anything your telephone company would ever offer. Many soldiers stationed overseas use Skype to call their families on a weekly basis.

3. Smithsonian Online tour – You may have to use Internet Explorer and download a browser plug-in but this great site lets you tour the Nation’s greatest museum.

4. Online Video – Once you discover the video that the Internet has to offer, you may discover that you can save even more money by canceling your cable or satellite bill. Try Hulu, TV.com or Joost for movies and TV shows, YouTube for goofy stuff and useful stuff alike – YouTube is a great tutorial database if you want to learn how to change that hard drive in your laptop or the kitchen faucet. There are dozens of other online video sites out there. Be careful though, some (i.e. Break.com, MetaCafe.com) allow more controversial content than others.

5. Flickr – Flickr actually works pretty well on dial-up as long as you are just looking at photos. Uploading photos on the other hand is impossible with dial-up. Flickr gives you the ability to share your photos with friends and family and the world.

6. Google Docs/ZOHO – Remember when you used to need Microsoft Office or WordPerfect to do anything productive with your computer? With broadband all you need is an operating system (Windows, Macintosh or Linux) and a browser – which they all come with out of the box. Both of these online office suites allow you to create projects online that can be accessed from any computer. In other words, no need to start a document at work, save it to a flash drive, then find out that you can’t open it at home. If you create a document in either of these online suites, you just log into that site when you get home and everything is there.

7. Online backup – There are dozens of these services but we like Mozy and DropBox the best depending on your need. You have probably also heard of Carbonite which is also very good. Online backup services allow your computer to backup information online so that if your computer crashes, burglary occurs or some other catastrophe causes you to lose information stored on your computer, you can restore it via these online services.

8. FlightAware – This one might not be for everybody, but it comes in handy when you need it. FlightAware lets you track any flight or any airport in near real time. Pick an airport and you can watch the airplanes by flight/tail number and track information such as altitude, speed, arrival time, etc. It is so close to real time that it allows you to feel the power and potential of broadband Internet.

9. Poisson Rouge – This one is for the little kids but it will occupy any kid of any age for several hours. Poisson Rouge is a website that I recommend to anyone who needs to practice with the mouse a little more.

10. Any other website out there – Remember when you could look a recipe up in a book faster than you could online? Not any more, try Food.tv or AllRecipes.com. Remember when you used to have to look a word up in the dictionary? Not any more. Now you can have the definition quicker than it takes to read the next three steps (assuming you can type 25 words per minute or faster).

Open your web browser.

• Type define broadband in the little search box in the upper right corner.
• Hit the ENTER/Return key.
• Poof! the first link at the top will take you to the definition of broadband.

By the time you go to each of these sites, you should be wondering how you ever did without broadband, and we haven’t even gotten into Netflix, iTunes, Last.fm or future technologies like Google Wave.

photo credit: roland

In the tech world there are many debates. Mac vs. PC, FireWire vs. USB, Dell vs. HP. The list could go on.

One argument has been declared over by too many people. CNET, TechCrunch and others have declared that the netbook is dead as an independent platform. As notebooks have grown smaller and more powerful and features have been added, many tech writers have decided that there is no real difference between the netbook and the notebook.

Netbooks still have a place. The problem is that netbooks are dying because companies who make them have forgotten why they caught on in the first place.

The appeal of the original netbook was not the grand set of features or the speed. Netbooks were wonderful because they fit a niche.

The talkingDigital.org criteria for what makes a netbook a netbook:

1. Size – a true netbook features a keyboard that can be used with two hands and a screen that can fit a 1024 web page. The keyboard should be full but “full size” was not a requirement.

2. Instant on (or as close as you can get) – Netbooks were not a replacement for notebooks nor are they a replacement for smartphones. People don’t want to take out their notebooks and wait for them to boot up just to use Twitter and check their Facebook. They also don’t want to spend 20 minutes typing out emails on a smartphone.

3. Web apps are all you need – True netbooks don’t need CD-ROM drives, 160GB hard drives etc. If you need a device that will store all your photos, edit video and play games, you need a notebook. A netbook needs a web browser, a webcam, a microphone and a few USB ports. The netbook is  a portal to Web 2.0 and The Cloud, 8 or 16GB should be plenty of storage space. You shouldn’t need Microsoft Office when Google Docs or Zoho will do the job even better.

4. OS is a utility not a platform – Whether a netbook runs on Linux, Windows, Android or BeOS shouldn’t matter in the least. As long as it runs a Webkit or Firefox browser that supports Flash, Java and other web platforms, that should be all you need.

5. Battery life – a true netbook will sacrifice most other features for longer battery life. Screen brightness is great, but most people turn their screen brightness down in public places to conserve battery and keep people from snooping over their shoulder. Solitaire runs great on a Pentium II and the Internet never even pushes the dual core capabilities of any system. A small processor, low powered screen and lack of moving motors give a netbook a longer battery life. Adding these features cuts down battery life. Netbooks need battery. If you have to sit next to an outlet to use your computer for more than an hour, you might as well get a true notebook.

A netbook is a supplemental computer. It is not intended to replace a notebook or smartphone. It is designed to be used for for stretches of an hour or two at the most, but to go long stretches without needed recharged. You should be able to keep it in a portable bag or purse so that it is always handy if you find yourself needing to kill time in a hotspot. It should be small enough not to annoy those around you but large enough to use comfortably.

Before buying a netbook, we suggest you go with a notebook instead if any of the following apply:

1. You want to use it to store or edit photos

2. You want it for World of Warcraft (or any other 3D game) on the go; bejeweled, solitaire and Zuma will work fine on most netbooks.

3. You want to store your music on it.

4. You need to run Microsoft Office, Photoshop or any other specific application to get your work done. If web apps won’t do the job, go with a notebook.

5. You expect it to replace your notebook or your smartphone. If you expect it to replace any device you currently use, you will be disappointed. Netbooks are a device in an of themselves. They will do jobs that you can do with both notebooks and smartphones can do, but they will do them better given the right circumstances.