The Asus 900 eeePC

A couple of weeks ago I bought an Ausus 900 eeePC (http://eeepc.asus.com/global/product.htm). It’s a “netbook”, a very small laptop (8.86" x 6.69") with 1 GB of RAM, 16GB of flash storage, and weighs a touch over 2 lbs. This model has a Linux operating system (although Windows XP Home is available) and comes with a good bundle of applications such as Firefox, Open Office, Skype, as well as audio and video players. My thought was it would be a perfect machine for travelling and connecting to my work and home computers. With my eeePC I can reach my desktop computer at the hospital with our IS approved secure Citrix client and my home computer with LogMeIn. The eeePC connects easily to a wireless or wired Internet connection, so I have the resources of all 3 machines available to me in a 2 lb package.

This would be a great tool for the mobile clinician (assuming it will fit in a lab coat pocket), student, or anyone on the go. It would also be a wonderful component for a mobile computer lab. The biggest things I’ve had to get accustomed to are the small keyboard and a 1024x600 display, neither of which are show stoppers. I also have to remind myself it is not intended to be a desktop or laptop replacement. It fills a middle ground between PDAs and a full size laptop and it does it extremely well.

A lot of players are coming into the netbook arena. Asus, HP, Acer, MSI, and Dell all have or will soon have similar products starting at $299. Even with several options one of these devices will cost less than many PDAs and has a screen size much more accommodating to aging Baby Boomer eyes!

Free Quick Reference Guides to Microsoft and Adobe Products

Free 2 page guides covering the essentilas for a wide variety of Microsoft and Adobe products. Excellent student handouts. This is just a sample of the couple of dozen they have available:

http://www.customguide.com/pdf/word-quick-reference-2007.pdf
http://www.customguide.com/pdf/powerpoint-quick-reference-2007.pdf
http://www.customguide.com/pdf/excel-quick-reference-2007.pdf
http://www.customguide.com/pdf/access-quick-reference-2007.pdf

re: A Portal to Media Literacy

Finished watching the video over the weekend. Definitely worth watching and I think I will watch it again to pick on the bits I missed, especially about using netvibes as a classroom portal. I will likely take some of these techniques and see if I can plug them into my PageFlakes PLE.

Super Simple Blogging

Posterous (http://www.posterous.com) is a simple micro-blogging application that works by sending email to your site address and will post attached images and mp3 files. Definitely worth a second look.

Take a look at a full write up from Read Write Web (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/posterous_minimalist_blogging.php)

More from Michael Wesch

Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropology professor from Kansas State University recently (6/17/2008) delivered a lecture at the University of Manitoba entitled "A Portal to Media Literacy" (http://umanitoba.ca/ist/production/streaming/podcast_wesch.html) . He's the person behind the YouTube classics Information R/evolution and several others.

I haven't finished watching it yet (it's over an hour) but Tony Karrer at the Workplace Literacy blog (http://www.workliteracy.com/network-key-skill) says he ends with "..the thought that students needed to go from:
Knowledgeable
to
Knowledge-able"

Tony proceeds to note "However, when I think about key skills gaps that exist and the biggest changes in knowledge work, it’s more about People, Expertise Finding, Networking, Collaboration, Virtual Teams, etc. "

I'd like to start with my students (and many in the workplace) being "knowlege-able" and creating opportunities and encouragment for the other elements to follow.