TABLET PCs & THE NEW PRINT MEDIA

If you are looking for a fantastic new technology, you should check out the new Tablet PC operating system. It is a full Window XP Professional operating system with additional tablet functionality.

You can write on the screen and it will convert your cursive into typed script. You can also store your cursive notes in the computer as well in programs such as OneNote or GoBinder. Magazines and books are now being produced in electronic form and you can read them on your tablet as well as annotate any document on the computer with pens and highlighters of different colors. If you have not seen one, you really should check it out. If you are more inclined to write books than read them, you can also publish books on the internet in electronic form with the help of very simple tools. You can write your first novel in Word or Open Office and then publish it in secure pdf form with Acrobat or an equivalent open source pdf printer program such as CutePDF. If you are interest in writing your journal online for all to see, you might want to start a web-log or 'blog'. There are a number of free blogging sites and software out on the internet. Sites such as e-blogger and wordpress make it very easy to put together and publish your own blog on the internet. Blogging can be fun and gratifying but it can also be dangerous if you are not careful about the information that you put in your online blog. Always remember that anyone with access to the internet can read anything that you put on your online blog. Make sure that you put nothing in your blog that you do not want the entire public to know.

If you absolutely must have your book on paper, you can have it published relatively inexpensively at such sites as Lulu.com.

EDUCATION AND THE TABLET PC

The tablet pc has the potential to totally change the way that we interact with print media. Nowhere is this potential as great as on a university campus. The infrastructure of the modern American university make the campuses of the United States the perfect place to push the technological envelope. The wireless networks and computer networks at schools such as UCLA make it possible to make a very credible attempt to realize a completely paperless learning system. Not only has UCLA made a very concerted effort to publish most traditional written materials on the web, but the university has started to use very interesting online teaching tools. If you are interested, take a look at the UCLA E-Campus website.

Limited natural resources make it very important that we find different, more efficient ways to achieve our educational mission. The tablet pc affords the modern educator many of the tools necessary to realize this dream. Please take a look at websites such as Student Tablet PC and Tablet PC Buzz for more information about this very exciting movement.