[Shape]SHIFT HAPPENS?

Slashdot's got an article on shape-shifting SmartPhones.

How about shape-shifting schooldesks fit with monitors and headphones and wired for the future? I could see it know: "Ok, children... make your desk into whatever shape you want, get in, and let's see where we can take these things!"

Will SmartPhones be a viable alternative to Laptops for school and work?

Here the early results from my recent ask500people poll:



17% Very Unlikely
29% Unlikely
19% Not Sure
29% Likely
6% Very Likely

SmartPhones and SmartDesks meet SmartKeyboards

Now Reader Knaus is excited about the SmartPhone/SmartDesk combo:

I want in! Thanks for clarifying. So basically, each student gets a Palm Centro, Blackberry, or other Smartphone loaded with education "stuff." Love it. The only drawback is the keyboard but that shouldn't be too complicated.

Your keyboard worries aren't worries anymore: check out these portable PDA keyboards.

SmartPhones + SmartDesks =

Reader Knaus has some questions regarding my SmartDesk post:

What are we talking here? Using student supplied cell phones as modems for internet access?

My wife's business has thin clients. Nothing is actually stored on the desktop machine. Everything is done from a server? Is that what we're talking about?

I think we might be talking about something like this:

Educational software for cell phones, a suite of tools developed at the University of Michigan, is being used to turn smart phones into personal computers for students in two Texas classrooms.

Yup. SmartPhones. Just run 'em into monitors. And voilà: SmartDesks.

"This is the beginning of the future," Soloway said. "The future is mobile devices that are connected. They're going to be the new paper and pencil."

Cell phones can be powerful computers, Soloway says. They can do just about everything laptops can do for a fraction of the price. And many students are bringing them to school anyway.

Read the whole article here on Physorg.

SmartPhones

Interesting article at eSchool:

"Year after year, when students are asked on our Speak Up Survey what they'd most like to have, I get the same answer," said Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, a national education group that publishes the largest annual survey of student, parent, teacher, and administrator attitudes toward school technology.

"I hear: I want a laptop," Evans said.

But it's not the specific nature of the device itself that kids desire, she explained; instead, it's what a laptop gives them: the ability to control their own knowledge. According to Evans, a laptop serves as a proxy for intellectual freedom--and with recent advancements in handheld and smart-phone devices, these technologies can offer much of the same experience, at a typically lower cost.

There's been a bit of talk about this in comments as well as emails I've received related to earlier posts. So, what do you all think? Let's take a poll on ask500people: Will SmartPhones be a viable alternative to Laptops for school and work?