Another year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has come and gone. What did this year's CES bring to the table for the eLearning industry?
Tablets
Many have coined 2011 "the year of the tablet"…and I believe it. The iPad has been well received among educational institutions. I think this trend in tablet computing will continue, moving beyond fad and into what could potentially make tablets an essential educational tool, and perhaps even a major money-saver for college students who would otherwise dump a large amount of money into hard-copy textbooks. Even though Apple doesn't show at CES, their presence was certainly felt as the competition scrambled to churn out products that would be able to compete with the ever-popular iPad.
Some of the standouts:
Tablet Laptops
There are still plenty of people who just can't see a place in their lives for a tablet. One of the oft-repeated issues with a tablet is the lack of keyboard. Another issue is the feeling of superfluity of having both a laptop AND a tablet. The Dell Inspiron Duo was a highly anticipated compromise, but unfortunately was met with lackluster reviews. The reviews may have been poor but the idea was solid and many manufacturers threw their take on the tablet/laptop hybrid into the rink at this year's CES.
Some of the standouts:
Smart Phones
Aside from the Motorola Atrix (which docks to a laptop shell and becomes and laptop itself-cool eh?), there wasn't a whole lot of new news on the smartphone front–mostly just improvements on existing technology and performance. Every little bit, however, brings us one step closer to broader mLearning implementation.
Some of the standouts:
About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."