"You higher ed people should tell us - you want incoming students to use TabletPCs"
This is an urge by the morning's keynote speaker.
Joel Backon
Director of Technology and History Teacher
Choate Rosemary Hall
It was a misdirected address, given the crowd which was largely higher ed. However, higher ed needs to listen to a new perspective. His attempts at "bringing down the system" were motivated by popular fiction works. I can't even recount how many weak sources he tried to quote to motivate the crowd. They may be revered in some circles, but did not seem to "OOh! and AAh!" the crowd.
I or anyone could have made the same mistake in presentation situations. Its forgivable. I am not big at criticism, but sometimes its sad to see a Keynote not do a Keynote's job.
I look forward to keynotes as being inspirational. Giving hints for a future path. Something fresh, connected to established norms.
"I wish there were handwriting recognition that would do math equation" --AAAAARGH! People in the audi scoffed... which he instantly picked up and said something like.... "yea, works for me but not for my Math teachers...".
I am no Microsoft employee, but if there are MSFT reps in the audience, the speaker feels it's open season for hunting. Picking on easy targets may not create a positive impression. Beating up MSFT employee for audience entertainment is an aging technique.
Pedagogical dwelling on note-taking was quite enlightening. I could connect with this part. But again, the argument had a predictable follow up. Given all the sessions yesterday, the tone could have been "So, hey, you do this" and move on. There is no need to expand on solutions which have marinated our brains yesterday.
Why am i so crnky? Is he making me cranky? I am not usually cranky.
In general, I think we need fresh thinkers, not product peddlers. Standford's Mechanical Engineering professor was fresh and inspiring to listen to. Yesterday's keynote from Clemson U was engaging.
"Why do people call me to follow up an email?" Huh!!!
"The good way to sell your product is to showcase successful users" - Sounded right until he said - "This is a message only to vendors in the room" - Huh! 2 minutes ago he was prasing DyKnow as the killer app of TabletPCs.
"Standardize your pens, you vendors" - This made good sense. Good Keynotey stuff.
Would I invite this guy to speak at my party? Not in his current avatar. Is is strong? No, weak arguments.
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