mbeckford's Comments

Disruptive Leadership : Work-life balance "pop quiz"

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:25:04 +0000

Apam

Disruptive Leadership : Will the iPad disrupt the Kindle?

Sun, 16 May 2010 07:19:03 +0000

Thanks for the insightful comment, Caleb. What do you mean when you say \"Apple\" is disruptive, beyond the fact that they have disrupted industries multiple times (e.g. PC's with the Mac, music with iTunes/iPod, etc.).

Disruptive Leadership : Disruptive leaders - Jeff Bezos and the Kindle

Sun, 7 Feb 2010 07:24:09 +0000

But does it matter if iPad becomes reading device of choice? My prediction: Amazon remains leader in e-books, whether it is on their device or not. There is no money in hardware once it becomes commoditized.

Disruptive Leadership : Will the iPad disrupt the Kindle?

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 10:59:16 +0000

Businessweek recently posted a very similar article to this, entitled "Apple's Hard iPad Sell" (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/fe... The author's conclusions are similar to mine.

Disruptive Leadership : Rice paddies and culture

Wed, 3 Feb 2010 06:20:08 +0000

Carol, as a parent of three boys, two of which have ADHD, I can clearly see the benefits. At what age is this typically taught?

Disruptive Leadership : Rice paddies and culture

Wed, 3 Feb 2010 06:15:05 +0000

Thank you for pointing that out. Apparently it is not as easy to remember for a lao wai (foreigner). I have made the correction.

Educational Technology Debate : 2010 Trends: Alternate Computing Emergence and Convergence

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:48:27 +0000

Thin Client definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client "Ultra-thin" client or "zero client" mentioned in this link is closest to what I consider a virtual desktop. Thin client is different than a PC in that the CPU is lower-end, has no hard drives or optical drives (uses flash). Costs are the about the same with a PC. Virtual desktops have no OS, no CPU, no HDD, etc. They just provide an interface for keyboards and mice. Software is loaded on a PC that allows multiple virtual user sessions to be distributed to multiple separate client devices. You can get many of these questions answered through Google or Wikipedia.

Educational Technology Debate : 2010 Trends: Alternate Computing Emergence and Convergence

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:38:54 +0000

Total cost of ownership (TCO) calculations. You can find a discussion on an article I posted to this site here: http://edutechdebate.org/individal-and-communal-c... I reference 60%, but we've seen savings on actual deals up to 75%.

Educational Technology Debate : 2010 Trends: Alternate Computing Emergence and Convergence

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:27:36 +0000

Yes, research demonstrating this value vs. additional access for more students would be useful. I also think it should be measured on a scale of one's age/grade. I would guess the older / higher grade a student is, the more valuable portability becomes.

Educational Technology Debate : 2010 Trends: Alternate Computing Emergence and Convergence

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:38:52 +0000

Keep in mind that what I'm talking about from NComputing technically isn't a thin client. We call them virtual desktops. Our warranty is 3 years, but failure is rare given no moving / hot parts. They are closed, durable boxes the size of a cigarette pack. The only advantage for OLPC is really portability, and with virtual desktops at 75% of the lifetime cost of an XO, it questions whether it is better to use those $'s to put more kids in front of computers then to give less kids portability.

Educational Technology Debate : 2010 Trends: Alternate Computing Emergence and Convergence

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:50:13 +0000

Cavin, the $65 price was for a large tender (>$60K seats) so that obviously isn't a public price. The monitors were new. The $89 price was on TigerDirect.com after a $70 rebate for a new $17" widescreen monitor. Street pricing in China where I am now is around $125 for a 19" monitor. Go ahead and shop around and you should be able to find similar pricing. Bottom line is that monitor prices have come down significantly.

Educational Technology Debate : 2010 Trends: Alternate Computing Emergence and Convergence

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:56:34 +0000

Ed, my point about the netbook fever slowing in the education sector is that I think the OLPC and Intel Classmate PC hype mission will have become but a memory (this is already happening). I have no issue with netbooks or notebooks for that matter for use in schools, but I question the tradeoff of the benefit of portability over cost. Higher costs mean less computers being purchases, reducing the number of students that have access. Is it better for more kids to have access to computers, or fewer that can now carry it around with them?

Educational Technology Debate : 2010 Trends: Alternate Computing Emergence and Convergence

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:51:11 +0000

Mike, I think 1:1 computing is clearly better than shared access computing. But realistically most governments don't have the budgets to put computers in the hands of every student. And if they do try to do 1:1 computing, it just reduces the number of students that have access. And the "thin clients" that I am talking about here are not truly thin clients ... we call them virtual desktops. They allow students to share a single PC (with their own monitor, mouse and keyboard, using the computers excess performance capacity. And ironically, the only country that has truly done 1:1 computing is Macedonia, which they have used NComputing's virtual desktops to do it within a small budget.

Educational Technology Debate : 2010 Trends: Alternate Computing Emergence and Convergence

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:47:18 +0000

Cavin, They can be remarkably cheap nowadays, especially for large government tenders. On tenders my company has been involved with we've seen 15" LCD monitor prices as low as $65. You can get 17" for $89 and 19" for single-unit purchases off the internet. They can be cheaper when bundled with a PC as well.

Educational Technology Debate : What Have We Learned From One Laptop Per Child?

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:41:39 +0000

What have we learned from OLPC? Many great contributions have been submitted here and elsewhere. Hopefully I can provide a few that provide a different twist on the OLPC story. 1. A great idea can create an almost religious fervor. The OLPC "debate" over the last five years has ranged from the rational to the extreme. There are critics, fans and fanatics. How much of this has to do with the underlying "idea" of OLPC, vs. the "personality" of OLPC (emboddied in Negroponte himself), is a question to ponder. 2. A disruptive idea (OLPC) can create a disruption in a completely different industry/market. Netbooks would not exist today without the introduction of OLPC. The $3B in sales Wayan mentions is staggering, but most are not in schools. They are in the hands of road warriors and the middle class, and have made market leaders out of Acer and Asustek. 3. "Should we spend our limited school budget on computers or textbooks?" I believe OLPC drove an exponential growth in computers in schools. Schools in underprivileged markets probably have more computers, whether XO's, Classmate PC's, netbook, notebooks, PC's, or virtual desktops, then they would have had without the OLPC initiative. OLPC made computers in school a requirement, not an option regardless of whether it is a 1:1 deployment of notebook computers. 4. Setting the bar. By pre-announcing a $100 price point for laptops before he even comprehended the supply chain costs, Negroponte set expectations that, while unrealistic and unreachable at the time, made governments expect inexpensive solutions from suppliers. 5. Be careful what you ask for. By touting very bold goals in public, such as a $100 price point or a prediction of >100 million deployed, OLPC put its credibility on the line. A million units deployed is a respectable number, but in the context of 1) the stated original goals, the # of years it has taken to reach this number, and the actual penetration of 1M units compared to total students in emerging markets worldwide, the # is less impressive. I recently predicted on my blog that the netbook "hype" would fade starting in 2010 (http://www.disruptiveleadership.com/2010/01/12/th... Wayan strongly disagreed. Would be curious to look back in a year or two to see who was right.

Educational Technology Debate : Improving ICT Assessment in Education

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:14:03 +0000

Mary, I really like the model you introduce in Figure 1. I've always been fond of "magic quadrants." How do you measure where a particular school is in your model?

Educational Technology Debate : ICT in Education Assessments are Biased and Inaccurate

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:49:30 +0000

Coming from the business world, I view this simply as "success metrics." Every single product, program or initiative, assuming they are managed by competent marketeers or project managers, should have defined success metrics before the project is launched. The project is then assessed based on real world data compared to the original success metrics. But even in the business world, these assessments can become over-complicated. Often a few simple metrics that are statistically valid is sufficient. I don't think anybody is arguing that there should be no assessments, just the what and how of how these are implemented. And that can be debated to the cows come home. My principle is always to keep these assessments simple but useful.

Educational Technology Debate : Women Succeed in ICT with Parents and Role Models

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:56:22 +0000

Watch an episode of the popular and excellent TV series "Mad Men" about managers and employees in the advertising business in the late 50's/early 60's is cringe-worthy, especially in the treatment of women. In talking to my mother about the program who was a 20-something in Manhattan, she saws the portrayals are extremely accurate. In 40 years, we've progressed significantly, albeit as Wayan first comment implies, we still have work to do addressing the gender gap and glass ceiling. But what about in emerging markets? If it is a male-dominated society, which I believe the majority are, there will be severe barriers. In Singapore (not an emerging market), when I was working at Intel, there was just as many women as men in the local Intel office. In China, in marketing, there was also about the same ratio. In Nigeria, one of the top two PC makers had a female CEO. The latter could be a random incident, but it would be telling to understand the role her parents had. If parents buck cultural trends (which is rare I believe), that will make a huge difference in a gender-neutral approach to educational and career interests.

Educational Technology Debate : Are Girls Excluded From ICT, Or Just Perceived So?

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:47:05 +0000

If you go to an Internet Cafe in China which typically boasts 100's of PC's, you will find a large # of girls (although outnumbered significantly by boys). China iCafe's are social hangouts where gaming reigns king. Both boys and girls play games. Both boys and girls use cellphones actively at young age as it massively facilitates communication perfect suitable for teens ... very short-messaging. So with the right environment AND application, assuming no inherent discrimination, I do not see why females couldn't become as much a user of ICT as males.

Educational Technology Debate : My Path to ICT Success: Professional Development

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:42:00 +0000

I think that exposure to ICT from a location and inter-personal influences is absolutely part of it. Outliers talks about how Bill Gates innate interest and skill in programming wasn't enough. The fact that his family was wealthy and he was lucky enough to go to a particular school that had rare access (at the time) to computers was an instrumental part of his personal and professional development. And we all know his impact.