Are Students as Techno-Savvy are they are supposed to be?

I would argue not. There's a myth out there that students are just wunderkinds when it comes to technology - and a lot of adults actually believe that it is somehow genetic - that there is some innate ability to understand technology that adults have grown out of. Hogwash! There are as many ways to approach tech as there are people and students are no different in that respect. I have had numerous students tell me what techno-idiots they are. I believe they cover it up though - don't publicly admit it - until faced with a technology challenge. I'd say a key difference between the kids and the adults is that adults tend to only use what they perceive to be immediately useful, while kids tend to explore more. Perhaps this is a time issue - kids have more time because they don't have a mortgage, car payments, bills, etc. Since th estudents have more time, they can spend the time learning something new - like that new cell phone feature, new computer game, new whatever. Adults tend to only learn it if they have to - or worse, figure they CAN'T learn it because they've been out of school too long. That's just sad.

TubeMogul

TubeMogul is a service (free) that I stumbled across while thinking about creating a vodcast (i.e. video podcast) for GovAccessMusic.com. It allows you (after some setup work) to upload a video ONCE and publish it on several different video sharing sites. Sweet! For example: ONE upload now shows up on

Google Video YouTube Revver MetaCafe Yahoo Video Daily Motion Veoh ... plus others.

The links to revver and Yahoo aren't available yet.

The service even tracks views and clicks from all these other portals. It's a well-designed site that is easy to use.

the 3g iPhone - so?

(Disclaimer: I'm not an Apple employee, nor do I write for any Mac magazines/tech publications/etc.)

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Steve Jobs announced the 3g iPhone today at the 2008 WWDC (WorldWide Developer's Conference). My reaction? "Well, it's nice, but it isn't going to change my life". (Sorry, Steve! Well, no, not really.) Why? Part has to do with how I use technology. I don't NEED to be texting all day every day. I don't NEED to have web access on my phone (I do however need to take a break from the web!). I don't NEED to be spending $100/month for cell phone service for one phone! (OK - I do spend close to that, but that's for THREE phones - and I pay by the message for texting because I'd rather spend $2.00 a month for the few that I get/send versus $5 or $10/month for a capability that I won't use.) Call me cheap - but I'd rather spend the bucks on groceries...or gasoline. What's nice about the new iPhone?

1. The user interface - wicked simple to work
2. Web access, especially using the 3g network.
3. The flush-mount headphone jack. You gotta admit that Apple at least changes something when they mess it up - the recessed headphone jack in the original iPhone was a mistake.
4. The lower price

So why won't I be getting one, even at $199?

1. I don't need it. The little dinky LG phone I'm using has served me well, and it does what I need it to do.
2. I don't need to spend the money on something that is "cool", but adds little to functionality to my life as it stands.....and would add complexity.

Yeah, it's a nice gadget. But I've gotta go buy milk instead.

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