I gave a presentation on engineering to a local high school class a few weeks ago.  It was a brief explanation on engineering and potential jobs in various industries.

It was the first time I’d been in a high school since I graduated well over a decade ago.  My how times have changed.

At first I was in awe.  There were electronic chalkboards in every room.  The teacher writes on the white board with a special pen, and a computer documents everything scribed during a session.

There are laptops abound, high-tech digital telephones in each room that connect to anyone, or any room at any time.  There are electronic forms to fill out when visiting the building, and electronic surveillance and security all over.

After soaking up all the technology, I asked my buddy who teaches the class what a new teacher makes these days.  I won’t give the exact figure, but if I told you it would (and should) piss you off.

Any increase in budget over the last 5 years or so has gone to improving the resources, upgrading the buildings, and adding technology at every corner.

Who missed out?  The most valuable and overlooked resource in the building.

The teachers themselves.

Technology education, Technology

Back in the beginning of 2007, inspired by Futurist David Houle, I wrote about my vision for a new medium on which printed media would morph into electronic media, yet still retain the look and feel of printed news.

Well, another step has been made towards that vision, and it’s taking its roots in advertising.

Entertainment Weekly is taking on an experiment by which super-thin video screens will be embedded into pages of their magazines.  Prominent television personalities will grace the screens in advertisements, predominantly for Pepsi and CBS.

Americhip has developed the technology, and has developed many advanced marketing strategies that entice all five senses of the customer.  A strategy the company likes to call “multisensorizing”.

The cost of such a video-laced magazine ad hasn’t been disclosed, nor has the market for the technological magazines been specified.  However, New York and L.A. audiences are on the radar to participate.

I can’t imagine that the experiment will be cheap, but cost is largely relative, and if CBS and Pepsi see a return on their investment, we may end up seeing more of these digital screens in magazines in the very near future.

This is just the beginning.

As I mentioned in my post back in 2007, I foresee these digital screens growing into pages of their own, fed content through the Internet, and pushing the paper delivery boy out of business.

The technology is here, and by the fact that we’re going to get a taste of the technology in a magazine, even in limited distribution, tells me the price of the technology is becoming more and more attractive.

If you happen to encounter a copy of the magazine with the video ads, I’d like to hear your opinion on the experience!

Technology David Houle, magazines, media, Technology, video ads

I stumbled upon a new service from the end-all-be-all Google that may be the next step in the evolution of mobile communication.

Effectively, Google Voice merges traditional cell phone and land line service in to voice over IP (VOIP) data streams, and then back into cell phone or land line technology, and it sounds pretty cool.

Once you are invited to use the service, you select a Google Voice number which could have an area code from anywhere in the United States.  You can then set up Google Voice to ring any phone you want when someone dials that number.  For instance, when you dial my Google Voice phone number, I can set the program up to ring my cell phone, office phone or home phone… but what’s really cool is that I can set it up to ring all three at the same time.

So I could be at the office and leave the cell phone at home and you’d still be able to reach me.

Some other impressive features are the transcribed voice mail (Google Voice will email you a transcript of the voice mail), the ability to play voice mail back through a web interface, and you can even screen or block calls.  Google will mark annoying telemarketers as Spam, much like they handle spam in Gmail.

The service is still in its infancy, and you still have to be invited, much like Gmail originally.  However, I suspect that Google Voice will morph into a service that will compete with Skype and give your cell phone company a run for its money.  What’s neat about Google Voice is that you only need an Internet connection to use it, meaning you’d only need a data plan on your smart phone, and not necessarily a voice plan…

If you’ve got experience using Google Voice, I’d love to hear about it.

More information here.

Technology cell phone, Google Voice, Technology