Cell Phone Tetrad

Inspiration is where you find it, sometimes in the oddest places. On FM 86, about half way between San Antonio and College Station, just north of Luling, I found this sign. I see it every time we visit our son at A&M. It seems to remind me of what I should be doing instead of driving around the Texas countryside.

Week 2 Blog on a Valuable Emerged Technology

Within the past four or five years, learning and productivity in the classroom have been enhanced by the introduction of the pen drive. Also known as travel drives, jump drives, flash drives, or thumb drives, these archival devices appeared in the year 2000 as portable memories and have been increasing in capacity and capability (while steadily dropping in price to become very affordable) ever since. They have replaced floppy disks as the archival standard for computers, and shown an ease of use not associated with recordable compact disks.

Some of the challenges that face the educational system concerning pen drives are slowly being resolved. The issues of cost, storage capacity, and the finite number of read/write cycles per unit in are being answered with cheaper, higher capacity, more durable and dependable devices. Still, students and teachers have difficulty with the drives. Although fairly durable, they are still subjected to very rough treatment at the hands of students. Many pen drives are damaged by having protective coverings removed or having the USB connecter bent, while others are lost or forgotten because of there size. Often, after continued use, the contact points of the USB wear thin and have to be “coaxed” into connecting with a computer. There are times when these devices just stop working (fail) due to a combination of situations. In these instances, the information contained on the drive is lost to the owner unless it has been backed-up in a different location.

Pen drives have allowed educators and students a greater degree of freedom as they share information, take notes, and communicate with each other. The concern over lost, altered, or plagiarized documents has been reduced significantly by the introduction of these memory devices. Further, documents produced by and for educators can now be easily transported and shared without the need to make and work with multiple paper copies. These devices are also becoming more closely integrated with the computers themselves, thus increasing their capabilities and functionality. With the current Windows Vista OS and the soon-to-be marketed Windows 7 (which should be what Vista was advertised to be prior to its release), a feature called “Ready-Boost” allows some flash drives to augment OS memory.

Improvements to these archival devices are ongoing. One area that needs improvement is the factor of location or recovery of lost or misplaced drives. For a modest fee, a locator could be installed in the drive to provide the owner a means of location. Or perhaps the straps that come with some drives could be lengthened so that a drive could remain around the neck of the user as it is being used. Storing the added cord and drive in a shirt or pants pocket would be a small trade-off for securing documents important to the owner. As to the wearing thin of contacts, a replacement USB connector could be fashioned and available for purchase, to be attached to the original unit after removal of the old USB connector. Further, lost information could be retrieved by an application that would allow the owner to access the memory portion of the drive directly and draw off the desired information.

Having just finished writing and re-reading this information, I am reminded of what I have been telling students for years. That is, if humans can envision it, eventually humans can make it a reality. Reality check – it’s 2009 AD and I’m still waiting for my flying car that was promised to me by the year 2000AD.

For further information on this topic, visit:

http://www.ezinearticles.com/?A-Summary-of-USB-Drives,-History,-Benefits-and-Uses&id=2683103

Welcome to my new Blog Site. This was established as a requirement for one of my Walden classes, but I have a feeling that it will get a lot more use than just school.

Comments? Questions? Criticisms? (Careful!!)