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Remember I said that I’d blog about a thing or two that grabbed my attention this holidays? Well, here’s one:
Yes everyone, it’s that thin.
It hasn’t yet had the same hype here in Australia that I’m sure it’s getting in the US (primarily because it’s not here yet, but you can pre-order), but this is Apple’s latest thing: the MacBook Air.
At its thickest, it’s just short of 2cm. At the other end (down near that hand in the photo), it measures only 0.4 cm thick. It weighs only 1.36 kg. This makes it a very light and easy to carry machine.
Now this obvious convenience has come at a cost that some may not be ready for. The most significant cost: the CD/DVD drive is gone.
Yes, gone.
Now Apple took the bold move forward with the iMac by removing the floppy disk drive many years ago. But by that stage, software manufacturers, etc. were no longer using floppy disks; they’d all moved to CD. Apple’s now taking another bold move, but people are still using their CDs and DVDs a fair amount. The trade-off is software that will let you commandeer the optical drive of another computer and download data through it to your Air.
You can also buy an external optical drive for extra, but Apple sees this laptop as the next step forward towards a wireless world, where online applications and media are far more common. One could be cynical, though, and consider the motivations given that at the same Macworld expo in California the other week, Apple’s new iTunes new-release DVD download service was also launched.
In the end, if its features suit what you want from your laptop, then this is a brilliant one to have. I just rely a little too much on my optical drive, my LAN port and multiple USB ports to give them away just yet (yes, the Air only has one USB port).
I’ve got to say though, it is tempting…
Photo: Untitled
After a very busy and exhausting year, I felt the need to withdraw from all things school-related for a period of several weeks. The Christmas holidays have seen me do very little in relation to my classroom (the fact that there are over 235 edublog posts sitting in my reader at the moment are evidence of that), and how it is time to focus again.
There is plenty to focus on this year with a new challenge. After five years in Year 4 (trust me, I was ready to call it a day after four) I’m making the big move to a new grade, new classroom and new building as I begin teaching Year 1. This is the first time I’m teaching Stage 1 during my career, so it is bound to be a significant Learning Curve (where have I seen that phrase before?).
This week has seen me unpacking boxes, cleaning things and doing little organisational tasks that have normally never crossed my mind, like preparing pencil tins.
What I do look forward to is exploring ways that I can integrate technology effectively into the learning of our younger students. My first-hand experience meant that it was easy for me to work out what Stage 2/3 students were capable of doing and how technology could be embedded into their learning. Now, hopefully, I can do the same in Stage 1, and thus be of greater support as Learning Technology Coordinator to my Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 colleagues.
Well, we’ll see how we go… and I’ll try to catch up with posting some things that have grabbed my attention recently. I hope to post more succinctly and often in future. For now, I have a “Welcome to 1R” sign and a set of name labels to make.
Photo: Pencils by liasterkenburg
