Laptop Thoughts: Are you Ready to Be In The Kno?

"While no one was looking, someone revolutionized the textbook, higher education, and learning itself in one crazy, bold move."

From looking at the videos, this device looks pretty spectacular. Starting up, the 'semester view' is presented, with a collection of textbooks and tools. Imagine taking a typical college student backpack: dump it out; turn everything into an electronic equivalent; and put it all into a two-paned tablet. Texts can be annotated and highlighted, objects can be extracted and re-used, and it functions well as a note-taking device and a web browser.

Looking at the reaction videos on Vimeo, students queried liked the dual-pane approach better than current eBooks, with the ability to "write in the book" very popular amongst those currently saddled with gigantic, heavy $300 textbooks. The Kno is so cool that I'd even consider it, although my school days are long past.