So yesterday marked the official start of my new fellowship, in which I’ll be working with students and faculty via technology. More on what that means as it unfolds…
In the meantime, we got students set up with their new Macs, and part of that required familiarizing ourselves with Apple’s new operating system, Lion. My observation so far is that the differences are subtle but powerful. A number of us spent more than a few minutes talking about how the “natural” setting of the trackpad actually mimics that of the movement of your hand on the screen of a smartphone. It was uncomfortable at first, but the scrolling pattern feels intuitive now. Soon, rumor has it, scroll bars are going to disappear, too.
There will be some inevitable adjusting to differences in operating systems, hardware, and platforms, as I travel around between various computers researching, supporting, and facilitating communication and learning via technology. But whoa. I feel like I’m starting to speak a new language finally, and it feels good. That little girl who’d completely dissected every discoverable keystroke of her Commodore 64 back in 1980-something is back and ready to learn more. People who know me know I’m not the biggest fan of corporations, but I have to say: I thank you, Apple.
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