Evidence Based Posting 6/4/07

Microsoft Surface


After reading the article Craig sent us on the new Microsoft surface I was really intrigued and interested in finding out more. Surface looks like a black coffee table and does not use a keyboard or mouse. It is truly unlike anything I or perhaps most people have ever seen before. People can work individually or collectively work using Surface. You use touch to navigate and move documents etc.

The article got me thinking about how Surface could be used in the educational field. It’s obvious that it will take years for Surface to catch on and be included in schools. However, the impact could be great. The fact that surface is made like a table makes it easy for people to gather around and watch what is going on. As we all know children are usually very visual learners and also enjoy learning and learn best by actually doing things themselves. Surface would allow students to get a real hands on approach to learning.

One area that I think would be really beneficial for students is working with digital content like pictures and music. Working with pictures looks so effortless on the presentation in the Microsoft website. Using their fingers students could just touch and drag pictures to resize them, watch videos and place them into folders. “Surface computing breaks down those traditional barriers to technology so that people can interact with all kinds of digital content in a more intuitive, engaging and efficient manner. It’s about technology adapting to the user, rather than the user adapting to the technology. Bringing this kind of natural user interface innovation to the computing space is what Microsoft is all about.” (
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/may07/05-29Surface.mspx)

Although there is a lot to still be learned about Surface, I am excited to see what happens.


* The Microsoft website has a fantastic website where you can actually see demonstrations…I would definitely recommend checking it out: http://www.microsoft.com/surface/


Microsoft Press Page, Look What’s Surfacing at Microsoft, 29 May, 2007, <http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/may07/05-29Surface.mspx > (2 June, 2007)


Microsoft Surface homepage, 5 May, 2007, <http://www.microsoft.com/surface/> , (2 June, 2007)