Will Google Apps in academic settings negate the value of ink?

Calling all fellow Tablet alarmists. This is what I’m getting concerned about: More and more schools adopting Google Apps. This article talks of even a K-12 district here in Arizona making the switch. Locally Arizona State University adopted Google Apps a little over a year ago.

What’s the big deal? The lack of ink support. Google Apps is not ink friendly in any way.

Microsoft needs to step up here. It needs to make even more compelling ink- and Tablet-based scenarios for schools. If not, it’s going to create a de facto inkless world–or at least a bifurcated world where there are those that have ink and those that don’t.

There are a couple possibilities. One is to leverage Microsoft technologies, such as Silverlight, and build online ink friendly apps. I’ve started a couple: one for online search and one for solving simple math problems. It doesn’t take much to imagine this extending even further. What about a physics page? A flash card page? You get the picture. I’m working on some of these, but it seems to me that Microsoft might want to create a grand vision here.

There are other approaches. One is to support ink more directly in the browser so that Google can leverage it in its DHTML-style editors. Quite simply: If ink isn’t supported natively in the browser, it’s not going to get into Google Apps.

Another approach is to bring in the Microsoft sales force and convince everyone that if they go with Google Apps they are going to block out support of ink, which means no Tablets, no inkable productivity gains. This isn’t my favorite alternative, but it could work short term.

My preference is to advance the state of the art. I hope Microsoft is looking over its shoulder. This could very well limit the value of “native ink” in schools.