Gone

Being absent from class has an impact on the student's learning. But what about the absence of tools or equipment that we've depended on for years? I'm talking about the touchscreen.
Four years ago I used a tablet PC at another job (in health care) and found it nice to not be tethered to a keyboard all the time. The reduced footprint of my electronics was a real plus. Today many kids have a touchscreen phones or at least text with their thumbs on tiny keypads. But this morning I received an e-mail from Dell announcing their new Studio One 19 touch screen computer and I wondered what would be the impact on education if everyone of my lab pc's was swapped out with a touch screen PC?

Should I still teach typing? It's not my favorite subject but is a valuable resource, isn't it?

How should the room be reconfigured? Could I get away with fewer computers and set the lab up into "centers" where several students collaborate on one unit rather than one to one interaction with a computer?

I've never been good at predicting the future but analyzing trends is fun. What changes do you see coming with all the recent innovations?