The Digital Napkin

The DigitalNapkin applies technology to the simple act of wiping your face as you eat. This reusable, recyclable tool analyzes the angle of each face wipe to minimize the number of wipes needed allowing you to get the maximum number of wipes per napkin. But wait! It does more! It analyzes the food smears on the napkin to tell you how many calories were wasted (or not consumed, if you are on a diet), and provides information about your food choices. An interesting use of technology!

As you guessed, this is a fake product. I wrote about this ridiculous use of technology to point out the over-zealous effort that people sometimes apply to incorporate computers and technology into every area of our lives.

The name of this blog is Classrooms Without Walls.  A few years ago I began using Skype to teach people across the globe English as a Second Language. The blog name derived from my company name projecting the idea of a non-traditional classroom without physical walls. The internet removed the walls allowing students from anywhere to attend. I began writing about different ways that technology could be used for teaching and wrote about the different online sites that were available for language learning, for example, eduFire, LiveMocha, WizIQ, Myngle. These sites use technology in a way that is beneficial for learning.

However, I’ve noticed that technology is becoming a marketing tool. Let’s incorporate technology into our service, market it, and the customers will come. The problem is that in many cases the technology overshadows the service that the customers requested.

Technology is great and provides many benefits. However, whenever you decide to incorporate it into to your product or service, ask yourself, “Does the technology provide the customer a benefit or does it provide the proverbial bells and whistles?” If somebody developed the DigitalNapkin, it would probably make some sales with early adopters, but is it really necessary?