I just read the GameInformer mag today(a friend lent it to me, will buy it over the weekend), and it looks awesome. One of the questions I had was "Are Dragon shouts required to fight dragons? I would think not for the lesser small dragons, because of this quote form the mag:
"Above and beyond magic and weapons, your character can acquire abilities called dragon shouts, as you journey through the world. By absorbing the souls of dragons you slay, your capability to learn new shouts grows."
Obviously you will need a more than adequate knowledge of these for the main story, but I'm thinking you won't need them for at least the smaller dragons you will encounter.

Now for Fast Traveling: Now children, this is Three-Dog, telling you to calm the F**K DOWN!

I am 75% sure that fast traveling will be a dragon shout because of this quote from the GI mag talking about dragon shouts(pg. 58, tan-colored part):
"Some unique words of power are spoken in a whisper , to aid you in a stealthy approach, like the one that sends you instantaneously from one place to another."
Now, this could be a simple short range teleportation spell(the other 25%), but what other awesome way to explain fast travel than this?

Thanks for listening(?),

Saber Spartan 8

That would be a good way to implement fast travel. You should have to wait at least 12 hours for it to regenerate though.

They may not be necessary to beat a dragon but I would think it would make it extremely difficult to fight one without it. I mean, the only reason Cyrus beat a dragon is because he heated his blade in a magic fire so that it would wound the dragon. That fight was hella annoying...

That would be the 'Blink' shout. It teleports you to within a few feet of where you currently are, supposedly so you can get behind opponents and stuff.

Fast travel as a perk or shout doesn't make any sense. Beth games are supposed to be about freedom. And freedom to not pursue the main quest is part of that. Since you need to pursue the main quest to gain dragon shouts, making fast travel a shout limits that freedom (assuming fast travel is in Skyrim, and assuming fast travel is an important aspect of the game).

Yeah, that makes sense. But what doesn't make sense is people not doing the main story. Just my personal opinion.

And YES, fast travel is in.

Not true. We don't know if you have to pursue the main quest to get dragon shouts. We could get dragon shouts by stumbling across dragon words in ruins we explore or by absorbing the souls of dragons we randomly meet in the wilderness. We will find out soon just how to get dragonshouts and in what context.

I'm pretty sure that dragon shout is more like a "blink", than a fast travel system.

True, I guess. I'm just going off what we know so far: get dragon shouts by slaying dragons. And since the entire main quest seems to revolve around you being a dragon hunter, I think it's safe to say you'll probably have to begin the MQ to slay dragons (much in the same way oblivion gates didn't pop up until a certain part during the MQ).

And still, if fast travel is in the game, and the game is built with fast travel in mind, I think it'll be present from the start.