| Using desktops is even more complicated. You need
a 'lab' to use desktop machines. The classroom will be effectively
useless for any non-computer based work. If the computers are to be
used 'ubiquitously' for parts of all classes, every classroom would
have to be a 'computer room'.
Desktops, while taking up more space (at least
"traditional" desktop systems) aren't any more complicated to
operate than a laptop. They're also MUCH cheaper. Add a zip
drive, and give the students a zip disk, and they can take their
personal info, as well as a couple/few programs with them wherever they
go.
You wouldn't necessarily need a "lab" either. Just rework
the conception of a classroom to include the computers.
If you're like me, your conception of a classroom is a smallish room
with a blackboard/whiteboard and largeish desk on one end, and the rest
filled to capacity with as many small, cheaply built chair/desk
assemblages as possible. Partially, this has to do with the
overcrowding problem (which really isn't what we're dealing with here,
but is one of the MAJOR problems with our educational system today).
Now - let's take 1/2 that blackboard/whiteboard, and use a projector
to throw a display from the teacher's computer up there. Keep the other
half for written stuff/examples/static info.
Now, the chair/desk assemblages...the chair is ABSOLUTELY necessary,
as is some sort of writing surface. So, let's throw a 10.5" cheap
LCD (akin to the ones used in the iOpeners) under some sort of VERY
durable/abuse resistant clear polymer cover, and mount this where the
desk normally attaches (usually right-hand side) - the clear top serves
as a writing surface, while still allowing the screen to show.
With a cheap keyboard and mouse (read: easily/cheaply replacable)
attached to minimal hardware stored underneath the seat, you'd satisfy
the space requirement fairly well. As I mentioned before, a zip drive
would allow students to take their work from place to place without the
problems associated with notebooks.
By making the hardware minimal (probably little more than what's
found in an iOpener, aside from the zip drive) the costs wouldn't be
all that high, compared to full-fledged laptops. There might even be
enough money leftover to afford a cheap desktop unit for the student to
use at home.
A classroom network will have to be wireless, I don't see a way
around this.
Well, in the above circumstance, there could simply be ethernet
hookups run to each of the desks. In a circumstance where there are
full-fledged laptops being used, just build an ethernet port into the
existing desks.
They'll need to be ruggedized, commodity machines in a very
standard configuration. These things aren't yet available on the cheap,
but they will be shortly.
Definitely agree with you here - although the stuff I mentioned
above shouldn't run more than $400 or so per seat right now - with
prices dropping all the time, in a couple years it could actually be a
possibility.
Ruggedness is key though. Most of the desks I had the pleasure to
use had at one point or another been gouged with knives, burned,
scratched in all manner of ways, drawn on, etc...
Those things, of course, would wreck havoc with a screen...
--- Genom b3@nriheg.net (reverse the domain name to get my real email
addy)
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