There have been several new mobile devices coming out, and now HP has one as well. The HP 2133 Mini-Notebook is $499 with Linux. (As with all of these new category devices, the price is quite a bit higher with xp.)
As the prices come down a bit (I think $300 is the sweet spot for education), these devices might be a good solution for a one-to-one computing device, falling somewhere between a handheld and a laptop. I am particularly interested in how Web 2.0 applications runs on these and what other educational programs are available.
Stay tuned for more on these new devices and their use in the classroom.
Proliferation of new mobile devices
I bought the cheapest ASUS Eee PC ($299) a couple weeks ago and love it! I like the Linux operating system way more than I thought I would. And good news–it runs Firefox and all web sites have worked very well, even some of the complex web applications!
I like how it has a VGA display port so I can easily connect to a projector to show a group of students (which I did today and my 6th graders got so excited about the laptop). There’s also an SD card slot, which will be handy because there isn’t much memory in the cheap model (4 gigs).
It’s nice to know there will be more competition in this category. I predict cheap, portable, instant-on computers combined with robust, interactive, and collaborative web applications is going to be a huge trend in the coming couple years.
I saw this and asked myself, $499? That’s way too much. Linux is free. What costs $499?
I made the OLPC donation and received it in December. It’s been great for my daughter who, at age 4, has had no problem learning how to navigate it.
I’m thinking more and more that it isn’t so much the hardware as the activities/experiences we create around these tools that are most important. But alas, it all does come to the dollar.
One other major issue for schools is the support and training costs for technical staff to support a Linux operating system. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my Ubuntu install, but I know it is free as in kittens, not free as in beer.
Brian, I couldn’t agree more that the learning experience we create around these devices is what is critical. I do think that one-to-one is essential though, and that’s where price becomes an issue. Hardware always starts out pricier and then drops in the first year, so I’m looking for these to be around $300 in a year or so.
Total cost of ownership is an issue, but I’m not convinced that Linux has a higher TCO than Windows. (Vista, anyone? Arg.) I think some people are doing some work on TCO of Open Source software.
Tony, I think the eeePC looks like a very sound device. I agree that it’s good to have competition, though. I’m especially encouraged that HP is getting into this category (and Dell is rumored to be as well), because I have more confidence that they’ll “be around” for a long time and will continue to support and produce devices in this category. That’s always a sticky issue with schools and mobile devices, because of our long planning and implementation cycles.
And here’s another one:
http://www.2gopc.com/2Go_about2goPC.html
This looks a lot like OLPC specs.