ORIGINAL TARGET:
Is anybody in a school that has or is planning to purchase the XO laptop for their
students?
This is the $200. laptop that was featured on 60 minutes recently.
It was a laptop developed for children in developing countries but is also being
used in certain high poverty areas in the states.
Anybody's school planning on buying them?
If you are curious, this is their website: http://laptop.org
*****
Our district (Birmingham City Schools) received a grant to purchase XO's
some schools have received but my school has not at this point. I did
attend a workshop with some of the students from my school this summer.
i thought they were pretty neat. The students can actually do a lot
with them. I think it is a great learning tool.
*****
I own one. It's okay. I wouldn't want to "live" with it as my primary computer, but
I take it on vacation to check e-mail or mapquest. It's okay for using in the
backyard in the summer. I'll also carry it on a business trip as the battery power
is GRRRREAT! (<---Tony the Tiger voice here.) It draws lots of stares.
Sugar (the OS) is pretty terrible. It's a "dumb" machine. One example. I use this
thing at my house--EVERY TIME I use the same wireless network....and...EVERY TIME
it tries to connect to every wireless network in my neighborhood before trying the
one at my house. It also won't remember the network password, so I need to enter it
each time. (I just shut off my wireless password--I don't have a full time computer
hooked to it anyway...and I turn the power off on the wireless when not using
it...) I have had no luck with memory sticks and such, so I have no idea what I
would do if I wrote a document on it. I've got a Master's in tech and I can't
figure out this OS, so it's really not that simple.
*****
I didn't know the laptops were available in the U.S. except via the Give One, Get
One program! In any case, they're more suitable for elementary students, so we're
not ordering them. I've thought of getting other netbooks, like the Acer One, but
the issue of size and breakability has deterred me from really investigating the
idea.
*****
We are buying a laptop for each of our students in grades 9-12. We should have the
program in place by next fall. I don’t know which laptop for sure, but I think it
is the ASUS Eee PC 900. I think the cost is about $500.00 each.
*****
_____________________________________
Patricia Sarles, MA, MLS
Librarian
Damrosch Day Treatment School
NYC Department of Education
750 Jennings Street
Bronx, NY 10459
voice: 718 378-0006
fax: 718 589-9544
p s a r l e s @ s c h o o l s . n y c . g o v
http://damroschlibrary.blogspot.com/
http://wjdlibrary.wikispaces.com/
"Ten guards and the warden couldn't have torn me out of those books. Months passed
without even thinking about being imprisoned....I had never been so truly free in
my life." - Malcolm X
"Some kids go to the library ... Others to the street. But they can't go to the
libraries if the libraries are closed." - Officer Dombranski, NYPD
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