One Desktop per Child - miniPCs for Schools? 72
gwjenkins asks: "I'm a teacher in charge of IT in a small school. We would like to bust out of the computer lab model but don't want a trolley of laptops wheeled from class to class. I've drooled over wi-fi PDAs but just can't afford a set for class (and the batteries drain too fast). In a classroom, space is at a premium and teachers won't use a technology that takes too long to set up. Most of the time the kids are just researching (Google), or typing (Google Docs), the rest of the time they can go to a lab. I would love to have a desk-based solution. Can you run a wi-fi mini-pc (sitting under the desk) from a 12-volt rechargeable battery (also sitting under the desk) with a 7" LCD (sitting on the desk), that boots from flash card into FireFox? No wires! No setup time! Has anyone done this? How? Alternatively can anyone say why this is silly?"
It would work (Score:2)
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Really, a VIA with one of those mini power supplies that is almost the size of the ATX connector (they take 12V and convert to all the voltages the board needs), not too sure how tolerant they are of battery voltages though.
Build the whole thing into a tuffbox style case and you're good to go. Kids will still break it though
-nB
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Good lord... (Score:2, Insightful)
What do you think kids of yesteryear did? Sure we had a computer in the classroom. It was an Apple ][ and you had to share it with 23 other classmates. OH NOES!!!
I just don't think a kid in school will learn "more" or "better" by spending money putting computers at their personal desks.
Tom
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The major difference is that back in the days of Apple IIs and 286-en, we were using computers in school to learn about computers. I remember lear
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Same thing with math. We had "mathblaster" [with the gamepad thingy] back in my day. But we were expected to know how to add 17 to 23 by long hand. Why? So we could understand the mechanics of arithmetic. Sure kids have comp
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Microsoft's paid shills -- and a few people so stupid, they even shill for Microsoft without getting paid for it* -- will constantly tell you that "Open Source isn't the answer to everything". That's only half right; computers aren't the answer to everything.
Basically, you need to understand how a process works before you can think about automating it. There's no point having the ability to produce a neat typed document, if you can't construct a proper sentence. And you don't need a computer
Re:Good lord... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, but life back then sucked compared to now. I wish I had been born a decade later just so that I would never have had to deal with:
trudging to the library to get info for a report
hand writing essays
typewriters
not to mention non-school related things like:
snail mail
print newspapers
lack of instant free porn
Just because we had to put up with this crap doesn't mean kids should still have to. Or maybe they should... lil' bastards.
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School will be boring most of the time, with or without computers.
Hell, work ain't that much fun and I have *two* computers at my desk (omg wowwowwee!).
Tom
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You know, you're completely right. I am a sixteen year old and a junior in high school. I'm just about the age where everyone (myself included) is getting a driver's license - freedom to do what you please. I have realized that times just don't sound as fun as they used to. Just last night I was talking with my stepfather and his friend after working on a car about 'the good ol days.' They talked about how they would go out with frie
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You can still do crazy things nowadays. They're just less dangerous. My brother and I used to drive all around upperstate new york [we live in Ottawa] when we just got our licenses. Was a "big trip" to drive the hour to the US, then another two or so to syracuse. Lots of fun to be had.
The trick is not to do what
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To address your list one by one;
'trudging to the library to get info for a report' - Gives children exercise, a certain amount of social interaction, as well as increasing readin
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How soon does OLPC ship? (Score:3, Interesting)
Sooner or later, OLPC will actually ship, and some commercial vendor will license the hardware design and sell it commercially without any nonsense. Probably before the big deals involving governments actually get very far.
exactly-the OLPC machine (Score:2, Interesting)
i know the answer (Score:3, Funny)
Ah, then you want one of these. [extremetech.com] And don't even tell me that's not practical. Because it totally is. And by practical, I mean awesome.
Why it's silly (Score:5, Insightful)
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So you have a lab, but you don't want to use it? I'm confused.
Unless there's something you're not telling us, you've just proposed to throw away the two best solutions to your problem (a lab and a laptop cart) for no reason other than the geek factor. I'm sorry, but I just can't see what your aim is.
Well, I can. First of all a lab is probably (time) shared amongst 5 or 6 classrooms. Hence its impractical to use the lab as a classroom.
The laptop cart, is obviously expensive and more time consuming to set up than a fixed desktop class room (albeit with a smaller monitor).
I have used a classroom with CRT monitors beneath a glass table , tilted at a proper angle, with full powered computers. (This was ~ 7 years ago, and financed by a huge grant by a big corporation). And this was incredibly useful, espe
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What an excellent solution to the problem of having a computer desk without losing valuable desktop area. School desks are about 1 sq m so a standard affordable laptop with 15" screen takes up most of the usable space.
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If the submitter wants to use the PCs in multiple rooms, how is a separate computer and monitor going to help? As I said, it does take more time to set up - at least twice as much. Remember, if you're using a "desktop" PC rather than a lapto
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Research in West Virgina [mff.org] has shown that computers in the classroom are better than in computer labs. Students perform better and get more computer time.
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First, haven't we all experienced the frustration of all class members being forced to move at the same pace? It's bad if you're bored, and bad if you're falling behind. At work I have an email inbox and an Outlook task list. I take one task, do it (usually resulting in more tasks
one laptop per child (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.olpc.com/ [olpc.com]
http://www.laptop.org/ [laptop.org]
Or else try a search for
tablet thin client
Battery $ wire $ (Score:4, Interesting)
And once you run power to every desk, you might as well run ethernet. The cost of a switch and the cable (and the fact that ethernet jacks are not on-board pretty much every motherboard) is still lower than a good quality access point and PCI wireless cards.
So basically you end up with a lab, which, of course, is not portable from classroom to classroom.
$ of Lab in every classroom > $ of laptops on a trolley from classroom-to-classroom > $ single lab shared by every classroom
And anyways, I agree with other posters here for the most part, learning computers is important, but you still have to learn the basics by hand/on paper first. If a generation of kids STARTS learning addition and subtraction using a calculator/computer, I can't imagine what they'll be like later in life, and later when doing real math.
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I take it you've never actually paid a professional to install (and wire) a distribution center, then run the wire to each desk, then to wire an outlet at each desk?
Not to mention that doing so locks the classroom into a single configuration.
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The only way the battery idea would work is if they used large batteries, like car batteries, and even those would likely need to be charged after 8-16 hours of use. The teacher really wants to run around swapping out 20 lbs batteries every other day?
Also i'm a little confused why this is on
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Sealed Lead Acid (Score:2)
The largest sealed lead acid standard out there is 80 amp-hour. 80AH batteries
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I was starting to suspect that the power supply would make this a silly idea. But it would have to be batteries because if you wire desks to the mains you lock the classroom configoration. Reading about mini-itx they seem to draw about 20W. Power=volts x amps
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Origami (Score:1, Redundant)
They are expensive now, but the idea is to get the price down to (I believe) around $500.
Alternatively you could just let the kids join their PSP's to the school wireless network.
CS in schools (Score:3, Insightful)
We cannot think about 21st century without serious CS courses in schools.
But I'd prefer to spend more money in having more motivated teachers and better programs.
Then you can build a wired CS classroom (or two) with the usual desktop PCs that are becoming cheaper and cheaper. And I'm sure pupils would love the idea to do a walk to a different classrom.
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CS, as in computer science, is the wrong thing to teach to all pupils. Cars are everywhere, and we aren't teaching combustion engine theory to kids either.
Basic IT skills, on the other hand, are important. Especially the distinguishing between concepts and implementation. And how to help yourself in problems.
The problem with most people vs. IT today is, that they don't even have a basic grasp on how their computer works. And i don't mean theory about hard disks, cache, etc.
Many users don't unders
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I learned fine, mostly the old-fashioned way. We had an Apple
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to learn at an early age. It will teach teamwork, anger management,
and social skills. Plus all the kids can be reward for the number of kills
per month, and the student who scores the highest can be known as the
"Fragger of the Month".
"And I'm sure pupils would love the idea to do a walk to a different classrom."
Better yet, have each classroom be a different server/level, make
3-B "Dusk", and 4-A "Office".
Computer Literacy shouldn't be a separate course (Score:1)
We do have courses in the mechanics of writing, composition, and art.
We don't need a class in "computers." Word processing mechanics can be taught in the English class. Spreadsheets and databases can be taught in math class or any class that uses data collection or statistics. We browsing and using encyclopedia software can be taught in any class that uses research methods. High-l
Thin-clients and mini-itx (Score:2, Informative)
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Go with a laptop Cart (Score:1)
Rechargeable batteries (Score:1)
Printing is something to think about too. You could have them all wirelessly
This is what I would do.... (Score:1)
really cheap computers with usable hardware AND you can get LCDs here
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/store/TFT_LCD [damnsmalllinux.org]
LCDs are 7 Inches! And run on only 9w.
I would think this is a pretty good solution.
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Ha, the damn small linux mini-itx system was what sparked the idea. They just seem so suitable for dumping in a desk and forgetting they are there. A compact flash card booting da
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Or you might just use that to load the OS to the clients so there's no need to install anything on those clients initially. I'm not s
One PC / Projector (Score:1)
Also, it's a lot like the real world (meetings).
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IT (Score:1, Interesting)
That won't be what they are doing most of the time when computers are in the classroom, trust me. My school has a cart of laptops to every classroom as well as a smartboard and projector (it's a DoD school; they sickly waste immense amounts of money). Virtually none of the time we use the computers are we actually doing work.
However, with that said, the best solution is laptops. A
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AssUming EMP gives a 100% mort rate on all our toys, including the computers I have stored (not plugged in) in a grounded 40ft steel shipping container. (I'm not a survivalist, I just like cheap, dry, gasketed shop space.)
Maybe it's time for an "Ask Slashdot" on EMP...
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I envy your shipping container, BTW. Where do I get one? I have the un-zoned land to put it on already.
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Shipping containers are usually easy to find, especially when you are near the coast. They are SWEET structures, and cheaper by far then the conventional equivalent. I lubs me watertight, comfortable, vermin-proof workspace. Adding power is easy. Use a bimetal holesaw and an electric drill to cut conduit holes, and use heavily galvanized hardware or stainless
Ugh... too geeky for your own good (Score:1)
Another thing you could do with the laptops is have some sort of charging station for batteri
Desktops are better than Laptops (Score:2)
You've not thought it through... (Score:2)
To walk into a room with wired Ethernet (thanks President Clinton/Vice President Al Gore), in-exhaustable power (thank you Mr. Edison), and decide to deploy computers in a 1:1 ratio with their own power supplies and tiny displays makes no sense. The vast majority of the day students will have their computers turned off, so they can listen to the teacher and learn. To deploy
"why this is silly" (Score:4, Informative)
Because students learn less when there's a computer in front of them. There's a place for computers, and computer education, and learning to use them as tools. It's not in most classrooms.
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My step-son is in an "all laptop" highschool. They issue (well, sell) ThinkPads to all of the students, and replace them/fix them as they fail. As far as I can tell, a major use of them is to sit in class playing various sports and first person shooter games.
I can't fathom why they didn't lock these laptops down as tightly as possible, with only academic, approved software installed. At work, we're working to deploy Windows to our retail locations, and the user environment is going to be locked down so tig
Well thought out (Score:2)
Then make [computers] part of they're learning experience.
1. schoolkids2. computers
3. ???
4. learning
So, if you'd like to share your unique insights on educational psychology, I'm certain the other experts in the field would love to learn how to do this.
HAL.
Check out Damn Small Linux (Score:1)
It sounds like students will need laptops (Score:2)
It sounds like your students will eventually need laptops so that they can do their homework on computers. It's going to take a few years for such a reality to occur.
My suggestion is to start turning more classrooms into inexpensive computer labs. You could try bolting cheap laptops to desks and rely on wireless networking to ease wiring expenses. (For example, you might be able to buy refurbished centrinos that are good enough for web browsing.) It's going to take a few years before the computer indus
Theft is a problem (Score:2)
What I've done at my school was use Betwin [thinsoftinc.com] to have one tower serve 4 stations. That is, one tower, and 4 monitor/keyboard/mouse. Most students don't realize that they're sharing one computer, and it's fun watching outside techs try to figure out what's going on.
One iPhone Per Child (Score:2)
iPhone. It has the full Web, including modern Web applications, and it has rich HTML email with styles and photos. It replaces the PC the school wants them to have, the phone their parents want them to have, and the iPod that the kid themselves wants to have.
How much work are you going to do to put Google and text-editing in front of a kid? That is ridiculous when we have the CPU p