Asus Eee – the perfect laptop for children and teachers?
I didn’t wait for the latest Intel Atom model (which will have a much better battery life), instead deciding to spend a lot less on a machine that will get abused by the trainee terrorist. It’s small (maybe half the size of an average laptop), tough (with solid state storage rather than a fragile disk) and well designed. The keyboard is a bit tiny for some adults, but perfect for me and Lawrence. The screen on the PC900 is bigger than the original PC700, and fine for web browsing and movies.
Here’s a photo of the PC900 being modelled delightfully by some typical users…
Apparently, big hand bags are fashionable at the moment.
Already, I have put 6 of his DVD movies (in Quicktime format) onto the hard disk, as well as some wildlife programs. Each movie takes up between 300 and 600 MB. Once the 7MB spare solid state storage is full, i’ll start using an 8 GB SD card. Video and audio performance is excellent.
It also comes with Skype, a mic and a webcam (built into the top of the screen case), for voice and video conferencing over the web. This has been a major revalation! Last night we talked with a friend in Cambridge, with sound coming out of the speakers (no headphones needed). It was crystal clear, with no echo or noise. And loud too.
Combine all that with fast and reliable wifi (record video and audio messages straight into Warwick Blogs or Sitebuilder), and it really is revolutionary.
I will soon be buying the new Intel Atom powered Asus Eee PC901. That will please Lawrence, as he’s got very territorial about his own Eee.
Robert O'Toole
09 Jul 2008 11:31
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Tags: E-Learning Hardware
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Comments (5)
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We’re hopefully getting a set of these in our department at school. they look like they’ll be great for the kids to use. The only annoying think will be not be able to use resources on CD with them easily.
09 Jul 2008, 19:46
Robert O'Toole
I’ve been trying to get a game CD to run from the hard disk, but no progress yet. I suppose it could be copied to an SD card. They are so cheap now.
Helen – will you wait for the Atom version to become available later this month? The Celeron powered PC900 machines are fine, but battery life is relatively poor. The PC901 will be much better.
My other big issue is that I use Screenflow quite a lot to record interviews and demos. I can record the full screen in full motion, plus the web cam video and audio. But it only works on a Mac! If I could get even a simple equivalent on the Asus, i would get one right away.
Helen – you might be interested in this – i’m going to help my wife (a primary literacy cooridnator and deputy ‘ead) to create presentations using Screenflow for her school. She will be able to demo an activity on screen, with a commentary, and then show it to the children on the big screen. And more importanntly, she can give the demo video to other teachers to use. Perhaps that would be an effective way of developing a curriculum consistently across a school?
10 Jul 2008, 08:56
Brian
Share a CD/DVD drive on a desktop computer, and then access this via wireless on the Asus Eee PC 900.
13 Jul 2008, 22:54
Sorry I’ve taken so long to reply – but now freed from school I have a little more time available to write a considered response!
I would imagine the school will be latching on to whatever is considered the cheapest deal, which will probably involve dodgy battery life! Screenflow sounds very interesting, especially the uses you are working on with your wife, but with us being a strictly PC organisation (why do schools seem to worship windows?) it is probably not a viable option. Is there anything with similar appeal available for non Mac users?
Congratulations on the Teaching award yeaterday – it was very nice to see you up on stage recieving that kind of recognition!
19 Jul 2008, 09:45
Hey Rob, have you got a Asus Eee PC901 now? How does it compare?
26 Aug 2008, 12:22
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