Students in California's Fresno Unified school district have a little something to be excited about this week, as officials have just invested $650,000 in 1,000
Asus Eee PCs, set for classroom deployment over the next few weeks. The concept is to use the miniscule laptops alongside good, old-fashioned textbooks, with each student being given the chance to create a "digital portfolio" of essays, drawings, and whatever else they can get away with. The computers will remain in roughly 60 classrooms, and will be shared by students -- but some worry they'll hinder the learning process by distracting pupils. Says Stephen Lewis, a geology professor at California State University, Fresno, "Teaching and learning is a person-to-person business. Are we moving toward a remote-control classroom?" We're not sure what he means by that... then again, we drifted off half-way through his statement to watch a video of that dog on a skateboard.
posted Nov 28th 2007 6:14PM
"$650,000 in 1,000 Asus Eee PCs"
I thought buying in bulk was supposed to lower the price per product.
Oh well, I guess that's our school system hard at work...
Of course it does, but you know someone is pocketing $300k.
I imagine there are service contracts involved. County systems often buy things at a higher initial price, but bundle in additional warranty or on-site/overnight support.
As for "good old fashioned textbooks"- many of these poorer schools in the San Joaquin Valley don't have many/any of those, so their desk may be filled with only the Eee.
hmmm...
I wondered the same thing myself. I suppose it could be due to a warranty or service of some sort that Asus is providing them, but I would not be completely surprised if it is a variation of the Eee PC. Some variations could be a larger screen or (more probably) a higher capacity SSD like 8GB or 16GB. If these computers are to be used regularly by students, then 4GB would not be enough.
maybe they are paying Xtra to get Xp
who knows
So it seems that they didn't purchase exactly 1000 Eee PCs; instead, the count is at least 1300. The 650k is also probably only an estimate. I can't imagine that they overpaid for each Eee, so I'm guessing theres a couple more factors that we don't know. My guesses for what these factors are are down to XP, a warranty or service of some sort, larger SSDs, or flash drives/cards for students.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Hunt-for-Asus-Eee-71832.shtml
Overpaying is just the tip of the iceberg! I personally know a guy who works for a school district in California. He says that 15 to 25% of all school electronics purchases are "borrowed" by the IT support staff at all levels, even the supervisors. There is very little security on the storage rooms, and there is no inventory tracking until the devices are actually put into use, and he says all school districts that he has seen work the same way. He has a projector in every room in his house, and at least one iMac in each room as well. They also get iPods and iPhones for "research into possible educational applications", which of course mysteriously disappear. If he worked in Fresno, he'd be offering me an eeePC in exchange for picking up a bar-tab.
in experience computers in schools suck, they're always too cheap or district disables them too much for use,
money coulda been better spent
I certainly believe we should listen to Sauerkraut.
If his comments & misuse/abuse of grammar, punctuation & spelling is any indication- something is indeed going wrong in schools.
I doubt, however, that keeping him/her from viewing porn, pirating music or hacking a computer was the major factor.
And I certainly believe that we should listen to Anthony
His western-centric view of the world (ie: anyone who can't use the English language like a native speaker is obviously lacking in education) and obvious cultural sensitivity (a user named Sauerkraut surely must be a native English speaker, no?) are a shining example of high level critical thinking skills at their best.
I'm guessing you went to a school where nearly all of the students had decent computers at home. It must be nice to be white and middle class, but that's not really the case everywhere. With the importance of computer experience in the workplace, offering students at a young age the ability to use and become comfortable with computers is valuable, even if you can't play video games. You can still use it for word processing and basic internet browsing, which is a damn sight better than most of these kids have.
@Brad
I guess I've been operating under the mistaken impression that this is 2007, and you can buy a computer no matter what color you are.
Well, Brad, being that I'm "white and middle class" I can reassure you that it's nothing special, really (except that maybe we're easier to see in the dark when we're naked). I'm just wondering what "white" has to do with classroom computers? Can computers really sense my lack of melanin? Must have been some decent home computers, indeed.
Can't we all just get along?
People in communist russia all get along.. Or else!
The extra 250k is probably going towards "imaging and software" costs (OS plus and office apps)
Also, they'll get some kind of service warranty. So it's a good deal.
Its linux.
Open Office is free
linux is free.
What is the price for again?
"What is the price for again?"
Support.
Where do you think Red Hat, Xandros, etc. make their money?
The filter at school SUCKS!
They block things for the most ridulous things! Like, of course there are bad things that should be blocked...
But they block things for "Corporate marketing" and "Hobbies".
STUPID!
My school no longer blocks anything. They figured out that we could have a 2 year old hack them. SO EASY!
They may have bought a prepackaged filter and never changed the settings, so a lot of things get blocked that probably don't need to be.
No, it originally blocked only games, violence, pornagraphy, and cursewords. Now the district is ADDING stuff to the filter!
I just wished they would at least block certain sites for highschool, middleschool, and elementary school.
Especially since its the 5th graders who get seducted in corperate marketing whereas the highschools (for ht emost part) dont...
I don't get why hobbies are banned...
No, it originally blocked only games, violence, pornagraphy, and cursewords. Now the district is ADDING stuff to the filter!
I just wished they would at least block certain sites for highschool, middleschool, and elementary school.
Especially since its the 5th graders who get seducted in corperate marketing whereas the highschools (for ht emost part) dont...
I don't get why hobbies are banned...
Maybe, just maybe, it's because you're not at school for the purpose of furthering your hobbies?
what if porn is their hobby?
Ha ha, you're in school! Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!
There is a US regulation for public schools stating that there must be some sort of filter. Was your school a private school?
I have mixed feelings about laptops in the classroom. I certainly wasted plenty of time during law school classes playing games and surfing the net. But I also was able to access a lot of useful information during class, including all kinds of great info during a legal history class. I don't see them being a huge help until they start offering textbooks online or in ebook format. If they allow us to access the same (or possibly better) resources compared to books, then the possible distraction could be worth it. If they only serve as a distraction because nothing truly useful can be accessed (which is where I see the situation currently), then there is no need to keep paying a fortune over and over for technology that will be out of date in a couple of years.
The problem I find lies in memory. I remember lectures better than I remember textbooks. I remember things on computers even less than all those. It's too easy to know you can go back and look something up later. Computers are too handy. Kids get lazy on them. Money needs to be spent on teachers and chalk boards, not computers. Most households have computers already. If I want computer training for the adult world, I can get it for free at many Goodwills.
@BigD145: People have a wide range of learning models. It's awesome that you learn best by hearing. You'll probably do pretty well in most of your early undergraduate classes, that focus heavily on the lectures. Don't get lazy, you'll struggle on the ones that require you to do independent research or learn almost exclusively from textbooks.
Some people learn best by interacting with the material. These are the people that take copious notes. The act of writing them down (not reading them later) works best. Some work best by just reading directly, and if you say things to them it goes in one ear and out the other. Most people are a blend of these three models (auditory, visual, haptic), but lean heavily towards one.
The difficulty is that may people, yourself included, assume that one model works best for everyone. Usually, this is the model that they themselves prefer. For those that learn best through listening, the computers may serve as a distraction. For the other two models, it would be a great help.
@Brad
I listen and write notes. It helps to solidify everything and any gaps in memory are easily found. The layout of a paper can jog your memory, regardless of what words are written. A little doodle in a corner does not change its position. Text on a computer changes from computer to computer. Every computer has different parts and different screens and software is set up differently on each one. Sight and sound and smell are all big kickers for bringing memories to the surface.
I don't make these assumption lightly. There are a few caveats, but everyone is human and there is a limit to exactly how we learn. Certain techniques work no matter who your are. Your genes dictate it. Humans adapt only within specific confines. Human-to-human interaction is one of those.
dude, that dog is AWESOME.
omg look at the screen, momentum, energy, power, radial acceleration!
MAKE THE PHSYICS GO AWAY!! STOP!! PUT A MYSPACE SCREEN NOW!! MY HEAD IT HURTS!
Big deal. Tell me when they order 100,000 or 1mm then it starts getting interesting.
Anthony where is my false grammar, punctuation and spelling? I can't even get bad spelling, I don't use IE like you- I use Firefox.
Try using commas instead of 3 &. Noob.
i read your first comment and my head hurts.
Newsflash - IE7 does spellcheck just like any other browser.
I mean really, I understand if you dislike another browser, but don't make up lies about it and associate it with things that aren't true.
IE7 can do spell check, and a browser that someone uses has almost no reflection on how a person actually spells and does grammar.
For kicks... here:
"in experience computers in schools suck, they're always too cheap or district disables them too much for use,
money coulda been better spent"
I'm assuming you meant:
In my experience, computers in schools suck. They're always too cheap or the district disables too much for them to be of any use. The money could have been better spent."
Even with the corrections, there are a few other grammatic rules I would have followed to make it sound a bit more intelligent. Spelling isn't everything.
Michael:
IE7 does spell check... really ?
You mean its built in and works without installing an add-on.
@vcx:
But that's the power of add-ons. If you don't like what included with the browser, or the browser doesn't have one, just find an add-on, and you got that functionality instantly.
I thought that was a main feature Firefox it touted for: lots of add-ons. So add-ons are a bad thing now?
So IE7 doesn't 'officially' do spell check, but with a nice add-on called IE7 Pro, you get the function, plus many others in one package.
My original point is, is that IE7 still 'can' do spell check. Ok? Sauerkraut was making it sound like IE7 is that dead-beat, and he has it all wrong. Just merely telling the truth here.
Andir3.0 how long have you been using the internet? You truly don't know how people post
That's pretty trollish, if you know what that means
You asked man:
"Anthony where is my false grammar, punctuation and spelling?"
Computers can be useful for teaching, but depending on the condition of the schools, this could've been better spent.
I remember my highschool getting brand new computers for the offices (while neglecting the teachers who still had to use early Win95 machines), when they supposedly couldn't even afford to have a full set of textbooks for each class.
Dunno. Some teachers tend to be Luddites when it comes to computers. My wife's school (she teaches special ed) has to special order laptops with floppy drives to keep the teachers happy.
Of *course* teachers are Luddites.
If they try to use computers in their classrooms, they'll run the risk of being senteced to 40 years of felony charges if a pop-up trojan pulls up a porn site during class.
*I* wouldn't ever let a computer be turned on in my classroom. And I'd tell everyone who'd listen why...
$650 a pop, TAX FREE(I assume)??!!! W00t!
LOL, talk about getting ripped off. For that money they could have bought fulle capable Windows Vista machine with 160GB HDD, Dual core CPU, 15.4 inch display 2GB RAM and more.
With those specs the Eees won't last more than 6-12 months and the students will probably get a headache from writing a 1500 word essay on a 7 inch screen.
For the school's sake I hope that there will be 4 more in each box or something.
Did "officials invest $650,000" in them, or did they spend $650,000 of my tax money on them?
This is a lot better waste of money then half the shit schools buy. It is frustrating to see how they spend their money. No offense to teachers, but that's what happens when the people in charge of finances are just a higher ranking teacher. Anyone in that position should be required to have some form of finance college degree or at least minor.
"Did "officials invest $650,000" in them, or did they spend $650,000 of my tax money on them?"
Well.. somehow I doubt that you've paid $650K tax in your life time.
;)
Wish my school district had new computers, we still run programs from the 1995! Next comes iPhones with text books preloaded.
Just because I disagree with you guys doesn't mean I'm wrong. This is as stupid as Halliburton & Dick.
How about some Black Friday giveaway winners?
WTF is with announcing who won the previous contest in the same heading as the contest you want to know who the current winner is. Bleh
Ok, seriously now, I saw your first comment and I thought "oh thats funny, spam with bad grammar". But, when you comment over and over that is just scummy.
@EngadgetFanBoi
I actually doubt they got models for bigger storage. Most schools use networked drives for storage now.
Maybe they got models that can go on Engadget.
You know, to teach kids how to use the reply button.
And really, who needs geology?
the school district that i work with bought 1400 macbooks for the school and staff. neeneerz.
I graduated high school last year and my senior year our school gave everyone a laptop, seems like it is becoming more and more popular, even though most teachers still went old fashioned
I think this is awesome and i would love to receive an Eeepc for school. For one this would help SO MUCH with logging in problems on our network, all the class trying to get the only two computer labs, with kids saying they don't have a computer and they can use the internet off the library wifi or any other hot spots.
This is so cool, the EeePC is teh best.
Okay at my highschool in San Jose California, we tried the whole laptop per child thing. They wanted to be paperless ect ect. All I remember from freshmen year is playing counterstrike and wc3, downloading porn and such. Once we found out the admin password to install things it all went to hell and the next year they didnt hand outlaptops, they were "Class sets" which the teachers never even used!
Oh in math we would have chat rooms on aim with everyone sharing answers hahaha 8-)
Wow.
And people said buying all these for third world countries was the useless idea.
Guess they've never been to Fresno.
i go to Roanoke County Schools, all students and teachers in the school district are given brand new dell laptops. now some things are limited like changing settings and backgrounds but all of our text books are on there and we use a program called BlackBoard to receive tests and homework(so we never have an excuse for not doing it)haha! but they do cause many distractions like students playing games and watching dvds or doing something else ur not suppose to, and for this reason some teachers dont even use them for classroom work which i think is a great waste of money and resources but im only a student. Laptops are a great resource and tool for students but not all students will use them for what they are intended for, but i dont think that the should be looked at as distractions and taking away from the learning process...
hopes this helps
I wonder how soon these will be showing up on Ebay.
In high school I can see that giving laptops to honors level or AP level kids would benefit them greatly. They are usually more disciplined in their work ethic and stay on task better than kids in regular level classes. I have not seen many of my classmates stray off task with computers in front of them in my AP classes but in regular classes everyone is goofing off playing games instead of writing their essays.
Eee PC in the class?
I just got one. It's great but I would not use it for anything else than on the road. For the daily work the screen is simply to small.
Plus I still think the price is to high and comparable with a full laptop.
As long as the kids are not taking them at home on a daily basis I think the decision was not very smart.
I've had my Eee PC for one week: boots up in 10 seconds, fits in a small backpack, no disc or hard drive to break, great web browsing and OpenOffice. In other words, the perfect computer for students at schools or to take home. And, you can reset it to factory from a DVD at any time. For busy IT folk at schools, this will be a welcome break from having to keep Windows PCs & Macs working. I predict in a few years, students will be required to have something like this, just as they must have graphing calculators today.
Good idea Bullard High School.
After reading the article - and some of the comments here - I would have to say that this type of concept is a necessity or just required.
From the stats on Fresno, CA (avg annual income 32k) I don't think that alot of kids would have a computer at home - there really is no need for kids to be online at home anyways - it's just replacing the TV as babysitter model. To the person that was yapping about Vista capable system etc., those would already be in the computer lab for whoever to use and misuse. I wouldn't allow internet access on these systems, but utilizing them to access a school/student intranet is the vibe I got from the article, pretty neat.
There was a complaint in the article about the old computers not being repaired or upgraded instead. From my experience, getting old hardware to support the latest os from whoever sometimes costs more in the long run. What's the price of SD Ram right now? PC133 anyone? motherboard, cpu, ram, hard drives, optical drives, mouse, keyboard, monitor - just for the price of an integrated motherboard with the heatsink, fan, and 1 gig memory, you would be getting closer to an EEE or OLPC.
$650 for a EEE or OLPC with a service contract seems just fine - the space and power savings alone are worth it to get a EEE or OLPC instead of a tower or "real" laptop which will most likely be underpowered when another os update comes along.
The more we use computers are work, the more we will require computers in the classroom. It's a dependency, and I like to see it happening more often. And on top of all that, don't forget the licensing requirements and costs for a mac or microsoft os.
At 650$ a pop they could have 2 units with extended warranty which is way better then any one unit even with overnight - onsite - instant replacement - 24/7 support .
Typical government thinking spending your paytax $$$ and then everyone wonders why the dollar is tumbling down .
Did they order from Newegg? Maybe they'll get 5,000.
As a matter of fact, I go to a school with a one to one laptop program in New York. Its really cool how we download our homework and stuff. But we use Apple laptops.
Many of the things are limited on our laptops and are only available to the administratior. There are many great programs for this like Kids GoGoGo from Apple. Working with the computer adminstator as a student in the computer club , I know first hand on how students laptops are monitored over our schools wireless network. We have very strict rules, and although we do goof off sometimes, most kids know better than to do stupid stuff. Plus every one's looking forward to when we get new MacBooks with Leopard next year. Another cool thing was how one of our teachers taught his class from Europe using the built in iSight camera on his laptop.
Unlike most of the comments regarding this purchase, I will not be guessing about what the district did.
The purchase was made by the new Chief Technology Officer who has no educational background (not a former a teacher).
While it is true that the machines come with Linux and Open Office, the district reimages them with XP and Microsoft Office, plus some other over bloated software, leaving them with only 94MB on its HD. Therefore, there was no service contract that was purchased since all work is done inside of the district, due to union constraints from the all of the MCS -- not the teachers. Also, the price for any additional software was not for any OS or office Aps, as some have speculated. The district made a separate deal with Microsoft for its OS and office suite -- the same deal that any California district can get, although district officials like to brag about this deal.
This district has updated textbooks so this does not factor in the the comment that some schools in the Central Valley do not have updated textbooks (however, most of the textbooks are totally overpriced and are terrible pieces of curriculum and most teachers do not like the new science adoption).
These computers were purchased without any educational program in mind -- the main purpose of the computers was to generate a gee-whiz news story and provide good press for the school district. The local story in the Fresno Bee quoted the Superintendent as saying the purchase of these computers was to entice parents to send their children to FUSD -- the district in recent years has lost enrollment to surrounding districts. Fewer students means less ADA (daily revenue generated by a student's attendance).
Most of these computers have never even seen a classroom as of this writing. Also, the keyboards are way too small for any average sized 4th grader -- their fingers are just too big.
These computers are for the 4GB HD and not for any other version as some on here have speculated. By the way, the district did not purchase any SD cards or USB flash drives to use with the computers. All of the work is supposed to saved on the district's new Sharepoint site -- a site which has yet to be developed.
Any yes, they are intended for use on the Internet and on the districts Intranet. The reason why they were purchased was because of their size. They have a small footprint -- also, they are intended to be with two students. Yes, that's right, one 7" inch screen for every two students --not one-to-one as some think.
Now, that you have a bigger picture of the computers, how they are to be used, and the district at large, I wonder what your impression are.