Netbooks are all the rage, but they don't really meet the needs of today's students
Primary Topic Channel: Handheld technologies
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The "next big thing" has arrived in education, and it's a little computer--the netbook. School districts from Maine to California are considering acquiring netbooks for student use, figuring they are a low-cost route toward one-to-one computing. Never mind whether one-to-one computing is truly a panacea--are netbooks a good education platform for our children?
The advocates for netbooks make three basic arguments:
1. The price is right: We can afford enough machines for every student.
2. The size is right: Students will do best with a small, light machine.
3. Students don't need any more power: With cloud computing, everything they need is available on the web.
Let's take a look at the arguments. First, cost. An Acer laptop with a 14-inch screen, 2 GHz Dual Core processor with 3 gigabytes of RAM, NVIDIA graphics, wireless networking, a 160-gigabyte hard drive, and Windows Vista costs $399 after rebate. An Asus netbook with a 10-inch screen, 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 1 GB of RAM, built-in Intel graphics, wireless networking, a 160 GB hard drive, and Windows XP costs $349. Looks like you get less with the netbook for almost the same price.
Next, size. Quick: What is the most important skill after reading and numeracy that children learn in elementary school? I would argue that it is basic typing. Once they can read, do math, and use a keyboard, students can access the entire world of content and can communicate with their teachers and peers online. Yet, what is the fundamental limitation of netbooks? It is hard to type on them! Why would we ever want to train our children to type on an inadequate keyboard?
Finally, power. What medium is most important to the next generation of learners? It's video--the most power-hungry medium of all. Does it make sense to give our children a hardware platform that doesn't create or play video well? Of course not, yet that is what we do with netbooks.
Let's get this right. We need to evaluate our children's educational needs, not jump on the latest bandwagon. If they need to learn to type on a full-size keyboard, we should supply one. If they need a decent screen to see their work, they deserve to have one. If they need graphics power to create video, we should supply that to encourage their learning in the new medium.
Most of all, we need to stop listening to the hardware marketing barrage and focus on the real crux of educational technology--the applications our children use to learn. As President Clinton might have said: It's the applications, stupid.
Jon Bower is the president of it's learning inc., maker of a next-generation online platform for education.
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we can't have the cake and eat it all...
1. Price - With the netbooks, manufacturers have managed to come to a reasonable compromise in terms of price and capacity. It may not be perfect, but it's a far cry from what I've seen over the past 10 years of technology. 2.Keyboard - Jon underestimates kids' capacity to adapt to different environments. I myself, am looking for a netbook and find it's not hard adapting to the smaller keyboard, especially for kids. If it's really that much of a problem for the bigger kids, parents can get them bigger, heavier and more expensive laptops. 3. Power - There're lots of chargers out in the market that help lengthen mobile usage of such netbooks - which is far lighter than the typical laptop. I've seen kids carry bags with both a laptop and books. Today while hardcopy and softcopy data co-exist in schools, we do need to spare a thought for our children's backs.
Posted By: ruth.tay, 2009-10-13 9:27 PM
1 of 3...
You could make all kinds of cost comparisons showing the cost of a netbook to be less than desirable. Regardless, that isn't the point. It serves a different purpose. You wouldn't compare the price of a limo with that of an economy car because it doesn't make sense; they serve different purposes. The same is true here. Most of these devices have keyboards that are practically full sized. Regardless, the purpose of education should be to teach what these kids are going to need, not what we have had to deal with. Not including netbooks in the teaching process when it is pretty clear they will have to deal with them when they get beyond their education experience seems completely short-sighted. And have you looked around at the video kids are creating? This isn't production studio stuff. They are capturing video with cell phones (or now even iPods) and pitching it off to YouTube. A netbook can handle more than that although it appears it doesn't need to. Regardless, it is again an inappropriate comparison as you are assuming they are not going to use the right tool for the job. I would agree that netbooks have some disadvantages in education, but I think you completely missed all of them. sjt
Posted By: sjtryon, 2009-10-13 8:57 AM
Second Thoughts
My initial response to what I had read about Netbooks was positive. I am now re-thinking it. I believe the author is correct that it is truly detrimental if the netbooks are unable to handle video. Kids love to show what they know in that medium, and there is much they can learn now via video as well. I also used to be a 1:1 advocate, but I am not anymore. I believe a wealth of 21st century instruction would be available with a ratio of one computer (preferably a reasonable quality laptop) to every two students. This virtually assures that some degree of collaboration and group effort is required. For situations when each person needs their own machine, you need only one alternative activity in the classroom. Most elementary schools would be well served with this solution and maybe some desktop machines in their information centers. Secondary schools need desktop computing for courses in which students are mastering authentic computing skills--programming, CAD, video productions, business applications, etc.
Posted By: jacqueline.mcgee, 2009-10-13 4:52 AM
For the K-6 grades, the Netbooks are perfectly sized for the little fingers. Granted, the keyboard is smaller for 'adults' but look at the application. I wouldn't write my thesis on one of these however, I have spoken to students in my College who have only a netbook and they love it. oekosjoe brought up the ipone/iPod phenomenon - you either thumb type or use one finger, so why not utilize the other 8 or 9 fingers? Price point is key and I would get 3 for 1 to replace my laptop carts with netbooks. Space savings on the physical desktop is important. Students can now take notes, research, read their text book and jot down paper notes all in the same space. We will continue to have large laptops (which will eventually replace the desktop IMHO) but there is definitely a market and need for these devices. And to take it one step further, check out alwaysinnovating.com -- and soon-to-come, Mac Tablet. These are for sure wonderful times!
Posted By: ajsantucci, 2009-10-12 3:24 PM
writer needs to try one
I have successfully captured, edited, and encoded video on my ACER one, 1G ram, 1.75 mH. The keyboard is much larger than the qwerty keyboards the students are using all day to socialize - txt. and the next gen. of netbooks will have processing power to compete effectively with any desktop machine on the market. Seems like the author is not informed and of the variety of journalists we are removing from our source list - mistaking contempt prior to investigation for investigative reporting. eSchool, you do better than this.
Posted By: davidharris, 2009-10-10 10:04 PM
Third most important skill is what?
Wow, I think the articles in e-school news are usually pretty good, but after reading this one I am not sure. I think the author is quite misinformed.
Posted By: jebswebs, 2009-10-09 5:30 PM
Missing the Point
Netbooks are a transition strategy that allows teachers to move from a paper-based classroom to a digital one. Regular-sized laptop take up the whole desk, while the netbook shares the desktop with textbooks and papers. We're find that many of our teachers keep the netbooks on the student desks all day - and integrate them into the classroom curriculum quickly without having to develop completely new lessons. We use the HP MiniNote and they are holding up very well - and what's even better is they aren't stacked up in a computer cart - they are accessible by students all day.
Posted By: kmadden491, 2009-10-09 4:46 PM
Netbooks point to the future
You can buy very capable netbooks for $200. I type hundreds of words daily on my MacBook with a similar keyboard. No problem. What videos are you playing? Netbooks have plenty of computing power and net bandwidth for YouTube. That's enough for education too. Mr. Bower may be upset that netbooks don't have enough power for his app; I can't tell for sure, but it seems that way. It's much more important to put net access into more students' hands than to run overpowering apps. Simply split the work between the client and the server, as my app does. It's very powerful and used by huge numbers of students even on 10-year old machines. Harry Keller President Paracomp, Inc. www.smartscience.net
Posted By: harry674, 2009-10-09 1:33 PM
TOOLS COST $$$
Technology is never cheap. The industry creates machines that barely last longer than 3 or 4 years - about the life of a text book - for those of you who've seen how kids mishandle textbooks you know what I'm talking about. If your computer lasts longer than this you're living on borrowed time. So without sounding cynical, how can an already financially strapped school district afford to provide these technologies to students given?: 1. Sometimes the technology is defective to begin with ie: see "Could be a costly mistake." 2. Many students mistreat school property. 3. Internet access is severly muted by filtering software. 4. Additional budget for equipment maintenance and repair will be needed in order to keep all of these machines up and running. 5. Many older teachers don't know how to integrate technology into their classrooms and resist using it above the tools of power point, word processing, and surfing the internet. 6. Many schools are not set up to utilize wireless technology in their classrooms. On the positive side, access to the internet provides a doorway into a greater volume of information (albeit some not so great) and a body of information more current and diverse as can ever be found in any text book. However, until the industry creates a machine that will hold up under the kind of tests that Samsonite used to put their luggage through (for those of you old enough to remember the commercials), and until schools have sufficient funding to provide technology for students, then I think that some of this discussion is a moot point.
Posted By: estep, 2009-10-09 9:53 AM
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Not for alll, but definitely for some
I run a small online consortium of about thirty school districts. I have four computers of my own - one desktop, two "regular" laptops and one netbook. I've been using my netbook for about a year now, figuring that I should know it's limitations before making recommendations to schools. I have intentionally made it my primary computer for purposes of this past year. It has performed very well indeed. I agree that simply shifting to an all-netbook environment would not be appropriate, but I certainly would include netbooks as a major component of any school based puchasing plan.
Posted By: romeomarquis, 2009-10-19 1:36 PM