From: Edward Johnson (radar9999_at_aol.com)
Date: Thu Nov 17 2005 - 17:04:30 PST
Indeed a drive-less laptop similar to an emate with an NI-MH battery or
a newer LIthium derivative battery packed with enough ram and enough
flash memory to store programs and data would be very useful.
Primary considerations for another education-oriented emate type device:
A The target users and their age ranges. Getting the target users
interested in using the device is critical. The target users are not
only the end users, kids of whatever age groups, but the teachers that
must see this device as an important labor saving device that relieves
them of the tedious parts of education while empowering them to
effectively implement the education plans set out for them by their
districts. It should also allow them to easily tailor their lesson
plans to include additional content that encourages the participation
and interaction of their students with respect to the lessons being
presented. Also, there should the capability to easily notify and give
feedback to parents, school counselors, and fellow educators that are
involved with the kid's education.
B The types of applications necessary to support classroom learning and
homework. The software suite necessary for the teacher to interact with
the students in an effective way as well as the assignment and
retrieval of class work and home work. This is the tricky part.
C Connectivity and portability, and supportability. WiFi (802.11g or
above), USB (for flash or thumb drives, external HD's), Operating
System- Flash-upgradable AND BACKWARD COMPATIBLE for applications and
hardware. Reasonably secure from hacking and viruses.(built-in
firewall, authentication like MAC OS-X)
It would need access to commercial, Freeware, and Shareware
applications that could support interactive learning such as emailing
work assignments or following along during interactive class lessons to
running web-based self-paced learning. A major drawback will be
bandwidth for uploading interactive content media such as CD's or
worse, DVD's. While wireless would be clean and easy to implement. it
would literally suck the batteries right down so some kind of wired
connection or dock with house power may be necessary. At some point you
have to consider whether this new "Newton" would really be an
over-equipped handheld, or an under-equipped laptop.
Ed Johnson
The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds; the
pessimist fears this is true.
On Nov 16, 2005, at 8:50 PM, newtontalk_at_newtontalk.net wrote:
> Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 09:17:48 +1300
> From: Raj Patel <phigmov_at_gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [NTLK] A new eMate in the offing?
>
> I always wondered why Apple didn't just OpenSource Mac 'Classic' - I'd
> pay
> money for something with a Mac Duo form-factor running OS 7.6 or 8 on a
> 68040 chip - it'd easily run AppleWorks, Word 5.1 / Excel 4, Photoshop
> 4,
> Acrobat 4 etc (all the classics ;-) - with cheap RAM you could
> probably run
> it diskless too. Build in wireless/bluetooth and you'd give something
> like
> the Clie UX50 a run for its money (except in the pocketability stakes).
> I guess theres enough IP tied up in the old Classic OS not to warrant
> it
> though.
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