I am a huge advocate for implementing 1:1 with Asus Eee portables, but in recent F2F discussion with a colleague I was challenged to defend why the Asus Eee would be a better alternative to the current district standard laptop specifications.
For the purpose of this discussion, the typical "standard laptop specs" in my district include: HP 6910p (Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, 1.8 GHz, Dual Core, 2MBL2 Cache; 1 GB, DDR2 667MHz SDRAM, 1 DIMM +1 open slot; 80 GB Hard Drive, 5400rpm SATA); Apple MacBook (current specs not listed on district website, but usually matches current minimum specs on MacBook as listed on Apple Store website); Latitude D630 (Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, 1.8 GHz, Dual Core, 2MBL2 Cache; 1 GB, DDR2 667MHz SDRAM, 1 DIMM + 1 open slot; 80 GB Hard Drive, 5400rpm SATA); Lenovo ThinkPad R61 (Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, 1.8 GHz, Dual Core, 2MBL2 Cache; 1 GB, DDR2 667MHz SDRAM, 1 DIMM + 1 open slot ; 80 GB Hard Drive, 5400rpm SATA)
All standard specs listed above come with standard district load that includes Windows XP and most recent MS Office Suite of applications (Word, PPT, Excel, Access, Frontpage).
So I am putting this out here as a discussion for us to explore "talking points" when it comes to trying to push this idea within our districts.
Specifically, I have some guiding questions that may help direct the discussion:
1. Life cycles -- will the Asus Eee match or exceed current laptop life cycles (of 3 to 5 years)? (Personally, to me this is not an issue because if the current lifecycle of our laptops is only 3 to 5 years, then I don't see why we shouldn't consider a high school 1:1 program where students are issued a laptop in 9th grade and then are awarded the laptop at graduation if they graduate on time.)
2. Microsoft Office as business standard office suite -- How can we say we are preparing our students for college and careers if they aren't using the "industry-standard" software? (I hate this question, but it does come up in these discussions with non-believers.)
3. Wear & Tear -- Similar to the "life cycle" issue -- what kind of wear & tear can we expect with the Asus Eee vs. current standard laptops? This also includes a question about what kinds of demands the use of this laptop will place on tech support when there are software issues?
4. Cost of Asus Eee = "cheap" -- this flies in the face of "status quo" thinking about quality and craftsmanship. What talking points will help advocates challenge this embedded way-of-thinking about cost vs. quality?
/ Asus Eee in K-12 Education/ Contents contributed and discussions participated by Stephanie Sandifer
For the purpose of this discussion, the typical "standard laptop specs" in my district include: HP 6910p (Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, 1.8 GHz, Dual Core, 2MBL2 Cache; 1 GB, DDR2 667MHz SDRAM, 1 DIMM +1 open slot; 80 GB Hard Drive, 5400rpm SATA); Apple MacBook (current specs not listed on district website, but usually matches current minimum specs on MacBook as listed on Apple Store website); Latitude D630 (Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, 1.8 GHz, Dual Core, 2MBL2 Cache; 1 GB, DDR2 667MHz SDRAM, 1 DIMM + 1 open slot; 80 GB Hard Drive, 5400rpm SATA); Lenovo ThinkPad R61 (Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, 1.8 GHz, Dual Core, 2MBL2 Cache; 1 GB, DDR2 667MHz SDRAM, 1 DIMM + 1 open slot ; 80 GB Hard Drive, 5400rpm SATA)
All standard specs listed above come with standard district load that includes Windows XP and most recent MS Office Suite of applications (Word, PPT, Excel, Access, Frontpage).
So I am putting this out here as a discussion for us to explore "talking points" when it comes to trying to push this idea within our districts.
Specifically, I have some guiding questions that may help direct the discussion:
1. Life cycles -- will the Asus Eee match or exceed current laptop life cycles (of 3 to 5 years)? (Personally, to me this is not an issue because if the current lifecycle of our laptops is only 3 to 5 years, then I don't see why we shouldn't consider a high school 1:1 program where students are issued a laptop in 9th grade and then are awarded the laptop at graduation if they graduate on time.)
2. Microsoft Office as business standard office suite -- How can we say we are preparing our students for college and careers if they aren't using the "industry-standard" software? (I hate this question, but it does come up in these discussions with non-believers.)
3. Wear & Tear -- Similar to the "life cycle" issue -- what kind of wear & tear can we expect with the Asus Eee vs. current standard laptops? This also includes a question about what kinds of demands the use of this laptop will place on tech support when there are software issues?
4. Cost of Asus Eee = "cheap" -- this flies in the face of "status quo" thinking about quality and craftsmanship. What talking points will help advocates challenge this embedded way-of-thinking about cost vs. quality?