I caught Tami's review of the new Classmate Convertible on the Tech4Teaching Blog and was interested to see that she gave it quite high marks.

It seems like lower-powered, passive-digitizer tablets are going be the next big thing... we have the Classmate, of course, the Asus EEE T91, Fujitsu's new P1930, Gigabyte's m912, etc. Lots of other netbook makers are making noise about their future lightweight, low-powered tablet.

Obviously, these are going to be of interest to schools with tight budgets as they generally cost a fair bit less than the usual Lenovos or Toshibas we're using. What I'm curious about is the benefits or drawbacks of these over the usual fair. I'm thinking that the passive digitizer and less-powerful process (either Atom or in the case of Fujitsu, a slower dual core) are the key drawbacks, but maybe there are lots of positives too.

Anyone with experience with any of these in the classroom want to add some comments? Tami, anything else you're thinking about the Classmate? Thanks!

I'm currently teaching with a Toshiba M200 tablet. I use it pretty much everyday, largely as a replacement for a white board and to comment on and respond to student essays (I teach English at a community college). Because the bulk of what I do on the tablet involves writing, I don't mind the lack of a resistive touch screen... I virtually always have the stylus in my hand anyway. As my M200 is aging, I'm looking for a replacement, and wanted to solicit some advice.

Most of the new ultralight/netbook tablets (which I'd like, because the four pounds of M200 I'm currently hauling around takes up a lot of room in my bag), have resistive touch screens rather than the active digitizer that most tablet PCs have. My understanding is that active digitizers tend to be far more robust and accurate than the touch screens and that touchscreens tend to have a much shorter lifespan than active digitizers.

So, my question: has anyone had experience with the resistive touchscreens in a daily use school environment (preferably where the kids were beating on them) and had good luck? I'd really like to move to something smaller and lighter, but I need something that will stand up to a lot of touchscreen use.

Tami, you've had your hands on the new Classmate tablet, right? How accurate did writing on the screen seem? Is there a big difference from the (I think) Lenovo's you're using?

Thanks!

Thanks for info. I did see the ASUS Eee tablet, and my concern with it (though I am excited by it) is the same as with the Classmate... that resistive digitizer. My students don't use tablets on a routine basis (we're still working to get the admin to get basic laptops for the faculty), so this is largely for me to use in class as a digital whiteboard, to mark up student essays, and for oodles of notetaking. If the writing function won't work very well, it's sort of out for me, as that's my key use for the tablet.

Have you played with InkSeine (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/inkseine/index.html)? It's similar to Windows Journal and OneNote, but the user interface is clearly designed for the tablet. I don't know if it will ever make it from something I play with to something I regularly use in the classroom, but figuring out all of its features is on my Christmas break to do list.

Tami Brass wrote:
> What software should all tablet users have? What are you favorites for use with kids?