Re: Educational 1:1
 

i'm still learning my device, but one would probably spend a whole day editing one document with the kiddies...

i can't imagine going from one to one, showing them what to do. plus managing sending and receiving files to everyone could be funky. possibly printing won't be straight forward either

Re: Educational 1:1
 

Documents could be shared easily if all students got a gmail account, and instructions
could be visual if you had a desktop computer hooked up to a lcd projector display
your n800 or n770 with vnc server on the nokia and vnc viewer on the desktop.

oh, and printing is impossible as of now.

dcarter

Re: Educational 1:1
 

We are talking about a high school now so instruction shouldn't be a problem. All of the teachers have Toshiba tablets and all of the rooms are equipped with wireless projectors. Students tend to pick up on things quicker than teachers, but the teachers are doing good, so I am assuming the students will do good. Every student in the school has an e-mail address at the school. so its like jdoe@school.k12.nj.us. That means file transfer won't be a problem.

Re: Educational 1:1
 

If price is a major issue, and you're not extremely worried about getting cutting edge stuff, have you considered getting second hand tablets for the sudents?

I just bought a Fujitsu Siemens st4120p tablet pc for only slightly more than the price of a new N800, and that included a leather pouch, an IR keyboard and docking station with CD-ROM. The seller acquired a batch of 50 from a Canadian tobacco company, refurbished them (including upping the RAM to 786 MB) and sold them on eBay. I'm sure there are companies out there that would like to sell their writeoffs directly to schools. Most sales reps got handed these tablets a few years ago and many of them have downgraded to laptops since.

Sure, it runs Windows, but if you're going to do anything serious with handwriting, you're (sadly) limited to Windows anyway. From what I've read, something like MyScript Notes might suit your software needs.

Re: Educational 1:1
 

The hard cover that covers the stylus slot. Drop the N800, and the camera and stylus will quite frequently fall out (at least for me ;) and in one notable case, the back came off.

My N770's hard case has some pretty severe battle damage --- just the metal, mind you --- which I can't imagine the N800 dealing with ;)


With regards to live annotations, erm, not so much. Word document compatibility is likely to improve over this summer, as AbiSource has picked up the N800, but I can't even begin to hazard precisely how far.

That said, PDFs work just fine, and I can name three open source / freeware Word->PDF converters off the top of my head. You wouldn't be able to get in-line annotation, however.

Re: Educational 1:1
 

Yes, the hard cover is the one thing I'll most miss of the 770. *But* (would you believe it? ;) ) mine had *never* been dropped over one year and two month in which I owned it.

Anyway, I really hope that a hard case will be produced for the N800, since the display is really too exposed; hope Noo8 (my N800) will never drop too :D

Re: Educational 1:1
 

And not having a lot of applications to run was mentioned as an objection to the other system. Well, there are lots of applications to run with the N800, but not compared to those using Windows, Macs or with full-fledged Linux systems.

I'm still bugged that there isn't a (decent) chess display program (the one given forces you to play against a computer, but what if you want to look at an Alekhine game? You can't.)

And there isn't a snazzy note-taker like kdissert or Tomboy or thebrain or some neat outliner program. The closest is Xournal, but it's not quite there from my point of view.

What I think is really cool for kids, is that the N800 could in many cases outhink a dumb adult on a laptop. It's like a PT boat against a destroyer! Most adults wouldn't realize how powerful this little toy is.

Re: Educational 1:1
 

I agree with all that's been said about annotation. I'm a college professor and we use Tablet PCs quite extensively -- students take notes with them, I lecture using them, we use them in labs, etc. Both the small screen and the limited annotation factor would deter me from using the N800 in class.

Usage of the N800 would be application driven. There are many experiments and projects that could be done quite nicely with an N800. However, that would impress me as requiring quite a bit a application development. This is perhaps something to beware of: there is little educational software out for a small, form-factor Linux platform.

And, for me, note taking, proof reading, and annotating just are not among those applications.

-F

Re: Educational 1:1
 

Karel, I had looked at used and refurbished tablets. There are two problems we can think of, 1) we really can't guarantee the quality of the product we would, and 2) we would need a lot. A lot meaning about four thousand. Keep the ideas coming. The more feedback the better. Thanks everybody. You rock!

Re: Educational 1:1
 

1) Yes, quality control is indeed a problem on the second hand market, but:

2) Yikes! four freakin' thousand! Just go directly to some Chinese manufacturer, he'll do you a sweet deal.