Looking into investing in some hardware for yuor school or organisation? This guy has done a practical examination of the issues and costs that we very rarely see in review media:
iPad vs. Netbook for a 1:1 - http://edreach.us/2011/04/01/ipad-vs-netbook-for-a-11/
Enjoy!
Hi Matt
That's a really good read! Makes you think through the issues with the underpinning rationale of cost-savings.
Come to think of it, some PC shops in Malaysia give you the option of buying a Netbook without Ms Windows 7 installed. So I could save more than a couple of bucks if I were to buy a factory-ready Netbook, and then install a distro of Linux on it. Nice idea!
The other option is to buy a tablet that has a USB port so that you can connect to all other kinds of USB gadgets. That would entail buying more stuff (USB hub, mouse, portable keyboard, etc.) and bringing all the peripherals around with you (not such a grand idea).
Still for all the cost-savings enjoyed, it does make sense for students to use Linux-powered Netbooks. If the main object were to play games, then nothing beats using touch-screen Tablets.
Frankie Kam
I was intrigued so see an inexpensive netbook do well in a purchasing decision. This article will help for planning at our school. However, the writer did not state the educational projects, activities or even applications they needed and how they would be used. It was simply a hardware price comparison, not a well-documented study. For that reason, I cannot find it useful--just a promising start.
Hi Don
>And to be fair, even with Garageband or iMovie on the iPad, it still isn’t
>as powerful an experience as what one can have on a fully powered
>MacBook. And, the netbooks have OpenShot for video editing and Audacity for audio editing. They also access Aviary (Aviary audio editor I presume: Frankie) through our Google Apps domain, so there is still a strong audio editing presence on the netbooks, just as there is on iPads using iMovie or Garageband. More on the software in the next post.
> However, the writer did not state the educational projects, activities
>or even applications they needed and how they would be used.
>
From what I can gather from the article, it is (to me), based on the emphasis on multimedia usage, mostly video and audio applications (video and audio editing) that's being used by the students.
Previously, they were using Macbooks which have been discontinued by Apple. This article on Ben's blog could give us a clue since he mentioned that the MacBook Air's 64Gb harddrive is insufficient for all the multimedia work the staff do. Also in the original article, Ben mentioned that their Netbook runs the Linux image with the list of software found here (Ubermix).
And to delve further into Ben's mind, I'd recommend this related and very interesting post on his blog. He talks about using Ubermix Netbooks to get 90% of the activities of a Macbook, yet at 1/3 the cost. He breaks it down into dollars and savings realised. He also mentions about the speed of the Ubermix OS and about liberating the student to allow them to experiment with the Netbook to the extent where if they mess up their OS, Ubermix allows the student to reset the Netbook back to default, with all student data intact. Nice read - especially the readers' comments to his blog post on the subject.
As for the projects and activities done by Ben's students, I guess we'll have to wait for his follow post on software (as he has mentioned).
regards
Frankie Kam
Now that the dust is settling, the advertising hype is getting tired, and more people understand a bit more about what tablets actually are, I think they'll settle into their traditional niche as "thin clients". Yes, IT support people, they're back! Will they be any easier to manage this time around?
A users' side by side comparison (never mind the specs) of the latest batch of £200-ish netbooks vs. Amazon's Kindle Fire HD (about £200-ish) reveals tablets' shortcomings by a long way. As soon as learner productivity becomes an issue, tablets start to look like expensive paperweights... ...in a paperless classroom!
I dont think the use of tablets will Fizzle, far from it.
I dont think "ipad vs netbook" is the best way to look at it, rather "tablets vs hard copy". Tablets are better for that as they have a much longer battery life and can be put in a bag without being shut down, opened up again and they are ready for use imediately. You cannot do that with a Netbook.
I think schools do need to consider how they are going to be used, and consider cheaper alternatives (Android) which do a better job of rendering existing educational content (still a lot of Flash out there).
Hi Visvanath
Thank you for sharing this very insightful article! It's a tale of "230 9.7″ screen iPads (estimate $600 for keyboard case and a few apps) versus 400 11.6″ screen netbooks ($350 for Acer Aspire One 722)".
Decisions, decisions, decisions! My personal view, as a holder of both a Dell laptop and iPad Air is that some of the best quality software for children that I have seen, are found in the iStore (Apple). However, if I had to equip as many students with a computer and there were a limit to the budget (which budget doesn't have a limit), I would go with the Netbooks and give the student life-long digital skills. No child left behind.
Regards
Frankie Kam