Comments on: Maybe It’s Time?

By: Cutthroat Stalker (Scott)

Cutthroat Stalker (Scott) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:00:57 +0000

Thanks for checking in Bob. Not to worry, I’m not straying too far.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:56:49 +0000

Hi Scott – glad to have you back in the blogosphere! Nice stuff, but please, don’t stray too far from posting and fishing. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Please keep in touch.

By: Cutthroat Stalker (Scott)

Cutthroat Stalker (Scott) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:37:37 +0000

I have three groups of about 25 kids during the day. I’d love for a laptop per kid so they could take it home, but that would be about $40,000. I could just go with desktop PCs, but I still want freedom to move the students’ desks around in different configurations, so I’m going with laptops. Web 2.0 apps are my initial target–really leveraging the social aspect so students can collaborate on projects/work. I’ve really thought hard about cloud computing, and Google Docs (now Chrome OS) was looking enticing, however… We always have to weigh student safety/security against everything we do. And, our intranet is pretty good, with kids logging in at home or school (it wouldn’t matter which laptop they used since all the work is stored on the network). So I can easily have students work on stuff at school and they can access it anywhere. Most of the collaborative stuff (wikis, blogs, journals, quizzes, etc.) would be done using Moodle–not quite in the cloud, but also available anywhere an internet connection is had. Anyway, I won’t bore you with more details, but I’m hoping I can swing the $$.

By: wyoflyfish

wyoflyfish — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:43:38 +0000

I was wondering where you had disappeared to, and was hoping you might be on an epic trip! Well, writing grants can be an epic trip all its own huh?! Sounds like you have a nice plan. I am guessing the laptops stay in the classroom and multiple students sit at them throughout the day? I have seen those large charging carts etc but have never looked into a laptop setup like that more than curiosity. The Chrome OS info of the last few days could definitely mix up the possibilities of how to approach it. With multiple students using the lappy throughout the day the cloud approach may be something to explore.