My experience with the mobile labs is that they are popular, and kids especially love to destroy them.
All attempts at accountability tend to be lost causes, and because the parts are harder to replace than on desktops, they wind up becoming just so much ballast after time. There is also the issue of laptops, in addition to costing more than equivalent desktops, are generally good for less time. I believe that a laptop is engineered for 3 years while a desktop is engineered for 5, and by converting the desktop into a dumb terminal, it can be extended out indefinitely. On the plus side, the minis are good for the elementary, especially the younger kids as it is less likely to cause carpal tunnel over time due to the size appropriate scale. -----Original Message----- From: info-tech-ow...@aea8.k12.ia.us [mailto:info-tech-ow...@aea8.k12.ia.us] On Behalf Of Bruce Ludwig Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 8:28 AM To: info-tech@aea8.k12.ia.us Subject: [info-tech] Mini Computer Lab Sorry for all the other information. Meant to take the other stuff from the Sioux City School out. Here it is again. Good Morning: I am asking thoughts from our aea and aea8 tech groups. Would like to know your feelings on switching from a computer lab to mobile labs in a K-5 setting. I really have mixed feelings and wanted to get more ideas from the group. We currently have a lab of 24 desktops, we would take and put 3 in each section 3-5 in their classroom from the computer lab. Our lab would be a lab of 24 minis on a cart. Thanks for the feedback. Have a great day. Bruce Ludwig LeMars Community Schools LeMars, IA 51031 --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus on the server aea8.k12.ia.us] --------------------------------------------------------- Archived messages from this list can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/info-tech@aea8.k12.ia.us/ --------------------------------------------------------- --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus on the server aea8.k12.ia.us] --------------------------------------------------------- Archived messages from this list can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/info-tech@aea8.k12.ia.us/ ---------------------------------------------------------
