[K12OSN] FYI article - MIT Picks Maker of $100 Laptop

Tom Hoffman tom.hoffman at gmail.com
Wed Dec 14 21:33:12 UTC 2005


On 12/14/05, Steve Hargadon <steve.hargadon at gmail.com> wrote:

> I remain sceptical as well.  You know how hard it is to keep computers
> in a lab working well and cared for.  I can't imagine putting a laptop
> in the hands of a child with little computer experience and having it
> be cared for.  Ultimately, will every child have a laptop in this
> world?  I would imagine so (or at least in more advanced societies).
> But seems like that is something that would have to be progressed
> toward, and just giving them access to a computer in an environment
> where they can be taught and the computers cared for would be much
> more significant.

On the other hand, having tried to support laptops in school myself, I
can see that there's tons of room for improvement over the standard
laptop design.  Use a beefy hinge, a power adapter reinforced by nylon
webbing (i.e., the shoulder strap), batteries I can replace with
standard C-cells, and the ability to easily mix and match cpu's and
displays from broken machines, and you'll mitigate a lot of the
current points of failure on laptops for kids.

--Tom




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