I am the technology integration specialist at BFA Fairfax for grades 3 - 8.  I have a mobile laptop cart with 24 computers.  It works great.  The computers are not taking that much of a beating as I am always with them.  We have two other laptop carts that receive a lot of use from high school and middle school students that are not fairing so well. They are heavily used. I think a cart that is shared among teachers and students for a particular grade level is a very good idea. (Especially if one of the teachers would be responsible for supervising the care of the laptops.)  Easy access to laptops for a whole class to use together gets much more accomplished.  The teacher is available to teach the computer skills as well as content.  That is difficult to do with 3 or 4 computers in the back of a class room particularly with students who switch classes. BFA plans to purchase an additional mobile cart for next year.  

Nancy Gross
BFA Fairfax

                                                                    
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>>> Lucie deLaBruere <[log in to unmask]> 1/30/2007 8:47 PM >>>
Speaking of mobile labs and the reduced price of laptops.  I'm curious as to
how low will you go and still end up with a unit that is suitable for a
school mobile lab environment.  Is anyone doing anything different than the
3 year warranties?  Does anyone use any of the "insurance" policies for
theft and other breakage for computers that leave the building? (how are the
folks out there with one-to-one's surviving?

I've been thinking of recommending replacing "classroom" desktops (currently
4 per classroom)  with a grade-level shared mobile lab for 5th grade.  How
is that working out for you Doug?  Anymore advice about criteria for
choosing a laptop over a desktop configuration.  I'm thinking the
flexibility of configuration would be worth a few extra bucks in cost, but
then I look at some of the 7 - 10 year old desktops that are still runninng
in our school (albeit some on life support), and wonder if the biggest trade
off is lifespan vs flexibility.  Anyone got data on replacement cycles for
laptops and desktops ready for a cost/ benefit analysis.

Lucie deLaBruere




On 1/30/07, Rick Mallon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Last year I checked out a company called earthwalk.com - the make a
> charger
> for their external batteries that plug into the ac adapter on the laptop-
> they claim 10 hours for 6 years - they will send you a demo charger to
> try.
> Kind of pushy though.
> Rick Mallon, St Johnsbury School
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: School Information Technology Discussion
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rick Hege
> Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 4:54 PM
> To: [log in to unmask] 
> Subject: Re: Lap tops/batteries
>
>
> Thanks for the input. I was wondering what people were doing about
> the relative inefficiency of using lap tops in the classroom.
> I do welcome any more comments should anyone feel the urge. Keeping
> the computers in use for as many hours a day as possible is the only
> way to justify the investment so to speak. The dual battery scenario
> would seem worth considering in furture purchases.
> Rick
>
>
> At 09:37 AM 1/29/2007, you wrote:
>
> ><?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> Doug here at ONSU I
> >ordered our laptops with dual batteries that last the entire
> >teaching day and will charge overnight.  We use Dell laptops and the
> >second battery is in place of the cd-rom drive.  Before this we had
> >only the one battery which caused many issues expecially if people
> >forgot to plug the laptop back in.  Many times the cart was plugged
> >in but a few laptops did not have their powercords connected.
> >
> >Hopefully that helps.
> >
> >Todd Ponto
> >Orange North SU
> >Director of Technology
> >voice: (802) 433-5818 x318
> >cell: (802) 318-3748
> >fax: (802) 433-5825
> ><mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask] 
>
> Tech Support
> Townshend School District
> PO Box 226
> Townshend, VT 05353-0226
> 802-365-7506
> Fax 802-365-7955
> www.townshend.windham.vt.us 
>



-- 
Lucie deLaBruere
www.LearningWithLucie.com 

Work: 802 527  0565 x 3206

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