There’s a new laptop on the market, and it might challenge the popularity of netbooks, particularly in public schools. Wal-Mart is selling the new Compaq Presario for only $299. Since July when the retail giant began carrying the new laptop, stores throughout the country have had a difficult time keeping them on the shelf.
According to Brook Crothers of cnet, the new Presario includes the following features
“a 15.6-inch display, 3GB of memory, a 160GB hard-disk drive, a CD-DVD drive, and Windows Vista pre-loaded. The laptop will use a 2.10 GHz AMD Sempron SI-42 processor and Nvidia GeForce 8200M graphics.”
Like Wal-Mart, Best Buy is enjoying unprecedented sales with it’s new $299 Acer. Does this mean the end of netbooks?
Again Crothers,
“… whether it’s a $298, $299, $309, or $329, it’s a laptop design that has landed. And it a real competitor to the 10-inch Netbook, which costs about the same.”
Since the appeal of netbooks is really just the price, does this mean students, parents, teachers, and even school administrators need to reconsider whether or not moving to netbooks is a good idea?
Over the past year or so, shrinking school budgets and economic uncertainty have left educators wondering exactly which option is the best moving forward. Whether attempting to establish one-to-one student access, creating an exciting new technology infrastructure, or simply trying to effectively incorporate web 2.0 technology into daily instruction, educators are searching for cheap technology that will enable them to transform their instruction in a way that not only improves student achievement but appeals, in a meaningful way, to today’s students.
This is why the $298 laptop is exciting. At such a low price point, the educator’s dream of transforming the technological landscape of one’s school might have just become a reality.
I suppose there are many other hurdles to effectively utilizing this sort of technology at the K-12 level besides cost (e.g., lack of teacher training, limited capacity to utilize mobile technology, etc.). Many of these hurdles present significant challenges for an under trained faculty, under staffed administration, and a school with dwindling resources.
Despite these concerns, I wonder how these new affordable laptops will affect the way schools educate students.
