the hardware

From the start of the school year the students have been provided with a 10 inch netbook which they can use in lessons and at home.

The machine chosen was the Acer Aspire One D255. Price was not the sole criterion, but it has to be said that Uncle Bob did snap up a bargain, with the machines being bought in at half price due to damaged packaging! Or so he says.

These fairly standard little netbooks run Windows 7 Starter, with the option of running an Android OS as well. We have left them pretty much virgin in terms of installed programs, intending to start off à la cloud and then see what we might need to install to meet our needs.

So, pretty basic but functional, as the reviews suggest. Later in the year the machines might be substituted by an alternative device, to see whether different devices require different working methods.

I already had a slightly more upmarket mobile toy in the form of a Gigabyte T1028 touchscreen netbook, which can be turned into a tablet format by  swivelling and lowering the screen.

It’s already proved its usefulness over the past couple of years and will now get a chance to shine in the classroom as well, now that you can get a signal!

The poor thing has had a hard life in its relatively short time in my care, but has recently recovered from a severe dose of badly oriented touchscreenitis by dint of resecuring the monitor surround with superglue. Let’s hope it keeps healthy and enjoys its daily outings around the modern languages classrooms.

And last but not least, it’s that indispensable bit of kit, the mini whiteboard!

An invaluable tool for students and teacher alike, it replaces the need for paper or exercise books for basic classroom activities where no permanent record is required.

And it’s simply much more fun than paper!

Who says going paper free has to be expensive in terms of equipment, or that the technology has to be newest technology?

So, armed with this hardware, we aim to be as  paper free as we can be ………