Affordable Educational Progress in hardware

**Edit**

It has been a long time since I posted anything and this piece has been a work in progress for quite awhile. Although I hate releasing anything that isn't finished, for the sake of getting a post out, I am going to release this article as is. Links to youtube videos about the stories will be included at the bottom of the page as well.


One great thing about technology is that it constantly progresses in a relatively short amount of time. Phones are shrining and becoming more powerful, laptops are shrinking and becoming powerful netbooks and netbooks are transforming to become multifunctioning touch screen tablets. The progress that we have witnessed over the last five years has been utterly asstounding! One thing that hasn't been progressing as quickly though is the digital divide that students experience. Technology is great and can be a very useful tool but it is of no use if a student cannot access the internet let alone own hardware (computer of any variety). As educators we must recongnize that technology usage is quickly becoming a standard in the work place and in everyday life. We must urge our students to become 21st centuary learners with the use of technology while being mindful of the gap that exists. What role must we as educators take in ensuring our students are provided with the proper tools and environments to suceed in this movement? What role must our district take in this situation? Over the last five years I have witnessed few attempts at closing the digital divide. Government has proposed to issue subsidized interent to low income families, but what good is that if they don't have a computer? Even if they get an old desktop or laptop from a garage sale or friend, will that have the necessary hardware to access a broadband connection? What variety will the government provide for low income families? Will dial up be an option? Do they provide the modem and the instructions to properly install it?
Aside from the internet access situation, what is being done to make sure that hardware is easily accessable to low income students and families? Libraries offer internet connections and hardware for usage, but what about transportation situations and costs? If a student cannot afford to travel to a library and invest the time to use the facility (basic economic oppertunity cost) what good are these locations serving? A lot of low income families live in rural areas where internet isn't even available! But I regress, lets look at the availabity of hardware.
An affordable desktop computer can be obtained brand new for $250 dollars or less from online realiters like newegg. These computers are low energy using and allow the user to do simple tasks like surf the web and word process. They do not however include monitors or speakers and in some cases, keyboards or a mouse. These are essitional tools for this type of computing and without them, the user is powerless.

So what would be a good alternative? A laptop/netbook that has the processing power to do tasks, keyboard and mouse pad built in? It is true that prices have been dropping in lower level hardware over the last several years, but how much are consumers really willing to pay? What about the extremely poor groups of people in 3rd world countries? A non profit organization had a vision to address this issue and it is known as one laptop per child. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Laptop_per_Child The goal was to keep costs at $100 US dollars or less, but hardware costs and production made this near impossible. The trend of tablet computing has also geared the project into a different direction. Are tablets the new solution for cheap technology intergration? Are they going to take over as the new computing power house? An article from the UK publication, The Guardian reports that, "IDC's forecast, if correct, would mean the media tablet market was 17.5%, or slightly less than a fifth, as large as the PC market in unit terms. But that indicates explosive growth compared to 2010, when 18m tablets shipped, or about 5% in unit terms compared to the 347m PC shipments. Apple had an 83% share of tablet shipments in 2010, IDC says." This is a trend that the tablet market is growing and quickly since the release of the ipad in September 2010. That was only a little more than a YEAR ago! The market for this type of computing is taking almost a fifth of sales away from the desktop which has been around since the 80s! That is remarkable and a trend that cannot be ignored. What good are tablets though? Can you use them as a main method of computing? Well. . . . that area is still fuzzy. It comes down to what you NEED to do with your table. Word processing is an option, but it might not always be convienant or cost effective. If all you want to do is surf the web, read, watch videos, etc then yes a tablet is perfect. Personally, I loath having to try to work process for great length on my tablet due to formating issues and the lack of multi tasking capibility. I try to use it as my main portable school device and so far it works. Is it perfect? God no, but there are enough things that work that still make it a better choice than a laptop. I do have a desktop at home for powerful computing tasks, but with constant advancement and a growing market, who is to say we won't be there in another few years? India recently release the idea of a student tablet. That is itself a remarkable idea, but what makes the story powerful? The price tag is only $40 US dollars.

Google Talk Tech on One Laptop per Child

India's Tablet (The price jumps around depending on what news source you get it from)