Do we need ICT rooms? According to BSF architects NO!

[MK-2]

Sir, Sir, my chalk just ran out!

Go and get the technician.

[torledo]

According to my line-manager (Deputy HT), the architects view was that every child would have a 'computer' and so there would be no need for ICT rooms. This begs a few supplementary questions that I was not able to ask..... as I was not important enough to take part in the meeting .....

Questions like:
What sort of device would the students have? Would it be able to handle the broad spectrum of applications that are in use at school? What sort of battery life would it have? How durable are they likely to be? How affordable? How would they recharge them when the batteries went flat? Where would their personal data be? Would they be used outside of school, and if so how was network security going to be maintained, not to mention where would these 'personal' devices be stored during break, lunchtime, PE etc? My school is a medium sized secondary with falling rolls, but is still likely to be around 800 students by the time we are rebuilt.

800 student 'portables' and 100 staff computers.... how many techicians will the school have by then I wonder? I expect it could be expressed as a single binary digit...... I wonder what BECTA would make of it?

I have tabled these and a few other comments for my Head Teacher to consider asking at the next BSF ICT meeting to make sure that there is adequate provision in school to cope with (and support) all of these devices

eeePC for every child perhaps ?

Or an OQO2...now we're talking!!!! It'd almost make me want to be 12 again if they were handing out £1000+ UMPC's....then again maybe not.

[broc]

I think the Asus miniBook might be one affordable way of delivering a 1:1 ratio of students to computers under BSF. I could envisage an environment where the miniBook is used for data entry/Office applications and as a thin client to server/browser based applications. If the devices were locked down so that they needed little or no 'personalisation' then you could have a pool of spares to hand over when students 'break' their own.

Software & support costs could be dramatically reduced too.

re UMPC, in my opinion 1st generation UMPC is not suitable. Its too slow, too clumsy, and with poor battery life. I have to admit the Asus R2H I have sat here in front of me actually performs better under Vista than it did under XP Tablet, but it is still not right for high volume classroom use.