Making History

Back we go into a wonderful week of technology in the classroom.  But my preparation is starting with a little hardware learning.  I am using a netbook, an HP Mini to be specific.   So far I am really happy with it, although I am not so imporessed with the battery life.  I expected to need to make some typing adjustments, but so far that has not been an issue.

Everything I am struggling with, and it is all little stuff, is realated to things I love about a Mac that don’t seem to be there for Windows.  Although it is possible they are there, and I just don’t know all the tricks.  One of those is the two fingered scroll — how do I get this window to scroll without actually using the arrow on the scroll bar?  This is a big thing on a small screen.

I am also not that impressed with time to starting up from when I open the screen.  I guess I am spoiled by my mac that is essentially always on.

But as we think about computing solutions for students in the 2.0 classroom, I am compelled by the prices for these small computers and their weight (or lack thereof!).  And I think equality and ease of access may overwelm us soon, in a good way.  I think this one retails for about $400.  Not bad.