Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

We have both devices here and the new device is nice...but its price is a bit high.
and in europe we seem have got the inferior battery.

Asus hit a sweet spot with the original device (remember the reaction at last years hhl)
but at this price many will opt for a cheap laptop.
Perhaps more importantly it will be more difficult to justify the Asus when compared on paper to a
laptop to your innovation prevention offices (ie bean counters/ purchasing officers/accountants ,
IT managers who think we all need Windows and Office, you know the sort of people I mean)

It is now likely to be compared to laptops more  and will of course, on paper look inferior.(the Norman
Gravity well effect at work again if the gravity well reference makes no sense go and read the "invisible computer")

When offered a new device last week I had the choice of the original small screen or the new larger screen
and chose the original smaller screen version. (I reckon its battery life will be better )

Give the original a touch screen and more memory that would be interesting...

Mind you an adequate screen size for the  windows GUI is more like 17 inches :-)

Jon

Yup HTC seem to make almost every mobile device I pick up.

So Dell are coming back again.....I  wonder how long they'll stay around before deciding its not profiatble and pulling out again?

Hi zelld78

Windows Mobile as good as good as an eeePC... interesting but thats the great thing about us having choice and being able to pick the solution thats fits our own needs. Some call it market fragmentation, I see it as choice.

I see Windows mobile devices and other PDA sized kit and an ultra-mobiles, such as the eeePC, as being very different devices.

Not least as one will fit in your pocket the other one wont... Unless you have big pockets :-)

Would you like to explain how and why a WinMob device is better for your uses?

This is not meant to start another sort of religious war between PDA users and eeePC users but as an illustration of the differences between apparently similar devices and how an individual users particular requirements are better accommodated by a device or combination of devices.

Out of interest would the eeePC be more useful to you if it had Windows XP on it?

Jon

 
 

It was weird at the day job. I bought my own eeePC, persuaded my bosses to buy a couple more for my colleagues... but no interest from my bosses until it was realized they  could run windows on it, then suddenly it was a case of "oh they might be useful then"

::sigh::

The sheep like rush towards a lot of  MS things , like MS Office in schools worries me, along with a lot of disinformation that is flying around about "cant use open source or moodle as it doesn't work with Microsoft"

(I kid not  someone has been heard saying this and they worked for an educational organization that should know better)

I suspect a lot of folk bought PocketPCs as they foolishly thought it ran 'Windows".

MS have a lot to answer for....

regards

Jon

ps We now have more Linux in the house than Windows (and no Vista!) is it coincidental I feel less stressed and more productive?

sorry its the 900 they have for £335.

Not sure about these bigger devices.

The appeal of the eeePC was its size/price. Get more expensive and you may as well buy an actual laptop.

Jon

Theres limited stock in one of the Glasgow computer stores if anyone up here is looking for one...
Jon

Nice to see some discussion on the forums....

My main problem with Web 2.0 is the way the term gets tagged on the end of so many presentations :-) it is so often the last bullet point on a PowerPoint slide

I find things like Facebook irritating due to adverts, but useful to keep in loose contact with people. Its success is that it
enables people to communicate, so rather like sms we couldnt really have foreseen how successful it would be until it was in place.

A problem of new technologies, users cannot articulate the needs they dont know they have. (I think thats a Donald Norman quote but not certain, along with the "Unexpected consequences of technology always outweigh the expected ones")

Anyway RedHalo, wheres this sdk and can we play with it to hook into other things.... can this all interact nicely with the various eportfolio "things" out there. Theres growing interest in the eportfolio side with mahara as it works well with the vle that rhymes with poodle.... so something allowing exchange with that may have a use?

(Is it possible to install a development version of redhalo server ... I suspect getting documentation and providing support would be prohibitive, and thats ignoring rogues who set up their own services...But for developers it may be handy...  )

OK, Ive said web 2.0 and portfolios,just need to mention virtual worlds and thats a minimal buzzword compliant posting :-)

Jon

Anyone out there found a half decent tool for concept mapping on the eeePC?

Ive found a few but they are quite big 60-100MB and rather more than we need to do simple stuff.
Need something more than a drawing package though

Java based would be nice (I dont think I ever imagined a day would ever come when  I actually said that)
Jon

This could be interesting, linux embedded into Asus Motherboards........
http://www.splashtop.com/blog/

 I thought I posted this a few months back. must have forgotten,
But it still doesnt convince me I want an iPhone......
I do however think that emulator/virtualisation will become more important in the mobile world.
(...and yes Wolf, I am STILL using a PalmOS device :-) )

Have any of our eeePC users had problems with the SDCard reader.  Most notably problems writing large files to the card?
Some discussions over here.....
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=222727

btw ... the item most like an oversized Tamagotchi is almost any windows based PC, requiring constant attention, patching, feeding etc*



*unless its left in cupboard and permanently switched off in which case its tendency to blue screen is reduced...

Both articles interesting.

Getting it into the mind of younger users (and FE and HE's future 'customers') that they dont have to use microsoft products or operating systems all the time could have far reaching consequences. If only we could get more corporates and management in some areas of HE :-) to open their mind to such alternatives.

I like my eeePC but wish there was still a decent palm sized device available that I could carry in my pocket.... (that should open the door to a deluge of "why dont you uses a....." )


Jon

Stick an Apple symbol on it, add some white headphones and they'd sell by the truckload... :-)

We found that social factors are a very big influence on whether devices are used...So is the _perceived_ age of a device. If it looks old tech then for the fashion conscious it _is_ old tech.  I think for many of "the kids" hey see technology as being cheap and disposable.

Not sure at what price there is a division between "throw about, throw away"(ta-ta its gone time to buy another one)  technology (like the way we treat phones) and laptops and other stuff that needs looking after.

(side note . tablets...slaptops....the other phrase we use for specific manufacturers )