http://www.commun-it.org/community/timh/weblog/566.html

So I just ordered an X-O laptop under the OLPC "Get one - give one" program. I promise a full report on this little sucker as soon as it arrives. I had a chance to hear N. Negroponte speak about the OLPC project about a year and a half ago and was inspired by the vision. It will be interesting to watch it play out...

 

http://www.commun-it.org/community/timh/weblog/568.html

There have been lots of good "what not to do in PowerPoint" tips over the years. I remember 10 years ago using some stuff from Steven Covey to introduce my business student to presentation skills. Nonetheless, we can all use reminders now and again on what too do (I cold have used this 2 weeks ago as I planned my ECOO presentation... my apologies to the audience!!!

Here is the latest from Alexei Kapterev (via LifeHacker.com)

http://www.commun-it.org/community/timh/weblog/573.html

A couple of years ago, we (here in Ottawa) outfit each of our schools with a "media cart" -essentially a high end PC on a cart with a projector. For a few schools, it was their first projector. The project was very successful, and we are considering a "round 2" of this again this year. One of the issues we face with the current carts is their size/weight, so we are looking at a smaller solution (something like the image below).

Does anyone have any experience with a good cart/projector combination that is working well for you??? 

http://www.commun-it.org/community/timh/weblog/587.html

So I couldn't wait...

I was waiting on my $400/hundred dollar One Laptop per child laptop to arrive, and got a note letting me know that a reseller here in Ottawa had just received the first shipments of Asus' eeePC model laptop in. I did a quick read about them online, hopped in the car, and am typing this very note from the smallest (and most affordable) laptop I have ever seen.

For $399, it is a tiny (7 inch screen, cute little keyboard) linux based laptop (900mhz cpu, 512 meg of ram). It has no hard drive (uses 4 gig flash drive for a hard drive), but has an SD card slot to expand storage. It even has a web cam built in (its a much better image than I expected as well!). Apparently is can run WindowsXP as well (though I'm not sure I want it to...)

I've only had an hour to play, but this is a VERY interesting device. I'm already planning on buying a couple of dozen units to try out with schools (for the price, it is hard to go wrong). Anyone who doesn't own a laptop, and dreams of having one that can absolutely go anywhere with them, this is it!

http://ca.asus.com

(ECOO folks - I'll bring it with me to the Board meeting - you will love it!)