ClassMate: A Student Portable

In the corner of his desk a word appeared and began marching around the perimeter of the desk. It was upside down and backward at first, but Ender knew what it said long before it reached the bottom of the desk and turned right side up.

THIRD

Ender smiled. He was the one who had figured out how to send messages and make them march - even as his secret enemy called him names, the method of delivery praised him.
- Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

There have been desktop computers in schools for over 20 years, but very few personal computers. They were always school computers, usually in a computer lab or on the side of the classroom. Rarely on the student's desk.

Card foresees a future where the computer will be the desk: a work surface with a keyboard, stylus input, a messaging system, and more. The desk is networked, so students can send files to home computers. And sometimes the desk is portable, something to work with anywhere.

That's still more science fiction than reality, but laptop computers are starting to bridge the gap between impersonal, shared desktop computers and the idea of one student, one computer.

Survey Says

A couple articles in the past year speak directly to laptops being used both in and out of the classroom.

The most recent, Study: Laptops Improve Learning on MacCentral, discusses a study by Microsoft and Toshiba where 450 students had 24-hour-a-day access to portable computers, and computers were fully integrated with classroom work. Findings included:

• Seventh-graders with laptops spent ten times as much time using computers outside of school as did seventh-graders who had desktop computers at home. Ten times!
• Laptops led to an improvement in work quality, especially writing skills.
• Students with laptops developed better problem-solving and critical thinking skills. They also tend to use more resources in their research.
• Students with laptops developed a more positive attitude about learning.
• Teachers spend more time interacting with students individually and less time lecturing.

As MacCentral notes, Apple had a great computer for this very market. The eMate combined Newton technology with a more traditional laptop-style design for under $800. But the eMate died when Apple pulled the plug on Newton.

The second article, eMates Still Popular in Schools, (MacCentral), shares the experience of the Fairfax (VA) Mantua Elementary School, where each fifth-grader was issued an eMate. As in the more recent Microsoft/Toshiba report, teachers found use of the laptop improved the teacher's ability to cover a broad range of topics and the student's ability to report on what they learned.

The article also discusses eMate use in Arkansas and Tennessee.

Students Need Handheld Computers

Students learn better and learn more when they have a computer they can use in the classroom, at home, in the library, or in the field. The best computer for students will be rugged, compact, affordable, and accept both keyboard and stylus input. A color screen would be nice, but isn't essential, if that's a key to keeping the price down.

At nearly $800, the eMate hit the high end of the price scale for a student portable. Although rugged, compact, and able to work with both a keyboard and a stylus, the price was probably the main reason it didn't take off.

But the eMate was designed a few years ago. What could Apple do today to prepare a portable our sons and daughters could use during the 1999-2000 school year?

First, stick with what worked on the eMate: infrared networking, a tough clamshell case, and a good size for kids. But instead of using the Newton OS, make it a Power Mac inside, using either the inexpensive 603e processor or the potent G3. Then give it a lot of flash memory for storing programs and files.

One improvement would be a 640 x 480 pixel screen capable of displaying thousands of colors. This is the same size as the monitors we've used for years, so software will comfortably fit the screen. (800 x 600 would be even nicer, but only if the price is right.)

With the Mac OS and infrared networking, the ClassMate would be a perfect partner for the iMac or PowerBook G3. With file sharing enabled on the bigger Macs, the ClassMate could easily upload and download programs. In fact, each classroom might have a central file server for students to download assignments and upload projects.

But Apple has to miss the $800 mark by a wide margin, coming short by at least $200, if it wants to penetrate the education market. At $500-600, not only would schools consider it a good investment, but parents would also see it as an investment in their son's and daughter's education.

But Is It Realistic?

I don't know component prices, so I don't know how realistic this is. This would make the ClassMate cheaper than the Palm VII - and probably a good deal more capable. It would also be direct competition for the Windows CE handhelds, which use a sibling of Windows 95 and Windows 98.

But as far as I know, none of the portables is designed for the education market - a market Apple has dominated for two decades.

The competition: full-sized, relatively fragile Wintel notebooks with CD-ROMs and hard drives at $1,200 and up; small but overpriced machines like the $3,000 Toshiba Portégé; lightweight Windows machines like the tiny Toshiba Libretto; and the less capable Windows CE computers.

None offer the rugged design of the eMate, which is essential for survival in the backpack. The smallest ones don't run a major OS, but instead use a lite version of Microsoft Windows - and have tiny keyboards the prevent touch typing.

I'm hoping Apple will announce a worthy successor to the eMate, something marrying the Newton eMate features with the PowerPC and Mac OS. The work done on the consumer portable would pay extra dividends if Apple could create a true student portable at a family-friendly price.

Steve, am I thinking different enough for you?