[ale] Cobb Laptop Deal

[Christopher Fowler]

On Mon, 2005-08-15 at 18:17 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
> Computers can be used as a good educational tool just as books, chalk 
> boards, white boards, overhead projectors..... are.  In a lot of
> cases 
> they are.
<geek alert>

In high School I wrote a Quick Basic application to teach French.  It
would basically give you a french word and you would pick the english
equivalent. It could also do the reverse.  On top of that it did the
same with French phrases.

The problem I had was data.  I had no way to input all that data.  I
found a shareware program that taught French and wrote a conversion tool
in QB that would convert its DB format to my DB fomat. Whamo I had
thousands of French words in my DB.

Without computers in my school I would probably not be doing Linux
today.  Back then that was the only way to get access.  I had a cousin
with a Tandy and I had a TRS-80 but those were only good for small
stuff.  In our computer class we actually had a TRS-80 file server.
Everyone had the space of 1 track.  Not much.

On a side note we would play games in the library.  So not all computer
stuff was educational.  

I think that every kid should have access to a computer lab.  not just
the ones in computer class.  They can run programs on those computers to
learn.  But the laptop idea is just crazy.  Laptops are fragile and kids
are rough.  After the 90day or 1year warranty many vendors give these
things are bound to break.  Almost all warranties cover basic wear and
tear.  If Apple was to get the school locked in to MACs then they would
have a steady revenue stream for years to come.  

</geek alert>