California school district getting 1,000 Asus Eee PCs

from Engadget by Joshua Topolsky

Students in California's Fresno Unified school district have a little something to be excited about this week, as officials have just invested $650,000 in 1,000 Asus Eee PCs, set for classroom deployment over the next few weeks. The concept is to use the miniscule laptops alongside good, old-fashioned textbooks, with each student being given the chance to create a "digital portfolio" of essays, drawings, and whatever else they can get away with. The computers will remain in roughly 60 classrooms, and will be shared by students -- but some worry they'll hinder the learning process by distracting pupils. Says Stephen Lewis, a geology professor at California State University, Fresno, "Teaching and learning is a person-to-person business. Are we moving toward a remote-control classroom?" We're not sure what he means by that... then again, we drifted off half-way through his statement to watch a video of that dog on a skateboard.

 

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