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Low Cost Laptopsfor Learning

Keith Gillette

IL CTO

2008-12-11

Good morning!

My name is Keith Gillette. I am currently Director of Information Technology at Lake Forest Country Day School, an independent elementary school serving 2 year olds through 8th graders in the North Shore region. Prior to that, I was the IT Manager for Conserve School, an independent boarding high school in northern Wisconsin, where I ran a small 1:1 laptop program with 9-12 grade students. I also have been in educational technology at the university level, having coordinated the Residential Network at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after I received my undergraduate degree there.

I am here this morning representing the Illinois Chief Technology Officers, a nonprofit group of Illinois school technology leaders. I am currently serving on the IL CTO’s Low Cost Laptops for Learning Commission. Ryan Croke asked me to provide an update on the state of Low Cost Laptops in Illinois Education.

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Outline

� Defining “Low Cost Laptop for Learning”

� Promise & Perils

� Netbook Numbers

� Educational Examples

� Questions & Answers

I will start by talking a bit about what I mean by Low Cost Laptop for Learning. Since we have physical examples, this may be superfluous, but I think it is useful to define terms. I will point you to resources for comparing these laptops.

Then I will touch briefly on <> both the promise of the machines for education, as well as the perils raised.

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After that, I have some trends & statistics I would like to cover briefly to deepen our thinking about the role these devices might play.

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I have a few examples of early adopters of these devices in educational arenas to share

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What is a “low cost laptop for learning”?

Netbook Exemplars

� OLPC XO-1

� Asus Eee PC

� HP MiniNote 2133

� Acer Aspire One

� CTL ClassMate 2

� Dell Inspiron Mini 9

The session is titled “Low Cost Laptops for Learning”. That is my own coinage & appropriate to my penchant for prolixity, quite a mouthful. During the presentation, I will use the term “netbook” which is Intel’s marketing term for low-cost notebook computers built on its new Atom processor. This is the mobile computer market segment that I am talking about in this presentation, and so I will co-opt this term “netbook”, even when the notebook PCs I am talking about are not built on Intel’s Atom processor.

A few exemplars of notebook PCs in this field include:

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What is a “low cost laptop for learning”?

Netbook vs. other ultramobile devices

These devices fit in on the top of the “ultra mobile” computing device category, which extends from mobile phones & PDAs through the ultramobile PC like the OQO, to these mini-notebook computers or “netbooks”.

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What is a “low cost laptop for learning”?

Gaming & MediaDesktopReplacement

Thin & Light

Ultraportable

Tablet PCRugged

Corporate

Budget

Mainstream

UltraMobile(UMPC)

NetbookK-12 laptop

LCLL

Mobile PC Market Segments

I see netbook market as situated at the edge of the budget and ultraportable/ultramobile markets, sometimes overlapping with the ruggedized notebook market.

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What is a “low cost laptop for learning”?

Always

� Low Cost ($200-$500 US)

� Ultra-portable (<3#, 9”x7”x1”)

� WiFi-centric

Often

� Long Battery life

� No optical drive

� Lower performance CPU

� Small screen (7”-10”)

� Reduced keyboard

� Limited RAM (256MB-1GB)

� Solid State Storage

� GNU/Linux-based OS

Sometimes

� Ruggedized

� “Green” Materials

Netbook General Characteristics

In general, we can say the following things about these netbooks

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What is a “low cost laptop for learning”?

Performance Continuum

AMD Geode LX-700 433MHz256MB RAM1GB Flash

Intel Atom 1.6 GHz2GB RAM160GB HD

Typical, not actual,

specifications

As you may have gathered, even with the netbook market segment, there are enough representatives for them to exist on a continuum of performance & features

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What is a “low cost laptop for learning”?

Target Market Segmentation

Elementary Education

Developing Nations

Elementary EducationDeveloped Nations

Consumer

“Couch Surfing”Second Computer

UltramobileRoad Warrior &

Őber-Nerd

I think there are some distinct differences in how manufacturers are approaching the market as well, with different models aimed at different demographics.

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What is a “low cost laptop for learning”?

CloudComputing

Web 2.0

Open Source

Operating Environment

UbiquitousWireless

Thin Client /

Application

Virtualization

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Available & Upcoming Models

� IL CTO LCLLC Google Grouphttp://groups.google.com/group/IL-CTO-LCLLC

� IL Broadband Deployment LCL List

� IL CTO LCLLC Comparison Matrix

Show Google Group, mention URL hand-out.

Show Comparison page, mentioning Laptop Magazine

Show Broadband Deployment page & their definition of Low Cost Laptop (<$400)

Show matrix, highlighting show current models tab (from 1 to nearly 2 dozen in one year), show announced/international models tab, & point out notes tab.

Every major manufacturer except Fujitsu & Toshiba has entry.

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Promise

So that is what a netbook is. I have more information about the momentum behind this market segment, and some specific examples highlighting netbookimplementations in schools that I will present to toward the end of my presentation, but I want to shift gears to talk as educators about the promise as well as some of the potential perils that netbooks raise for implementation in schools.

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Biggest Advantage

Handles!!

Clearly!

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Low Cost General Purpose Computing Platform

I think the advantage of these machines in education is obvious. They provide a flexible, general-purpose computing platform that is appropriately sized for students, providing the benefits of “anytime, anywhere” learning, while significantly decreasing the hardware cost of 1:1 computing programs.

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Perils

So that’s the promise. Let’s talk about the perils. Things that might make Sysiphusor Icarus or you an a school professional slip on a banana peel and crash to into the sea getting rolled over by the big boulder you push up the mountain every day. Yeah, I really don’t know what this slide is about. I am sorry, it was late.

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Netbook Challenges

� Form Factor

� Small Screen Size

� Small Keyboard Size

� Ergonomic Health Risks

� Technical Specificatons

� Slow Processor Performance

� Limited Local Storage

� OS/Application Compatibility

� Central Manageability

The very form factor that makes the netbooks kid-sized, student-space friendly computers also presents a some complications.

The technical specifications that make netbooks low cost enough with long enough battery life to be attractive, also present another set of issues.

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Systemic Challenges

� Network bandwidth

� Local Area Network

� Internet

� 3G / WiMAX / Network Control

Beyond mere design factors inherent in the netbooks themselves, present system challenges through their ubiquity.

One such issues in network bandwidth, both local area network & Internet bandwidth.

MDR reports that in 2006, U.S. schools averaged 2.6 Kbps of Internet bandwidth per student, with school-projected increases to 9.57 Kbps over 5 years. However the MDR analysts believe that number is far too conservative, and put the number at 40 Kbps per student by 2011. When one thinks about the amount the fact that even an now antiquated dial-up Internet connection provides 56 Kpbs of downstream bandwidth per user in the home and environment, that does not seem unreasonable. Think for a moment about how much broadband bandwidth you have at home per user vs. what you have per user at school. Granted, not every student will be using the Internet at the same time, and much can be done with caching proxy servers, but if you see the economics of netbooks driving increased adoption of wireless computing at your school, this has enormous implications for both the wireless network coverage you need to plan, as well as for the size of Internet pipe you need to have to your school.

Another interesting issue is that of network control. Some netbooks are shipping with 3G cellular packet data and WiMAX capabilities built-in. What happens when a student brings a $250 netbook to school that has high-speed Internet access over which your network filter has no control. Are you already facing this with iPhones?

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However, even with these shortcumings I believe there are still compelling reasons to think that these netbooks have a place in education.

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Netbook Numbers

In this next section, I am going to go over a few statistics & trends that I think are instructive in thinking about this new market segment. We will then wind up by highlighting the initiatives of a few early adopters before winding up with time for Q&A and an opportunity to touch the sample netbooks I & others brought in.

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Year of the Laptop?

If 2007 had a title, it might well be "Year of the Laptop." The US

notebook market boomed in 2007, with laptop shipments rising 21 percent …

industry analysts predict that notebooks sales will exceed

desktop sales for the first time in 2008. By 2011, IDC expects

laptops to represent 66 percent of corporate purchases, with 71 percent of

consumers opting for a notebook instead of a tower. Part of this

demand is also fueled by the education market—an increasingly large number of educational institutions are forcing students to buy laptops …

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080103-2008-could-be-the-year-laptop-sales-eclipse-desktops-in-us.html

First, I wanted to highlight the increasingly important role mobile computing has. How many of you have notebook computers?

The Website Ars Technica called 2007 the “year of the laptop” because of the rising shipments of notebook PCs reported by computer manufacturers. This year, notebook PC sales are expected to exceed desktop PC sales for the first time. Interestingly, education is playing a role in this trend toward mobile computing.

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Netbook Sales Projections

% of total notebook PC market by 2012; iSuppli:12%; IDC:5%.

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE49F1T720081016?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=10339

The netbook market is still small compared to the overall notebook market, but projected to grow rapidly, which is why we see the diversity of models on the market that the comparison matrix shows us. As you would expect at the launch of a new product category, analyst estimates vary on exactly what fraction of the notebook market netbooks will comprise, but it could be upwards of 10% of overall notebook computer sales in within the first 5 years of the netbook market segment’s existence. Given the cluster of notebook PC market niches—corporate, mainstream, desktop replacement, thin & light, etc. I think that is significant.

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The Giants Weigh In

Intel is projecting that by 2011, the market for the netbooks will be 40 million

units a year, which is why Intel is jumping in

with low-powered chips that would be used in the netbooks and the net-tops.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/technology/21pc.html

Certainly the industry giants think it is. Intel is very bullish, projecting a ramp-up to 40 million units sold per year in the next 3 years.

I also think it is telling that Microsoft has manufacturers to continue to bundle Windows XP on these low-cost laptops even when they have officially dropped support for that operating system in all other product categories, because they do not want to lose market share to GNU/Linux in this growing market segment.

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Amazing?

Netbooks now 9 of top 10 notebooks

http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/25/netbooks-have-officially-arrived/http://www.cio.com/article/print/467265

Just another data point: Engadget reports as of September 25th that netbookscomprise 9 of the top 10 notebook PC sales on the Web’s #1 retailer, Amazon.

CIO reports Netbooks top 7 of 10 purchases on Black Friday this year.

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Tech & Learning:

And, for whatever it is worth, the latest Tech & Learning “adverzine” has netbooksdown as their “next big thing”, highlighting a couple of upcoming models, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 and something called the MPC TXTbook (which appears to be built off of the Intel ClassMate 2.0 reference model), & tagging the netbook market “kid-sized computing”

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Scary Statistic?

The average age at which children begin using consumer electronic (CE) devices has

declined from 8.1 years in 2005 to 6.7 years in 2007, according to The NPD Group’s recently released

report, Kids and Consumer Electronics Trends III.

http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_070605.html

So given these sales trends, I think it is interesting to note another statistic, from a 2007 market research report, which the average age at which children start to use consumer electronic devices. What does this imply for the level of exposure our first grade students will have to mobile computing technology in the home in the coming years? What does it imply for the expectation that students and parents will have for the ubiquity of technology in the school given its increasing prevalance at home? What do these trends imply for potential pressure from students & parents in bringing their own mobile computing devices into our schools? Will this be the next student cell phone issue? What does that imply for classroom management? What does that imply for network bandwidth? What does that imply for network security?

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Projected growth of notebooks in U.S. schools

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0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

2006 2012

% of PCs

MDR America’s Digital Schools 2006

So that’s the consumer side. What do we know about the mobile computing in schools? Well, given that the market is only a year old, I don’t have any netbookstatistics, but I do have some slightly dated figures from Market Research Data group’s 2006 America’s Digital Schools report, which indicated that while slightly less than 1/5 of U.S. schools had any level of student notebook PCs for students, that number is projected to increase sharply, jumping to half of schools in the next 4 years. Now unfortunately, I have not shelled out the $999 for the updated 2008 report to tell us how far we have come, but would be happy to hear the latest stats from any of you who have or have other statistics.

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1:1 computing deployments in U.S. schools

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0

5

10

15

20

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2003 2006 2009

% of schools

MDR America’s Digital Schools 2006

??

Also of interest may be numbers that Market Data Research reports for 1:1 or deployments in schools. I am still trying to figure this one out. I think the reason number for 1:1 for 2006 is higher than the percentage of 2006 schools reporting having laptops is because MDR includes any computing device, be it desktop, laptop, or handheld in their definition of 1:1 or “ubiquitous computing”, not just the typical student notebook PC 1:1 program. Again, I do not have current figure and would treat this slide with some skepticism

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Educational Examples

In this last section, I will highlight a few examples of netbook early adopters.

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XO-1 in Forest Park

� 100 OLPC XO-1s

� Betsy Ross Elementary School, D91

� 5th grade

http://www.standingupforillinois.org/connect/

District 91

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XO-1 in School for Deaf

� Illinois School for the Deaf

� 40 OLPC XO-1s

http://www.standingupforillinois.org/feature.php?id=188

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Acer & Dell in Niles

� Pilot in Niles Township District 19

� 20 Acer Aspire One / Dell Inspiron Mini 9

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XO-1s @ LFCDS

Experimenting with ~40 of them as thin clients to Windows 2003 Terminal Services to make them integrate into our infrastructure & user knowledge base more easily.

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Eee PC 1000H @ LFCDS

80 of these in CoWs (Computers on Wheels). Initial response from students & faculty has been very positive. While we have only have these out for a month, we are so far happy with this model, which is one of the pricier units, especially screen clarity & keyboard size.

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Questions?

If you know of any other netbook implementations in schools, please contact me or point them to the Low Cost Laptops for Learning Google Group <http://groups.google.com/group/IL-CTO-LCLLC>.

Thanks!