As schools adopt PCs for students to use in the classroom and take home, it is good to see more appropriate hardware designs be made available on the market. The balance between the value of the PC and cost is difficult for many schools, so seeing affordable entry-level solutions like the next Intel Classmate design is encouraging.

The next generation Classmate PC will include an integrated digitizer on the display, so that a student can use either a finger or stylus to enter information. The ability to control the PC literally at the touch of a finger will be good for entering commands and direct object manipulation. What ways do you see students using touch technology?

Though touch is a great natural interaction addition to a traditional mobile PC, the educational value of writing and drawing directly on the screen far exceeds touch. On first thought, you may nod your head because the most common tools in the classroom include pen, paper, and [chalkboard or] whiteboard. The one-for-one value of being able to accomplish whatever the students do on paper on a PC can be met. Students can write, erase, and turn in the assignment. The challenge comes with moving beyond the analog equivalent, and this is possible with the right software.

At a simple level, a student may draw a triangle in one space and want to move it to another location. The student can erase it and re-draw, or using the stylus the student can select and move the triangle. Let's say the student wants three more of that same triangle, so now can copy the original, paste the new, then move the new to the preferred locations. Object replication is simple on a PC and faster than with paper and pencil.

A more complex example includes the software providing real-time feedback to the student, so the student knows if his or her answer was correct or incorrect. MathPractice is an example of this type of software. This involves handwriting or shape recognition and software developers can integrate this aspect into applications and this will work if the operating system is Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Windows Vista Business or Enterprise, or the software vendor creates proprietary ink and recognition engine.

Have you gotten a preview of the next generation Intel Classmate? What are your thoughts about it? How do you see your students using it?

For more information on the next Intel Classmate PC, go to http://www.classmatepc.com/sneak-peak/

PCs entering the classroom so that each child can potentially have all day access to curriculum and content is a phenomenal shift in schools. PCs like the Intel Classmate with appropriate software have been making in-roads at this 1:1 computing effort. The second generation is now out and Classmate 2.0 is making press review rounds. Are you finding these reviews helpful? What additional types of information do you need?

Darren Waters of BBC posted his first impressions recently:

It's a cut-price, cut-down laptop that runs XP moderately well, and connects to the net without a hitch. In fact, it accomplishes most tasks thrown at it without a hitch and its underpowered processor only really struggles when it is attempting to multi-task.