Netpal netbook: consumers only
By Christopher Dawson | June 16, 2009, 7:17pm PDT
Summary: I’ve spent the last day and half immersed in Intel’s Classmate PC Eco System Summit, talking to Intel developers, folks from Microsoft and Canonical, local OEMs handling Classmate sales and distribution, and hardware and software vendors developing for the Classmate platform. Scanning Google News tonight, however, I came across a headline claiming “Disney, Asus [...]
I’ve spent the last day and half immersed in Intel’s Classmate PC Eco System Summit, talking to Intel developers, folks from Microsoft and Canonical, local OEMs handling Classmate sales and distribution, and hardware and software vendors developing for the Classmate platform. Scanning Google News tonight, however, I came across a headline claiming “Disney, Asus bring Netpal Netbooks to kids.”
Reading further, the article noted,
Disney and Asus have teamed up to do something others have been doing wrong for a long time: they’ve developed an affordable and functional portable kids’ PC.
So OLPC, Intel, and Dell have been doing it wrong? Along with all of the other netbook vendors whose machines, due to their small size and small price tags, are ideal for kids?
This isn’t to say there haven’t been missteps along the way. Obviously we’re not hearing much from OLPC lately and Dell’s first kid-centered entry into the market is on the heavy side (both literally and pricewise). However, aside from Princess Pink and Magic Blue gender-assignment colors, the only thing that the “Netpal” brings to the table is a “Magic Desktop.” This is a custom skin with some built-in parental controls that sits over Windows.
Guess what? The Classmate has used some incarnation of the Easybits Magic Desktop for some time now. The comparably priced Clamshell Classmate has similar parental control software plus additional educational software and is highly ruggedized.
Of course, given that you can re-theme your desktop with Pixar goodness on the Netpal and you can buy it at Toys R Us, it’s clear that this is a strictly consumer machine. However, to say that bundling a Disney-themed desktop environment with an Asus netbook is “getting kids’ netbooks right” is a pretty drastic overstatement. I actually like the Aspire One; it’s a fine netbook. There are, however, better solutions for kids.
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Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.
Disclosure
Christopher Dawson
Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.).
He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change.
He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have).
Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others.
Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair.
Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards.
Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap.
Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff.
Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable.
Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.
Biography
Christopher Dawson
Christopher Dawson grew up in Seattle, back in the days of pre-antitrust Microsoft, coffeeshops owned by something other than Starbucks, and really loud, inarticulate music. He escaped to the right coast in the early 90's and received a degree in Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University. While there, he began a career in health and educational information systems, with a focus on clinical trials and related statistical programming and database modeling. This focus led him to several positions at Johns Hopkins, a couple-year stint in private industry, teaching high school math and technology, and 2 years as the technology director for his local school district. Most recently, he started his own consulting business and is now the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network provider.
He lives with his wife, five kids (yes, 5), 2 dogs, and a hateful cat in a small town in north-central Massachusetts. Although he is no longer teaching, his roles with WizIQ and ZDNet allow him to continue helping students and teachers add value to education with technology rather than merely adding to the bottom line.
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The disney netpal netbook seems to be build thinking in both parent and kids. Based on what I am researching, it has lots of educational and interactive activities for children and many parental controls to give us peace of mind so we can be sure that our kids are not surfing on websites that are not suitable for children. I found a website (
http://netpalnetbook.org) that offers good price comparison and it seems that prices are more affordable now
Probably could have done this in a linux-based OS packed with educational applications, games, and maybe some media playback.
I've considered writing my own UI similar to what I've experienced back in the day on the original iMac used in schools. Log into the machine and bring it to a graphical shell with large icons that links to educational software.
I could see linux used in education or on a children's PC if it's set up correctly.
Chris, this is just a PR/branding move by Disney. I think they chose the cheapest PC manufacturer for the purpose and the Magic Desktop is nothing new in my view. The only new thing is the Disney brand all over the PC and the "cool" colors.
Personally, I'd buy such a PC if it were made by Dell or Acer for example. I think it is better than buying my son a cell phone or some other trendy gadget that teaches him nothing. In the end, it will be a matter of choice to buy Netpals. What surprises me though, is that instead of at least trying to promote the classics that made Disney a world brand, they come with Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers! Come on!
but Hannah and the Jonas Brothers are what's keeping them relevant to today's kids. Like them or not, they are gold mines.
This is all very exciting and cool but what about those that don't the money to buy new computer for their kids ? And what about kids like brands that are not part of the Disney portfolio ?
In my eyes all kids should have free access at least to some of the content, free solutions like KIDOZ offer seems to me a better direction.
Chris, did you notice any Apple people at the Intel Classmate summit? Just looking around? I am puzzled why they have not been involved deeply in this aspect of the education market. And isn't Steven Jobs still connected to Pixar? You would think this would be a product he would love to get his hands into.
The disney netpal netbook seems to be build thinking in both parent and kids. Based on what I am researching, it has lots of educational and interactive activities for children and many parental controls to give us peace of mind so we can be sure that our kids are not surfing on websites that are not suitable for children. I found a website (
http://netpalnetbook.org) that offers good price comparison and it seems that prices are more affordable now
