And speaking of 1:1 computing initiatives...

My evaluation Classmate PCs from Intel didn't come today! I was really looking forward to putting one of them through its paces on Wednesday while I was at a conference. What better way to give it an initial run than with a bunch of other geeky educators talking about student information systems?

Here are my testing plans, though, for when they do make it to Athol:

• Comparison of startup times and multitasking capabilities between the Windows and Linux versions.
• Daily use from an educator's perspective (How does it feel to use one for Web access, productivity tasks, and communication?). I'll get another relatively savvy teacher to give them both a go-round, too.
• Daily use from a student's perspective: one gets the Linux box, another the Windows box, and off they go to their classes.
• Use in special education settings: How do the kids in our resource room do with them? In particular, we have several kids on the autistic spectrum, including one of my own; what applications are there for kids with communication difficulties?
• Testing of the control/communication software that can be installed on a teacher's computer to interact with students and manage the Classmates.
• Security settings (just how quickly can my students screw these up and how easily can I get them back in order?)

Looks like I have another day to wait, so if there is anything in particular you'd like to see in my posts about these laptops, talk back below.