After a gap in my posts I have returned. My blog up until now has been about Netbooks and Cloud Apps. If you have been following over the last eight months I have been discussing if Netbooks can be used in the classroom.. I even went as far as taking my MacBook and locking it up to only use my MSI Wind. I started this with the article post called, Using the Wind to Get to the Clouds. It turns out that Netbooks and Cloud Apps are viable functional tools for not only the classroom but potentially a school. While using my MSI I found out that I could use it do all of my typical school work whether it was with Cloud Apps or Open Source Apps. However, when using Cloud Apps bandwidth became an issue. My school I would imagine consumes a typical amount of bandwidth during a school day, but when several students began using various Cloud Apps simultaneously we crushed our our bandwidth.
As it turns out there are others in my school district that became interested in exploring Netbooks. So, a committee was assembled to review several different Netbooks before we came to the decision to purchase the Acer Aspire One
. More to come on a critique for the Acer in the education arena as the year goes on. I suspect it will be fine. I have loaded it with Windows XP Pro and and mostly free and Open Source apps. The only two paid app are for district wide licensed app that there is Open Source replacement for. At least that I know of. If anyone knows of a replacement for Comic Life and Inspiration I would love to know. I know what some of you are thinking, there are a handful of Open Source versions of Inspiration and you are correct. However, when migrating existing Inspiration webs none of them are able to translate and open the file. At least none that I know of yet.
So, with my collected data from using my Netbook I have decided to begin purchasing them for the students at my school as well as all of my teachers. I will keep you posted as things develop.
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14 Comments
We spent our last SAS meeting doing something similar to what we started last year (looking for cloud apps to replace client-based apps). I specifically wanted to check out graphic organizers (like Inspiration), and the best one I've found is Inspiration's web version http://mywebspiration.com. It uploads and downloads existing Inspiration files, and kids can collaborate on the same file (although not simultaneously). An account is required, but it is based on an email address -- helpful since our students all have them through the district. Free public beta for now -- probably subscription based in the future, though.
Check your GDocs -- you should see a spreadsheet of web-based options. You should add all that great stuff you've found!
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I know the facts of the first browser war, but what I don't get is WHY it occurred. Once browsers became free-of-charge (fairly early in the game I think), what was microsoft/netscape's incentive to pour money into this? I've been told it was because MS was afraid the web browser would become peoples' main operating environment, presaging cloud computing (or perhaps remembering the thin client) but is WAAY more foresight than I'd expect from Microsoft.
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Software as a service fees are, of course, going to be less than buying a license to the software outright. But then you have a subscription fee (you pay monthly, or annually, etc) rather than a single lump payment for the software...
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How much does cloud computing/software was a service typically cost?
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well,Cloud Web Browser is a web browser which uses Microsoft's Trident engine to render websites. It has features like:- Tabs- Bookmarks- Parental Control System- Language support- Theme support etc.
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Well, part of it was the fact that microsoft wanted to have a browser included with Windows that made it easy for its customers to get online as soon as they had windows installed. At the time, netscape charged for its browser and microsoft decided to just give it away for free, ultimately trying to weave it entirely into the fabric of Windows itself before antitrust stuff got in the way.
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There is this website Clouded-senses (www.clouded-senses.org). It's a Skye Sweetnam fansite, and whenever i go to it it says "Page not found". Now I wanted to ask you if you could open this page and see if the website is down or something, and tell me, coz I think that there is something wrong with my internet browser. I can't open http://www.e-fans.net nither
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Is there something wrong with this website, or is it just my internet browser?
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i just tried both , couple of times to be sure, and they both work just fine, so i think you might have a problem with your browser, or the sites were down when you were trying ... if you still have the problem , i recommend downloading " HighJackThis " from this site http://majorgeeks.com/download3155.html and do as they say , to see if you have any redirect-specific malware installed ..
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Once browsers became free-of-charge (fairly early in the game I think), what was Microsoft/Netscape's incentive to pour money into this??
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This is an advert for something that I thought that I might be interested in. After reading it, I found that the article was too expensive - so I closed it..
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I don't want to automatically return to top of list; I want to continue downward through the list from the last email entry.
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This is great!!! Just what netbooks need. No more bulky, resource-hungry Windows... After all, I suspect something like 99.999% of time on a netbook is spent surfing or on email. The 'dual boot' feature is awesome. I was considering buying a Dell Mini9 w/ Ubuntu, but was afraid to take the plunge... Now I think I'll get Windows (in case I need to use Office, etc for work) and use gOS!!!
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