Update on Asus netbook project

Well, it's been a very long time since I posted here!  Summer holidays took up all of my time throughout late July and August - shame!  And returning to Academy has meant that I am suddenly far busier than I expected to be, so blogging time has been short.  However...

Some weeks ago, I discovered to my horror that Asus no longer produce the netbook which I have been using as the focus of my project to put class sets of computers into every teaching room in the Academy.  They only sell netbooks with hard discs now, and this makes them far less suitable for the kind of use I am proposing for the Academy.  The battery life of a hard disc machine is considerably reduced, and they are far less resistant to damage from knocks, too.

I have looked for similar netbooks being made by other companies, and found none.  It seems that the whole discless concept is old fashioned now.  I wrote to Asus, asking if they could supply the machines we want.  I asked why they had not considered their eminent suitability for classroom use.  There was no reply.  I wrote again, to the same effect.  Then an answer arrived from the UK Head of Sales ...they can build bespoke units for us!  I am now going into details with him, and plan to have the first two classroom sets in use next half term.

A plea to my readers...  Is it possible that you might want to try using the netbooks in the manner I have described in several posts on this blog?  Can you catch the vision?  If so, then please go to Asus and describe your need, because I am trying to pursuade them to put them back into production and to target the education market.

This could - this should! - catch on!