Sound Off

Thanks to ingenious design computer speakers don’t have to take up a lot of space to sound good. Today, Logitech is introducing its Z520 speaker set that at 6.5- by 4.8- by 9.1-inches is small and can fit on a desk, yet radiates accurate audio all around. The $130 system has a 26-watt amplifier to deliver the full range of sound, has a headphone jack and includes a 2-year warranty.

 

Wide Screen Tablet

With so many projectors and monitors using the widescreen format, I can’t quite figure out why most tablets are still stuck in the traditional 4:3 format? Hitachi breaks the mold with its StarBoard T-19W Interactive Display. Its 19-inch touch screen is perfect for writing, drawing and scribbling anything from an organic chemical molecule to stanzas of a poem. The screen has a wireless pen and whatever is on the T-19W gets projected onto a screen for the whole class to see. At 12-pounds it’s too heavy for roaming around the class but is great for a teacher podium up front.

Type and Go

Even the smallest and lightest notebook is still a chore to carry around the classroom to give students the personal attention they need, but a wireless keyboard and projector or big screen monitor can let a teacher roam and stay connected. Adesso’s WKB-3100 keyboard combines a full set of character and Function keys with a 0.7-inch optical trackball and 2.4GHz transmitter. With a range of 30-feet, the WKB-3100 has thousands of different settings so that adjacent keyboards don’t interfere with each other. It requires a pair of AA batteries and costs $80.
 

Notebooks that Stay Put

As soon as a school buys a bunch of notebooks, the first thing they usually discover is how easy it is for people to steal them. Kensington’s ComboSaver cable lock can help notebooks from walking out the door. At $25, it’s an inexpensive way to protect notebooks, projectors and other digital gear. It has a coiled 6-foot long plastic coated steel cable that locks onto a device’s Kensington Security Slot. The four-number lock can be opened with a unique combination, and if that gets forgotten, Kensington can recover it for you. It comes with a lifetime warranty.

A Cool Home for Notebooks

There’s nothing like a notebook for portability and taking school work everywhere, but older ones can overheat and they can be awkward when using one with an external keyboard and mouse. Logitech can make using a notebook on a desk cooler by bringing in fresh air and providing an ergonomic ideal. Called the Notebook Riser N110, the $30 plastic stand can accommodate just about any notebook with a 15.4-inch screen or smaller, elevates the screen to eye level and folds flat when not in use. The $30 stand comes with a three-year warranty. 

No Blindfold Needed

Way back when I was in fourth grade I was taught to type on a manual Royal typewriter with blank keys, which was a bit disorienting to say the least. At the time it seemed like just another instance of a teacher torturing a student, but it worked. It was slow going at first, but the blank keys succeeded in getting me to mentally map the characters and stop looking at the keys. There are some who think that you should take sandpaper in hand and grind the letters from keyboards for typing instruction.

I like a crafts project as much as the next guy but this seems like too much pain for too little gain, particularly when you have to do a classroom with 30 keyboards. The Das Keyboard Ultimate comes without the letters on the keys, and has a two-port USB hub built in. It’s available at ThinkGeek but at $130, it costs about five-times as much as a standard USB keyboard with all the numbers and letters in place.

Why not just cover the keys for typing class? That’s the idea behind SpeedSkin rubber overlays. The sheet covers each key, hiding its letter, symbol or number. At $10, it’s much more reasonable, and it allows a room of computers to be used for typing class in period 3 and as a computer lab in period 4. The keyboard covers have bumps for finger positioning and the function keys remain visible, but SpeedSkin works on external keyboards and select notebooks.

Stay Plugged In

Is there anything worse than turning on the classroom monitor only to see a black screen because the cable has wiggled loose? What if the video cable could be physically locked in place so that it’s always there. PPC’s latest cables do just that with a line of HDMI cables, which snap into place and stay connected – no matter what. Available in 3-, 6- and 12-foot lengths, the PPC cable sells for $49, $60 and $73.

1-to-1 X 6

The mantra of one computer per child misses the opportunity for kids to share a school’s digital resources, which could allow districts, rich or poor, to enter the 21-st century of technology. Why not two, three, four or even five kids per PC? If it’s done right, the ratio of kids to computers can be much greater than one to one and still succeed.

That’s where NComputing’s X550 desktop virtualization kit comes in. It is an almost magical device that allows up to six kids share a single PC; with two kits, up to 11 kids can use and learn from a single PC. It’s not for everyone, but the set up is a great way to stretch a technology budget or use older desktop PCs in a computer lab or library on the cheap.

At $450, the X550 has the power to slash the costs of computerizing schools by up to 70 percent. The kit comes with everything that’s needed except for keyboards, mice and screens, which can add about $150 per station. More than 20,000 schools throughout the world use NComputing’s products, including the Natomas Unified School District in Sacramento, California. The site has a trial offer as well as a video that explains the product.

Low Key Monitor Stand

Later this month, Macessity will introduce the perfect monitor stand for Macintosh desktop computers. Made of powder coated aluminum, the stand not only matches the Apple look, but hides the company’s slim keyboard underneath. The low stand is sturdy, supports a display and has a four-port USB hub that’s front and center, ready for a variety of peripherals. 

Picture Perfect Labels

CDs and DVDs of all kinds can become works of art with Dymo’s DiscPainter, a printer that can put any design on any disc. With 1,200 dot-per-inch resolution logos, images and lettering are sharp and picture perfect every time. The DiscPainter uses a USB connection, and works with Windows XP and the latest Macintosh OS. Priced at $280, the printer’s replacement ink cartridges sell for $40.
More info is available at Dymo's Web site.