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Ask Slashdot: Teaching Typing With Limited Electricity, Computers?
An anonymous reader writes "I am tasked with developing a service project to teach students in a Bangladeshi village how to type. The school has about 500 students, 12 computers donated to them in 2006, and a limited electricity supply. The students will be given job placement opportunities at a local firm in the city once they reach a certain proficiency. Therefore, we are trying to teach as many of them typing skills as possible. The problem: limited electricity, limited computers, many kids. I have some additional funding collected through donations. Instead of buying more computers, I am looking for a cost effective way that does not need a steady flow of electricity. I realize that to teach typing, I do not need a computer. I could achieve the same using a keyboard connected to a display. A solar powered calculator is a perfect example of a cheap device which has a numpad for input and an LCD for display. But so far I have not come across a device that has a qwerty keyboard and an LCD to display what's typed. I know there are some gaming keyboards that have LCDs built in but they are quite expensive. I am aiming to build a device that cost below USD 50. I considered using typewriters but they are in limited supply on the market. I also considered OLPC but it is double my anticipated budget. Do you have other suggestions?" Considering that (at least in China) sub-$50 Android tablets with capacitive screens are already here, I wish the Alphasmart line was cheaper, but apparently it currently starts at $169.
What about an old fashioned typewriter?
I was under the impression that Bangladesh's education ministry itself would have to order those, not a private charity.
Mechanical typewriters. Paper. I bet there's a bunch of them already in India. You'll just have to look around.
Why does everything have to be electronic? Especially in remote or third-world conditions?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
If you just want to learn to type, you could possibly provision some purely-mechanical keyboards.
The displays would not need to be particularly high-tech; you could go with a hemp or wood pulp WOD (write only display) that works by mechanically striking the pulp with an embossed pigment delivery die.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
AVR processors can do pretty good job getting text from PS/2 keyboards. They also don't consume too that much power. The only problem then would be getting a bunch of LCD's, perhaps SD cards for storage and some software...
"I considered using typewriters but they are in limited supply on the market"
" I also considered OLPC but it is double my anticipated budget."
"Do you have other suggestions?"
It would be fairly trivial to combine a low end Arduino platform, old PS2 keyboards, and an HD44780 based 40x2 LCD into a system that would cost under $30 each, and run on 4 AA NIMH batteries. You could recharge the batteries when the power was available.
Old AlphaSmart devices can be had VERY cheaply on e-bay. You already know what they are, since you did mention them, and other than mechanical typewriters, they may be your best bet. Just need a pile of AA batteries.
Pair typing. It's agile and totally moar extream.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Considering that (at least in China) sub-$50 Android tablets with capacitive screens are already here
The problem with trying to type (or to game) on a tablet with a capacitive touch screen is that most such screens have no texture to indicate the positions of the keys. A touch typist positions his hands relative to the keys by feeling the bumps on the F and J keys and the edges of the other keys, and he can't do that on a typical tablet.
Go to the district in Dhaka in that sells used stuff. Buy some manual typewriters. They, obviously, do not need electricity.
And replacement ribbons. That you have to find in Bangladesh. For a typewriter that hasn't been manufactured for many years. Good luck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd9As_DlH6E
Benkyo benkyo benkyo!!
Question: "... I considered using typewriters but they are in limited supply on the market. ..."
Slashdot: "Typewriters"
Hunger Games to see who gets to use the computer.
I think the key here will be virtualizing.
I did this a while back with Virtual Desktop and my Mac, I am sure other VM can do the same thing.
I took the VM and I Mapped the USP Device to that virtual machine, then I repeated the process with an other virtual machine. Then I used the laptop keyboard for the primary OS. I in essence had one computer with keyboards(and mice) that controlled 3 OS's at the same time.
I normally only did this with 2.
OS X and Virtualized Windows XP. And a seporate monitor plugged in it was like having two computers.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
about 500 students
The students will be given job placement opportunities at a local firm in the city once they reach a certain proficiency
OK huge call center moving in
The problem: limited electricity, limited computers,
The solution seems obvious, ask the call center how they're dealing with having limited electricity and limited computers. If the problems seem insurmountable to them, then your problem doesn't matter because the call center will not be opening. If they have a solution, presumably you can copy their solution.
Also some simple math here... you've got 500 students and 12 computers. Hmm. You can't really "practice" for too long at a time, even under ideal conditions. So 500 / 12 computers = 41 students per computer. Probably the best way to do this is 48 half hour practice sessions per day. So some kids session will be from 2:30 am to 3 am local, so what, welcome to transcontinental call center operations, he's gonna have to get used to it sooner or later.
Frankly, the biggest call center problem isn't slow typing. As long as the kids know the alphabet and numbers before learning to type, you'll be OK.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Well, I don't know much about what an average Bangladeshi village has on hand but I'm going to wager that it's a very wide spectrum. So my personal advice is no matter what you find to be your solution, you should provide the DIY equivalent any DIY-able components of the pieces. In this way you can treat yourself as a one man thinktank and you can publish this stuff under CCBY3.0 and your project may enjoy self sufficiency without requiring your constant attention.
So to start at the core of it, I would personally select a $25 non-ethernet (Type A?) Raspberry Pi, an $8 USB keyboard and $5 flash card. From there those little devices have the RCA Video (analog) out and also an HDMI out. So if one of your computers goes bad, you can always rig it up to one of these little guys. However, I also understand that you need more displays. Now this is where you have the option to become a rockstar superman. If you are not afraid of code and working GPIO pins I would suggest purchasing some of these little guys first getting it to simply display and read across what they are typing and secondly maybe use one row to take in a file that progresses in typing difficult and displays that on the first line while it waits for input and validates on the second line (might even have room to use LEDs or something else on the RPi for score keeper/carrot/stick. If you document all this, it might turn out that the villagers get wise on how to ripe a seven segment display out of anything and hook it up to these GPIO pins?
So how to power this? Well the easy way would be to use what you have already available for power but get some of these guys and daisy chain these guys from one of your existing computers until they don't produce enough power. I would suggest researching that screen and the Pi and figuring out what their power draw is. Maybe get some cheap fuses to protect your hardware. A lot of broken appliances still have good electric motors in them and electric motors often produce energy as turbines if you spin them. Now, the big problem is how do you clean the power if people are cranking these turbines with their hands or connected to a bike's gear set? That's something I'm not much of an expert in. I do know the Pis run off of two rechargeable AA batteries just great but you also have to take care if they're planning to try to charge those batteries with a hand cranked appliance motor. From my understanding it's pretty tough to not screw stuff up if you're dealing with human generated power. Had to keep that steady and to find existing ways to clean it down to what tiny sensitive devices need.
The upswing of all this would be that the RPis are versatile, any of those students could really do a whole bunch of things with these. And if you make this a part of the Raspberry Pi wiki, you might get people helping you with those screens -- might. At least others will be able to use your work.
My work here is dung.
If it accepts a cloth ribbon, It can be re-inked. If the intent is simply to learn typing, it doesn't have to produce a crisp beautiful page, it just has to show what was actually typed.
You can plug a USB keyboard into any recent Android phone or tablet. Obviously, you can charge them when you have power and use them for many hours. If you look around, you should be able to get a Coby or other Chinese Android tablet and a cheap full-size USB keyboard close to your price range (you also need a USB-to-Go cable, but they are less than $1). I've used them and they are perfectly fine tablets. Students can also use them for reading books.
There are also some typing tutors, although more geared towards on-screen typing. There are also tons of text editors you can use for practice.
This might sound like a stupid question, but couldn't you start learning just using a computer keyboard disconnected from the computer, learn were the keys are, practice on getting better, etc. and then move to the computer?
I know there is a problem on not having feedback, but I've seen many people (and I've done it myself from time to time) that when they write, they are looking at the keyboard and don't even look at the screen. In a way, this provides all the feedback you need, since you have a visual confirmation that your fingers stroke on the correct key.
You have effectively eliminated all of the commercial solutions with your boundary conditions. You indicate that you don't have reliable power - that means you need a power generation device - or a power storage device - as part of your kit, or a device which does not require external power, but you have ruled out typewriters.
You have $50, total, per piece, into which you would like to provide a monitor of some type. Given that you need a display device, a power supply, and a usable input interface, you have nearly priced yourself out of the market with this parameter alone. To that you need to add a keyboard and an interface (a raspberry pi would work) to the display. But even at the rock bottom price of a Pi, you've in for $30-35 between these two devices.
I suppose if you can come up with a display with a DVI or HDMI input, plus a power supply, for under $20, you can get close. With the world market these days, if you need it to be cheaper than a COTS solution (commercial off the shelf) - you need a different budget or enough units to justify hardware production runs.
Have you considered seeing if Dell will ship you a crate of 6 year old laptops for $40 a piece, and you can throw away or keep for salvage the ones which don't work?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Start a company and use the students as it-consultants. Your clients won't be able to tell any difference.
New alphasmarts are hilariously overpriced; but used ones can easily be a factor of ten cheaper, so that isn't a bad route to go down. You'll need to fleabay or otherwise scrounge; but you can get them at pleasingly low prices.
Another option, if the locals have some TVs, might be 'famiclones' or their slightly more modern ilk. The ones that just have controllers are no good; but there is a genre of 'c64' styled keyboard-based ones. RF and/or composite out to a TV, keyboard, usually some sort of BASIC or other typing environment of some degree of not-entirely-useless. Nasty; but cheap, cheap, cheap at the right dodgy flea market.
VTech makes cheap battery operated laptop like learning computers, with full Qwerty keyboard. - http://www.amazon.com/VTech-80-60580-80-60583-Learning-Laptop/dp/B00078ZJ10/ref=sr_1_14?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1347991838&sr=1-14&keywords=vtech+laptop
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
Print a keyboard on sturdy paper (possibly over sized) and pair the kids. Have one kid "type" and the other kid check. Make them compete. Should be fun!
It's a bit above your $50 price tag, but moments googling "typing tutor toy" took a total of 0.8 seconds to complete and brought me this solution not far from your price range.
I had something like this as the oldest of 8 kids, the batteries were C or D and lasted for months/years. It was sturdy enough to easily endure the abuse that 8 kids put it through. We weren't "nice" to it.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
You have it all wrong. Breed them by typing proficiency.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
We used MANUAL typewriters and we LIKED it.
Whiny whiny babies.
You don't need a computer to type.
Heck, Neuromancer was written on a manual typewriter ...
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
combined keyboard, monitor, mouse, AND UPS into one easy to cary package.
the UPS part is a must for unreliable electricity.
depending on what your budget is, how about a single large, UPS for the entire room? or even a small generator?
Done, and done.
Why would you need ribbons? Manual typewriters will make a physical impression on the page - it's good enough for teaching.
What idiot modded this down? The parent is absolutely right. Overpopulation is the root cause of most of the world's problems.
Seems like that would be the most straightforward answer to learning typing.
Hell, I learned mostly on the old IBM Selectric type writers...granted that was electric, but only really a couple of steps above full mechanical.
I assumed they still made mechanical typewriters....?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Limited supply or not, manual typewriters are the right answer for several reasons:
1. From the submission, it seems that everything else that is not in limited supply is too expensive in either cash terms or electricity usage.
2. High technology devices are more likely to fail, and if they fail, are much more difficult (or impossible) to fix.
3. Even if the limited electricity supply goes away, a manual typewriter still works.
4. A decently constructed manual typewriter will outlast any electronic device.
If it works in theory, try something else in practice.
That's a link to OLPC - the specific thing he mentioned was too expensive for his needs. (Plus, they don't sell small quantities to individuals.)
Fiddly, but on the right track for getting the most out of the 12 PCs. *NIX is your friend here - what you want is what X.org refers to as a "multiseat" system - your only limit is how many discrete graphics cards you can cram into your PC(s). Here's a walkthough of setting one up with six seats. If you can get them, you could also hook up some VT102 or similar dumb terminals to the same box and maybe rig up some UPSs so you can have power available when it's needed as opposed to when it's available.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Parallax Propeller would be a good CPU for this. It has ready-made libraries for PS/2 peripherals and LCDs, including video output if you'd need that. A project like this would run on a few dozen milliamps at 5V. A single solar battery charging a car battery could easily supply a few full classrooms of those.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
You clearly have not been in that part of the world. You can make paper in your back yard, if you're patient enough.
Actually, I *live* in a similar part of the world, and as much as I can indeed make paper in me backyard if I'd feel like doing so, paper (tons of it anyway) happens to be pricey -- as is ink. I'm very suspicious that the bottom line cost is in favor of the mechanical typewriter.
Mod parent up, it is cheap per-student (one computer, one large screen), it can sort-of be used without power (you can type, you just can't tell if you are typing correctly), and it could do double duty as a video player. No doubt a Linux guy here on Slashdot can suggest some way to make 20 keyboards input into a single application?
I just checked eBay, and there are still plenty of Handspring Visors left for sale cheap. Those things go a very long time on a pair of AAA cells. You don't want the color model, you want the black-and-white that takes AAA cells.
Then for a keyboard:
http://www.amazon.com/LandWare-GoType-Keyboard-Handspring-Visor/dp/B00004TF4V
Finally, buy a stack of NiMH AAA cells and some chargers.
These should suffice for learning. The keyboard is a little bit small, but I was able to type on it, and my hands are not small.
I don't know if there are any actual typing tutorial programs, but you might be able to get a college student to write one for you as a project.
I do remember that there is at least one "typing speed" program for PalmOS. It was intended for users to test their writing speed using the stylus, but it should work for typing.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Err...do they not make mechanical typewriters any longer??
Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I learned with a mechanical typewriter when I lived south of the border. It is still far cheaper to get mechanical typewriters than to provide computers for each student (if the goal is to teach typing.)
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Typewriters-/163099/i.html
Built in dot matrix lcd screen, qwerty keyboards, designed to take abuse, nearly eternal battery life, and have working mice. the ones for older children even look like real laptops. The price range is well within the budget. Since typing is the goal color graphics and big screen are rather pointless. much lighter than typewriters so cheaper shipping costs too.
Hope this helps
I know you said you can't afford OLPC computers. You could try just asking people to donate them, and see if you get any.
I used to have an OLPC and I gave it to a school in India. Before I handed it over, I bought a $10 USB keyboard, a USB mouse, and I installed a program called "Typing Turtle". Also, I bought an an SD card, and installed a copy of Wikipedia for Schools on it (this is a collection of Wikipedia articles, vetted to remove any vandalism, and indexed so you can use them as pure static web pages, offline).
If you follow my other suggestion and use Handspring Visor PDAs for students, and you get a handful of OLPC computers, maybe you can use the OLPC computers for test stations.
Be sure to get an external, USB keyboard and mouse for any OLPC laptops you get. The built-in keyboard sucks, and the built-in trackpad really sucks.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Take the PCs you have, install linux and do multi seat. Then all you need is cheap pci video cards, monitors, keyboards and mice. You should be able to get 5+ displays for each PC.
It might be better to get some typewriters.
Take donations.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Admittedly, they would still affected by the lack of power, but another option for devices with keyboard and (single line) screen are old Teletype (TTY) devices used by the deaf prior to the advent of modern smartphones. They can be picked up cheap on eBay or the like, providing a similar keyboard feel to a computer and would require no assembly on your part.
If you can find enough of them, a TRS-80 model 100 is perfect. Just big enough of an LCD screen. You could load custom typing programs written in BASIC via cassette or serial interface (3K of RAM/storage by default, so each lesson might need to be a different program that has to be loaded/unloaded). They have a 4-line LCD, which is just enough to give feedback on your typing or even show them what text to type and show their typing below.
Four AA batteries last about 20 hours, so it wouldn't be too hard to wire them all up together to a small solar setup.
I had a friend who owned one back in the 80s. It had a built in modem to log into local BBS's. I thought that was pretty cool.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
Where's a big box of TRS-80 Model 100's when you need them?
Of course, I know that it's not practical to dig up a bunch of these. The idea of building something using an Arduino (or similar), a cheap 40x2 character LCD display (or similar), and a regular computer keyboard is probably the most practical. It'll run on batteries, and you can teach the students about electronics and recycling (old keyboards) while building these things.
RE: paper guitar
Yes, this, absolutely. I got stuck in a crappy situation once and had to sell my guitar. I didn't want to lose the muscle memory while I got things worked out so I wrapped a piece of cardboard with paper and drew a fretboard on it, marked notes, taped toothpicks under the fretlines and wrapped the whole thing in clear packing tape to prevent wear and decomposition from finger oils. When things got slow at work I'd break it out and jam. Good times.
A good analog does wonders. In this case you don't even need an analog, as you said they can just use a disconnected keyboard and start slowly.
"Bother," said Pooh, as lightning knocked out hi%#&(F*@NO CARRIER
So much misinformation...
Royal/Olevetti still make manual typewriters. They suck. They are also damn expensive compared to a tablet, $150
Manual typewriters use a lever system with one lever per uppercase/lowercase character, IBM Selectrics are a ball typewriter.
Power requirements are significant, based on the heat they gave off, at least 60w, probably more.
They are still in demand, so a working one is around $350 and up. Way more than a tablet.
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
I concur: Raspberry Pi + Small Display + cheap usb keyboard gives you what you're looking for, and within your budget (give or take a couple bucks).
Since the Pi + LCD listed above pull a total of less than 7 watts a piece, you should have no trouble powering several with a low-cost portable power solution, such as solar/wind generators, or hell, even a dynamo; I mean, why not?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I doubt there are any current manufacturers still in business.
And even if there are, they are probably only making electric models.
However, there are probably a gazillion of these things moldering away in warehouses or scrap heaps, or corporate basements, or still for sale as re-furbs.
The problem is that they are http://mytypewriter.com/1960sorlater.aspx>expensive and becoming impossible to maintain.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
1) Multiple keyboards/monitors connected to one desktop -- too expensive, a pain to setup
2) Mechanical typewriter -- need to restock paper and tape -- too expensive
3) Some kind of electric typewriter, like this one on Amazon.com Try to buy them from China, where they cost pennies, or hunt for bargains, like the one I linked. There is 12 of them available for US $28. As far as electricity being in limited supply -- that problem is much easier to fix: get a UPS power supply. (electric typewriters are not power-hungry), a solar panel, or even a power generator connected to a stationary bicycle (my father told me they used to use those during power outages)
You could plug USB keyboards into a PC or laptop and let two or maybe three students share a single screen. You'd have to make your own software setup though to send the keys from each keyboard to a different window.
Ok..where are you finding a tablet for $150 and less??
Also...you don't really 'learn' to type on a tablet...it isn't like real typing at all. You need a full sized keyboard to learn that on....and a manual typewriter still sounds like the cheapest solution to use to approximate a real typing experience (touch typing, not hunt and peck).
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Repeat after me:
Thank you for calling Dell Technical Support...
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Most of the top thread starters in thsi topic... have clearly not read the summary.
I considered using typewriters but they are in limited supply on the market.
Sorry to single you out, but it was at this point in the comments that I got sick of reading "Hurr durr, get typewriter, stupid" posts.
I learned on a mechanical typewriter in 1983. It is the obvious solution.
www.wavefront-av.com
Seriously people, stop suggesting typewriters - they're a bitch to repair assuming you can get parts, which you probably can't, are way overbuilt for what he requires of them and, at this point, probably cost more than his $50 budget anyway; all he needs is a qwerty layout with error-checking to make sure the kids are on the right track.
Just because something is mechanical or non-powered doesn't mean it's simpler, easier, or cheaper. Try to answer his actual question without getting all condescending about it.
--Triv
Even the oldest, slowest PC that have any kind of keyboard and can run Windows 95 or up would probably do.
The PCs don't have to be the same type. Some can be slower than others. The keyboard layout has not changed significantly over the years. There were many typing tutor programs for Windows 95, and programs for Windows 95 still work on even the newest PCs.
(Of course, you could go even back to 80188 cpu's and DOS, but I find it unlikely that you will find used PCs that are that old. Besides, it would be better to sell those to collectors and buy more cheap PCs for the money)
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
Seems like a bunch of AlphaSmarts or equivalent would work pretty well -- they seem to be available for about $50 used. I learned to type on something very much like that in elementary school, though I have no idea what brand they were, just that they were red and had some simple typing games. They worked very well: I'm a pretty fast tough typist as a result.
Brand new: http://www.hammacher.com/Product/81898?tid=pr81898. More than a $150 tablet, but better than a $150 tablet that you can't use.
Not so new: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=manual+typewriter (One of those looks like what I did all my high school & some college papers with).
Hey, if it is just for the typing you could buy PS/2-Connector Keyboards for around $7 each. A cheap microcontroller like Atmels ATTinyXX on a custom PCB could be used to connect display and keyboard. Lets say $10 for both. Than you just need a display and a case. Depending on how many characters it should display it starts from $8 1x16 (1 line, 16 characters). Lets assume a standard case for just $1. Programming this should be fairly easy as multiple projects on the internet have libraries available. So you get your electronic typewriter for $26. It could be even cheaper. These will consume much less than 10 Watt and it would be possible to power them with rechargable batteries or big capacitors. some sources: AVR keyboard: http://avrprogrammers.com/example_avr_keyboard.php AVR display libraries are all over the web. Just my two cents. This could be an initiativ of indiegogo or something similiar!
I found a 7" netbook for $46.99 USD here that meets your basic requirements (keyboard, display, low power consumption) with the quantities you'd need.
Combine that with a freeware solution like LibreOffice.
I'm no expert but I think this combination would serve you well.
You could try using Arduino Unos.
http://amigojapan.github.com/Arduino-Retro-Computer-with-SD-card-and-LCD-display-and-Keyboard-input-with-BASIC-interpreter/
With standard TV sets
http://amigojapan.github.com/Arduino-Retro-Computer-TV/
And another variation
http://www.pyroelectro.com/tutorials/ps2_keyboard_lcd/
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Similarly, when I was a kid a friend of mine took piano lessons, but she didn't have a piano. Instead her teacher gave her a paper keyboard which she practiced on. It worked for her until she proved to her dad that she was committed to learning the piano and he shelled out the dough for a real one.
You can practice on the keyboard without it being hooked up to anything, similarly to the post above about using paper typewriters decades ago for practice.
> Err...do they not make mechanical typewriters any longer?
Not in my lifetime (or, at any rate, not in the part of my lifetime that I can remember), and I'm pushing forty. I suppose there's probably some geek out there somewhere who _rebuilds_ old mechanical typewriters, but new ones, to the best of my knowledge, have not been manufactured for several decades.
Used ones might be possible to obtain, but I would not recommend using them as a tool for teaching typing. You'll end up with people who thunk the keys down so deliberately, they'll be doing well to hit ten words a minute, and eevverrrryyythhiiingg wwwill ccommme ouuut lllikkke thhhiss. You might about as well get them a Linotype machine. Yes, yes, they could learn the QWERTY layout. They could also learn the QWERTY layout, and finger positioning for that matter, from a printout on a piece of paper, which would be somewhat cheaper to ship to Bangladesh, as compared with fifty-pound typewriters. Any actual typing skill they learn from the mechanical typewriters will do them more harm than good.
New typewriters were electric when I was a kid. Notice I said electric, not electronic. These old beasts didn't have any logic circuitry (transistors or the like), but they did have an electric motor, which was responsible for causing the little letter thingies to swing up and whack the paper (through the ribbon) significantly harder than would have been the case with just the force of your fingers hitting the keys. Depressing a key just _released_ the relevant lever: it was the electric motor that smacked it up onto the carriage. There were also the ones that used a ball instead of levers, which was particularly useful in academia, because you could substitute in e.g. a Greek ball and type letters and symbols that were not available on the standard ball. Those had somewhat more complicated circuitry than the kind with levers, to control the rotation of the ball to select the right character, but they still were not electronic in the modern sense. Either way, no electrical power meant no typing.
People who learned to type on electric typewriters often have problems typing on a modern cheap membrane keyboard, because they press the keys down too hard. It's like switching from buckling springs to a touchscreen interface, only worse. It's not nearly as bad as having learned on one of the ancient purely-mechanical monstrosities, though. With *those* things you practically had to *hammer* the keys down to get the lever to hit the ribbon hard enough to fully strike the letter onto the paper.
Electronic typewriters (the kind with actual logic circuitry and, usually, little LCD built in) came along in the mid-to-late eighties I think, and by the wall came down practically all _new_ typewriters were electronic. The early ones had keyboards with some tactile feedback (maybe about comparable to a Model M keyboard I guess), but they were much more like a computer keyboard than their older electronic and manual counterparts. Later ones may have actually adopted computer-keyboard technology, because by the mid nineties computers were overwhelmingly more common than typewriters. At some point typewriters switched over to dot matrix technology (which was also very popular in computer printers at the time), so then the ability to type exotic characters was purely a matter of software (or, err, firmware). If there are typewriters still made these days, they probably use inkjet printing technology and have spellcheck. I wouldn't be surprised if they use OpenType fonts.
Dedicated "word processor" electronic devices came along around the same time (as the electronic typewriters) and might've really caught on if they'd had a few more years in the market, but microcomputers all started getting WYSIWYG interfaces just about then, and that was much better, and simultaneously microcomputers were getting to be rather a lot more affordable than previously and the notion of every household having one no longer seemed entirely ridiculous (in the developed world), and the rest is history.
Of course, kids these days do word processing on their phones. Try explaining *that* to somebody back in the era of mechanical typewriters.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
I still have my old Smith-Corona I went through College with. 100% mechanical. This was the one that looked like a small suitcase. Works perfect, but I would have no idea of where to get another ribbon for the thing. It uses the old cloth ribbons saturated with ink and it would shuttle back and forth as keys were pressed. Red and black ink too. Not many mechanical things nearly 100 years old still work ( this was the machine my mom went through school on ). They sure made things to last in those days.
No erase key. You had to use those old style abrasive eraser pens or a white paint-like fluid for that. If you made a significant screw up, might as well put in a new piece of paper and retype the whole page.
Would I go back to advocating this? No. I'd rather see them resurrect the old Radio Shack Tandy 100 with its low power processor and reflective LCD screen. With today's technology, these could probably be made with solar cells just like a calculator. I'd love to have one of those that could use a USB stick for program and data storage.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
If it starts talking to you and offering you drugs destroy it and don't do them.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
> teach students in a Bangladeshi village how to type...[with] limited
> electricity.
Run an extension cord down to the McDonald's.
Next question?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Ok..where are you finding a tablet for $150 and less??
This is probably the most user-friendly place to find a wide selection in that price range. But there's also AliExpress, some of the sellers there will sell you just one. Some will only sell you 2+ (or 5+ or whatever) but honestly you can probably find a pair of tablets with ICS, 512MB RAM and 8GB flash, 7" with capacitive touch and very very low resolution for $150 :)
For around $200 you can get 10-point touch, ICS, 10" IPS, Allwinner...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Get the faulty keyboards that are thrown away by offices in Dhaka etc from the local recycler (or offices themselves). Give them to kids to manual practice the first couple of training sets (asdf jkl; etc). When ever slots have opened up on functional machines, and the kids have done their manual tests, promote them to those empty slots for practical training and testing.
The benefit of the faulty keyboards will be that by the time kids move up to the functional slots, they will have gained some muscle memory advantage. Plus the fact that the keys will be faded will be an extra advantage, it will eliminate the crutch of hunt-and-peck ;P
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
You're talking an order of magnitude more power consumption than Raspberry Pis talking to LCD TVs and connected to bargain-priced keyboards. For myself living in the USA I am able to source LCD monitors with DVI connectors for $15 and less, I have three such here. And keyboards for $5. I hear the Raspi shipping price doesn't change much if you get more than one so I you can get say three of those for around $120, so call it $200 for three machines with displays and keyboards and throw the mice in really because you can get those for a buck or two. But that doesn't help someone who isn't here... Unless they're able to motivate someone here to send them anything that is very small and not easily sourced where they are.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
mechanical typewriters might actually cost more to build.. :-p
Harvest the mechanical energy of the keystroke. Either by using a manual typewriter, or using magnets and coils in the keys to generate tiny currents, which in turn charge a capacitor, which drive the mW level processor and LCD. If that does not work, make the kids exercise by taking turns on a stationary bicycle with a dynamo.
Except for the fact that raspberry pis don't work with keyboards. I've tried about a dozen keyboards with mine, none of them worked correctly (repeating characters, dropped key strokes).
Oops. Fair point.
You can get a palm (V/T?) with an IR keyboard quite cheap.
They use batteries which might be more or less expensive for your needs (rechargeables?).
You can probably get them in bulk somewhere.
Less than your desired price and come with full size keyboards and VERY minimal power needs.
I already posted so I can not follow my own advice. MOD PARENT UP!
The things weigh a lot so would be expensive to get to where they are needed. I started with a mechanical typewriter but didn't really learn to type properly on it - I instead gained the habit of hitting keys so hard that coworkers are convinced that I'm angry.
For about $30 dollars you could connect an AVR to a serial enabled lcd and use a PS/2 keyboard. Run it on rechargeable batteries. I did this exact thing years back when I was studying communications protocols. My guess is that even if you don't have the skills to put together such a thing, if you contacted sparkfun and told then what you're trying to do, someone experienced would donate the 4 hours it would take them to design and program this.
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
I I learned how to type on a V-Tech aparatus in '98. Vtech mostly makes toys and stuff. This thing had a normal keyboard layout and a small LCD display. I think it only ran on a couple of AA's and might be right up your alley. It was similar to this.
USB keyboards are cheap. USB OTG adapters are dirt cheap. And tablets under $50 that can be used as usb hosts for exist. What's the problem again?
Any PIC or microcontroller should be fast enough to handle keyboard input and put it onto an LCD display. If you have PS/2 keyboards it should be really simple, USB may require a bit of implementation (like a USB host with HID support) but it shouldn't be too much work for an average programmer.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Focus on the students. Find the 10 best typers, teach them everything. Then each of them (with help, of course) can teach 10 more.
Many third-world countries are technocratic.
Defining Statistics and Social Research
Instead of typewriters, how about serial terminals? Vt100, Wyse50, etc. Whatever you can get your hands on will work. Set it to "offline mode" and when you hit a key, it'll appear on the screen, so it can be checked. They require power, but with no smarts, and a pretty tiny CRT, it's a tiny fraction of a computer. And if you get a multiport serial card, serial mux, a bunch of USB-RS232 adapters, or a terminal server, you could hook them all up to a computer, running whatever text-only typing tutor program you've got. If there's any long-standing call / order processing centers in your vicinity, you might find that they've stockpiled their old terminals as they switched over to computers.
A second option would be pretty much any old PDA with a keyboard... All the better if you go with a B&W screen without backlight. Something like a Psion 3/5 or Osaris will run for 40+ hours on a pair of AAs. String some wires from the battery compartments and supply them with 3V (should be simple enough if you've got a car battery handy) instead of going through batteries, and you should be fine. The WinCE devices out there are almost all high power, due to color screens and faster CPUs, but could still work for you, if you can secure a good number of them.
It wouldn't be hard to build a simple circuit that takes PS2 input, and outputs the letters to a small LCD, but since there's no such mass-market product, I think it'll end up costing more to get someone to assemble it, than it would cost to buy used junk.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
The cheapest thing I know to "connect a keyboard to a display" is a Raspberry Pi.
(It also happens to be aimed at educating children. I don't know if that's relevant to the OP or not....)
No sig today...
For myself living in the USA I am able to source LCD monitors with DVI connectors for $15 and less.
The Pi also has a TV output. It was included precisely for situations like this where old TVs are a lot more common than DVI connectors.
No sig today...
Toys R Us has a $20 CDN toy laptop with QWERTY keyboard:
http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=11495909
add 2 sets of rechargeable batteries: $2*6 = $12
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__25023__Turnigy_AA_LSD_2400mAh_Low_Self_Discharge_ready_to_use_.html
and a charger: $6
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__27991__NiZN_AA_1_5A_Battery_Charger.html
You can charge the batteries when you have power.
Alternatively reduce the number of batteries and chargers to less than 1 set per computer and pool the leftover $$$ to get a solar panel to power a charging station
----- "Profanity is the one language that all programmers understand."
Fedora 17 has a multiseat feature where you can hookup multiple keyboards, mice, monitors to one pc. If you can get more keyboards, mice, monitors, and video cards donated or purchased you could setup those 6 PC to support 12-24 (and possibly more) students. You may want to look at the Plugable DC-125 too. They are a bit over the $50 price range but might be worth it due to it's low power requirements. You might be able to consolidate some of the PCs to help with your power issues.
Posted this elsewhere deep in a thread... wanted to make sure you saw it:
I suggest:
50% of your students get OLPC @ 100$; 50% get a 5$ disconnected keyboard. They rotate between exercises.
Or 1/3rd get OLPC and 2/3rds with disconnected keyboards, and rotate. Every third exercise they're on the real keyboard.
Connected 4 to 16 USB Keyboards (optionally mice as well) and connect same amount of monitors to a few video cards like: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/graphics_cards/m_series/m9188pciex16/ or http://www.amd.com/us/products/workstation/graphics/ati-firemv-2d/ati-firepro-2450-mv/Pages/ati-firepro-2450-mv.aspx or USB to Video.... http://ca.startech.com/AV/USB-Video-Adapters/USB-DVI-External-Multi-Monitor-Video-Adapter~USB2DVIE2 There is software out here to create virtual machines for each monitor and to connect a set of Keyboard/mouse to each monitor. With Windows 98, you can connect up to 9 displays. With Windows NT, you can connect up to 20 displays to one system With Windows 2000, XP, you can connect up to 10 displays to one system. With Window Vista - you can connect minimum of 10 displays to one system. - possibly up to 16 With Windows 7 & 8, you can connect up to 16 displays to one system -possibly more
Oi!
Wait a minute. I know you used to get new manual typewriters in India for approx $50-60 or so. I'm sure Bangladesh will not be too different.
you'll get refurbished/second-hand typewriters for less than half that - most typists are now junking their old elephants for a PC. That's what you need. Oh yes, and a bunch of LED based solar powered lanterns that's very popular in the rural areas. Put them out in the sun in the day and they give you 5-6 hours light in the evening/night (so you can operate all the way till 11pm).
At approx $20-30 per typewriter & 1 lantern per 15-20 kids, you should have a good business model there. There's loads of people around who'd fund such a business + mentor you to boot.
All the best.
Set up a donation site and try to double, (or better) your budget. There are a number of donation websites out there, such as http://gogetfunding.com/ (I found that by Googling and it was top of the list). Even just setting up a PayPal donation site might work. Then, tell everyone you can about it.
You might even be able to afford some solar panels or a petrol generator and petrol to keep the computers going. Even ask some solar panel manufacturers if you can get some for free, and ask around places like the computer manufacturers who have lease agreements (such as HP finance) if they have any old computers being returned. Approach some big corporations as well, most have budgets for donations. Or even write to Oprah (I'm sure she'd love to get involved).
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)
So you're in an area where there isn't enough power available to enable computers, but you need to teach people to type on them?
The only other idea is typewriter, but if there isn't enough money for power, there probably isn't enough money for typewriters and supplies, either.
The need is what again?
The need is to give these students an opportunity.
Someone is opening a business nearby and hiring many people. This business will presumably have the resources needed to remain in business: money, net access, a reliable backup generator, a building, etc.
There are many people in Bangladesh willing to work, and at least some of them have typing skills. If his students learn to type, they have a better chance at getting some of those jobs. If his students don't know typing, those jobs will certainly go to others.
His budget and resources are limited, as he explained. Unlike you, he knows better than to throw his hands up in despair at a simple hurdle. Things like unreliable power are part of everyday life, and people in that region simply deal with it.
John
http://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/10oa6u/slashdot_tackles_the_tough_problem_of_typing/