Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Cheapest Functional Computer For Students?
An anonymous reader writes: I've started a second career, teaching English at a High School in a middle class area. While the large majority of students have a computer and internet access at home, about 10-15% do not. I assign papers that must be typed, I have papers turned in online, and I plan to freely refer to texts, videos, and other resources that are available online. This gives an extra disadvantage to students that may be from the poorer end of the strata, and also means extra inefficiency for me, as I have to make allowances for students who don't have a computer available at home.
Right now, I have to tell them to either use school computers during the day, or to pick up a $170 laptop (more than enough — I administer the class using such a laptop). However, I was surprised at the lack of a super-cheap option for students. I'd love to see something for $20 that any student could afford easily, or perhaps I could just gift to a few students. I feel like something in this price range could be sufficiently powerful for basic word processing, youtube videos, and internet searches (internet access is a separate issue). But looking over my options I see:
1) The very cheapest Chromebooks are also in the $170 range.
2) Android Sticks have been around for a while, and do cost in the $20 range, but don't seem to have matured into a generally usable technology. Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be a community effort to easily turn these Android sticks into Ubuntu/Mint sticks.
3) Students can't be assumed to have the technical know-how to fix up a Salvation Army computer (I wouldn't mind helping out a bit, but I don't want to turn into tech support)
4) A Raspberry Pi costs $70 once you include a case/power supply/etc, and students would receive a big bag of parts.
5) Cheap Windows Tablets have glitches, and don't have an HDMI out.
6) There isn't a good solution to using a cell phone as a desktop computer.
Are any of my assumptions wrong? Are there any other options I'm not considering?
Right now, I have to tell them to either use school computers during the day, or to pick up a $170 laptop (more than enough — I administer the class using such a laptop). However, I was surprised at the lack of a super-cheap option for students. I'd love to see something for $20 that any student could afford easily, or perhaps I could just gift to a few students. I feel like something in this price range could be sufficiently powerful for basic word processing, youtube videos, and internet searches (internet access is a separate issue). But looking over my options I see:
1) The very cheapest Chromebooks are also in the $170 range.
2) Android Sticks have been around for a while, and do cost in the $20 range, but don't seem to have matured into a generally usable technology. Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be a community effort to easily turn these Android sticks into Ubuntu/Mint sticks.
3) Students can't be assumed to have the technical know-how to fix up a Salvation Army computer (I wouldn't mind helping out a bit, but I don't want to turn into tech support)
4) A Raspberry Pi costs $70 once you include a case/power supply/etc, and students would receive a big bag of parts.
5) Cheap Windows Tablets have glitches, and don't have an HDMI out.
6) There isn't a good solution to using a cell phone as a desktop computer.
Are any of my assumptions wrong? Are there any other options I'm not considering?
HP Stream 11. Preferably you can Linux-ize them, since the 11's kind of weak and hasn't got the grunt for heavy antivirus stuff. These guys are $200 a pop.
I've no suggestions unfortunately - but I think it's good to commend imaginative uses of this forum
$70
The critical question for such a determination is:
--Do you have anything else you can get get cheaply?
This very much alters the outcome. Por ejemplo: Given the inexpensiveness of wide screen monitors, the old 17" are thick on the ground at a couple of my work places, used only by interns. If your middle class folk can get you a heap of them for near-free, then yes, the Raspberry Pi2 will work well and keyboards and older mice are found in the same filing cabinet drawers. The Pi2 addresses shortage of CPU that was painful in the previous versions. It's very usable.
--Do you have shop class at a local school that can make you some cases?
http://lifehacker.com/make-an-...
--Are you looking for an amazing set of projects your kids can do?
https://www.raspberrypi.org/ma...
If you can't get the monitors cheap/free, then the Pi and even $80 worth of monitor have brought you into the Chromebook range.
At that juncture you have to choose your poison. If you want consistent and easy to maintain, you'll need to purchase large batches of new chromebooks. If you have a little technical know how, you can pick them up in the $120's all day on ebay and as refurbs on woot.
>> 3) Students can't be assumed to have the technical know-how to fix up a Salvation Army computer
This is the cheapest option. For $50 you can get a working computer, with monitor. If you think that's rough, think of all the gummed-up, malware-laden computers that the 85%-ers have at home. Yet somehow, they muddle through enough to keep basic word processing, youtube videos, and internet searches working.
>> (I wouldn't mind helping out a bit, but I don't want to turn into tech support)
If you do ANY of these options, or anything else suggested here, you WILL turn into tech support. Deal with it.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-tablet-8-intel-atom-32gb-black/2077079.p?id=1219528554656&skuId=2077079
Has HDMI out, but needs micro HDMI to HDMI cable, also would need bluetooth keyboard and mouse for 2ed screen
Not sure you can get cheaper than the mentioned chromebooks, even if there were a good 20 dollar option you'd still need a keyboard, mouse and monitor at minimum.
Arduino nano + breadboard + power supply + jumper wires + 5110LCD + variable resistors + buzzer + LEDs = functional pong video game + many other projects for $20 on eBay.
You require interaction with the internet through the computer. Even if you give them a free computer that is perfectly sufficient, you still aren't allowing them to interact with the internet from their home.
They can use the library for wifi, but if they are going there anyway, they can just use the computers there, no?
Students who don't own/can't afford computers almost certainly don't have/can't internet access either so there's not much point in finding an ultra-cheap one when the service cost would be a much bigger issue (with a $20 computer, internet access in most places costs more than that EVERY MONTH).
I got one of these for £150 in the UK. Not to shabby for the price. The Origami folding keyboard stand and track pad case is another £20. I have no idea what they cost in the US though. Perormance is good and they come with a 1 year free copy of Office 365. http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/linx-10-1291585/review
I have a core 2 duo from 2007, its more than enough for what your students have to do, it even runs Windows 10 if it is needed and it costs nothing.
Full disclaimer: I'm teaching applied maths and CS and I design some of my courses on that computer so believe me it is more than enough.
There's a Google Docs app that will run on an iPhone to provide word processing. Google account is free and the app is free.
I would assume that if they didn't have a computer home they probably don't have a connection either.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Sounds like you either need the school at the administrative level to have a policy that students need to have a cheap laptop (not unreasonable) provided by school or parents or you need to let your english students use their pencils and papers. I would think that reasonably legible handwriting would be a good skill to have and if they are going to learn that anywhere it is in english class.
If you are willing to do a little traveling and effort, consider doing an electronics recycling drive. When I was the faculty advisor to the local college computer club, we received donations, evaluated them, built working systems from the parts, then shipped them off to Central America.
Also, contact the IT lead at local banks and hospitals, and other major corporations in your area. Many times, they are GLAD to have someone take their equipment. Be warned that many times they won't include the hard drive. They might be willing to allow you the drives if you show them how to use DBAN, or sign off that you will do it yourself. If you can't get hard drives, boot from USB. We got A TON (literally, 2,000 lbs) of desktops, keyboards, mice, and monitors from a local large insurance provider.
Xubuntu or Lubuntu with Libre Office ought to satisfy their software needs.
Good luck!
I got hold of one of these in the UK for £150. It's not to shabby for the price. Comes with a one year free trial of Office 365 as well. http://www.techradar.com/revie...
To err is human. To forgive is not company policy.
So, how cheap is cheap? $50? $100? $200? Does it need to be a laptop? Portable?
Is the goal to have something that can do e-mail, web browsing, and writing papers?
I noted the suggestion of linux. Are you prepared to teach linux? Android has it's "mostly single tasking" thing going on, and it's cranky memory management, so I'm not so happy with android as a desktop environment.
As has been suggested, the HP Stream 11's are pretty good. They're a very capable laptop. They're available at Walmart and are about $200.
Going much cheaper sends you into some really strange territory. Annoyingly the Pi-Top is $300... Which is a lot less powerful than a Stream11. If android is vaguely OK, there's a ton of android based tablets and laptop-ish things on the market.
You would have to be crazy to be sane in this world. -Nero
The true cost of that computer asset does not start and stop with that one-time purchase.
I think you might also be overlooking the fact that these families don't have a computer because they also cannot afford the $40+/month for broadband internet access to take advantage of all the online resources you wish to present to your students.
And trying to keep that cost fixed by using a computer offline 100% of the time is rather pointless in today's environment.
"Cheapest Functional Computer For Students?"
An Arduino running Haskel?
Nah, I'll stick with procedural ones.
Seriously, you are a bottom feeder with nothing to teach anyone. You are so unimaginative, you can't figure out how to get along without a computer or the internet. Especially for a language class! Oh, and to top it off, almost all your assumptions are overstated. Again, please duck off, we have enough unqualified shit loose in this world. Go sweep a floor or something. You have nothing to teach anyone, and the thought that you think you do makes me angry.
This isn't true at all. Shop around a little and you'll pay far less than that, and you don't have to give them the latest model.
Cost $1.00.
Orange PI
$20 with case and usb power
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Orange-Pi-PC-set-3-Orange-Pi-PC-Transparent-ABS-Case-USB-to-DC-4-0MM/32451086788.html
Review
http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/07/raspberry-shmazberry-theres-a-15-single-board-computer-called-the-orange-pi/
I was required to do research and type papers using the library. Public libraries are still a thing, and have Internet and printing available. I don't suppose taking a bike, public transit or whatnot to a public library is too onerous to do school work. Nearby university or college might have library's available for use also. It's a quiet environment to focus on study.
Are any of my assumptions wrong? Are there any other options I'm not considering?
Yes, you shouldn't design your curriculum assuming students will have limitless access to a computer and internet. Don't have paper turned in online, print out resources to pass out to the student, show the videos in class, and make the amount of typing such that it can be done on school/library computers without excessive burden. There is nothing about learning the English language that requires a computer.
Yes I will probably be modded down , but they have programs for educators and low income students and have been known to donate netbooks and tablets like their atom surfaces which are hybrids
http://saveie6.com/
Its not the cost of the computer - its the fact that you are giving them access to the internet with all that goes along with that. Our daughter was constantly trying to use the internet for all sorts of not great things. It was a constant battle. It sucked for us. All her teachers gave homework online or they had to turn it in online.
We had to give her a phone that would only allow her to call numbers we pre-programmed. She could only use the computer in guest mode under our direct supervision. Did we want to do this? Hell no. I would have rather given her an iPhone and a nice new computer and unlimited access to the internet. But I also didn't want her naked Skyping or dating adults. Ugh.
So please. Just teach english. Forget the computers. Please.
1) Find old Salvation army computers and toss linux on them. This option is probably the cheapest but requires the most time sink from someone to set up.
2) Go for something like http://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-... (if you can find cheap/free monitors/keyboards/mice). If you can overcome the expense of the monitors/keyboards/mice (find cheap supply or have them donated), this is probably the best time/cost option. The number of parts are really small, and the kits can probably be pre-assembled on a sunday with volunteer labor if you are afraid putting them together might be too much for the students.
3) Otherwise, as you noted, you're in Chromebook territory. Perhaps a fundraiser/sponsorship or some way of trying to subsidize them for the whole class might bring the cost per unit down into the more affordable range for your under-privaleged students (without single them out)?
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
Thinkpad w/ i5 , T410 are a great deal for ~150-200 dollars.
A smartphone and a blue tooth keyboard is fully capable of what you ask, as long as the videos and websites are capable. The headache will be on your end with supporting several different word processors, as the better ones are not free, and there are several respectable free choices including Google Docs.
So what does this offer? The middle class American child already has a smartphone, or their parents do. Pretty high power devices are also available as the "low end" option, and older devices are capable so a castoff or hand-me-down phone that is in good shape will do the job quite well (yes, batteries need replaced about every 2 years). All smart phones have wifi access without having phone service turned on. This means that they can use wifi at the coffee shop or use data on their parents' devices for the actual submission.
Bluetooth keyboards start at about $25.
A prepaid smartphone is about $50 for the device.
Yes, this operates on the assumption that the student has access to a good smartphone (with or without service), and can get wifi access via local businesses.
Try this before you expect your students to use it, they will expect you to support them technically.
Laugh, it's good for you!
If you are not willing to go used, Chromebooks are generally the cheapest and best option
Source: MSP for schools
It comes out in a month and doe sboth Windows and Linux, has a 8.9" screen, HDMI.... http://www.geekbuying.com/item...
My feeling is that a Raspberry Pi is about the best option you're going to find. This is what it was designed for, after all.
Yes, you need at least a power supply and a flash card to make it work. Those will cost a few dollars extra. You can live without a case for a while if you're careful with it. The mouse and keyboard are generic items that can usually be scrounged up somewhere. Then use a TV for the monitor, just like we did back in the old Atari and Commodore days.
It's true that the Pi is a "some assembly required" system, but at least every system is the same and there are tutorial manuals available. It's way better than getting J. Random Computer from the flea market and then trying to figure out exactly what it is, what works and what doesn't, what OS it can run, etc. -- multiplied by X number of students!
It would be nice to imagine a super-cheap notebook computer. And technically it's doable, but it just doesn't seem to be viable in the marketplace. It would be so limited in functionality that only truly dirt-poor students would want it, which means it wouldn't sell in large volumes, which means the per-unit price would have to go UP due to lack of economies-of-scale, and then the whole purpose is defeated.
While I appreciate your desire to move towards the paperless classroom, I think you really need to look to your school and your town/city for guidance on this.
Public schools are for everyone, and I'm concerned that if you start requiring students to use computers it really could disadvantage some students from lower income families through absolutely no fault of their own. If your school allows you to require students to learn and do their papers on a computer then that's fine, presumably you won't be the only person who has had these questions and presumably there will be people in your organisations who can solve these issues. However, if there really is no support in place for low-income students to get computers and get online, I think you really need to rethink your plan and put in place ways for these students to do things the old fashioned way.
You're there to teach, you're not there to impose technology on them (tempting as it may be).
ya know those phones they all have run BSD or Linux these days ;)
all kidding aside cromebooks are also a PITA to use outside of google apps and might run afoul of some privacy issues.
USB stick computers cant run a real OS because ubuntu and mint both require horsepower for graphics, overlays, audio, widgets and FX. Android is based on gentoo, the Mad Max car of linux. extra ram is dedicated much like the Pi to bus resources for the USB/network.
the salvation army cant be expected to bankroll an entire class with spare computers that may, or may not work. kinda a non option here.
Raspberry Pi power supplies can quite literally be anything. a wal-wart, a cheap USB hub, another students laptop or an adjacent desktop. phone chargers for android students will work on the pi. putting a pi in a case, in most cases, requires no tools (the rainbow case for example.) your real problem here is getting them a monitor.
tablets and cellphones are toys. you need to teach students how to get a library card. Modern american libraries have pools of computers you can use to complete job applications, school assigments, you name it. www.freeshell.org will give them network storage and a unix login, but i suspect that might be a little much for an english class (perfect if you want to teach unix though!)
Good people go to bed earlier.
" I assign papers that must be typed, I have papers turned in online, and I plan to freely refer to texts, videos, and other resources that are available online."
Typed could be done with a typewriter. The onus is on YOU to scan if you need electrons. While it certainly is harder, having to think before typing can provide the student with some benefits as well!
Provide pointers to offline texts that should suffice (books, libraries, etc. still exist).
Videos and other resources can be viewed, when they have access at school, library, or tablet (Amazon is rumored to have a $50 one in the wings).
Since you aren't teaching at an elite private school, make sure that you aren't depriving your students of the chance to learn!
Not too long ago it used to be possible to send hand-written manuscripts to publishers. Admittedly, these times are mostly gone, but for classes handwriting still should be good enough. Unless you're too lazy to correct handwritten assignments or confuse writing skills with nice formatting.
Seattle? Republicans? Surely you are being sarcastic...
Democrats hold total control of Seattle politics...
Will take some doing but it can be done, you give them a dumb screen with enough of a processor to connect to a central box that you manage. Assuming they have internet access. I once looked into it but got side tracked but there is plenty of on-line know how for the do it yourselfer or you can pay some one to set it for you and learn by watching. You could even do an ask slashdot on *that*. If you need portable, which I am guessing your internet solution will drive you to, this wont be much of an option though.
The best thing out there, designed specifically to address your concern, is the XO laptop by the laptop.org people for their "One Laptop Per Child" campaign: http://laptop.org/en/
Their price is $35 per unit, and they take significant cuts (and some creative solutions to be sure) to get there. They're not exactly readily available, particularly for US schools, but it may be worth talking to them. It's possible these would be enough for you, if you could get hold of them, but I'd consider them pretty under-powered for an applicable middle-school or higher education where there are other options.
The XO is a good data point for what you sacrifice going below the entry Chromebook or hp-11 style laptop, or even an android tablet with a keyboard. Also, it sets the bar at $35 so your hopeful target of $20 seems unlikely; the XO has been around for years and they probably can't go much lower, and you're not likely to get many people competing for this space, at least not for profit. The DIY kits (i.e. raspberry pi) you've already addressed and those are even more expensive. The idea of hooking to an existing TV (with an Android Stick) may have merit, but there's still the price of a mouse, keyboard, and a capable TV in the first place, so the real price is higher.
Anyway, I think you're going to be hard pressed to find better solutions. It's a noble goal, but the industry just isn't there yet, despite good examples of people trying. Hope this helps.
Actually there are a few options, especially if you already have a screen or TV.
Raspberry PI 2 starts at 50 USD - any power supply will do, and a basic keyboard and mouse are cheap.
Intel Atom based compute sticks with full Windows start at a similar price.
7" or 8" tablets are a bit more, but more useful, too. Some have HDMI.
Used laptops can be very cheap, especially the Windows XP generation.
Finally most kids have a phone? Old Androids start at about 50 USD.
Internet access may be a problem, under 100 USD a year you will not get much.
Having lived both sides of the Atlantic, all local libraries in the last decade have been loaded with people accessing the pool of online computers. Except one, but that was in the middle of a cookie-cutter pool home HOA land.
It's not about the hardware, that can be bought pre-owned for next to nothing, or even scrounged. It's the ISP costs that prevent the poor from being online.
I would be willing to bet you could get some laptops donated to the school or the students. If they just needed to type it would not be difficult at all. If you live in an area with many different school districts ( Probably 30 in a 50 mile radius of me) you can reach out to them and see if they have any eol systems they can donate to the school. You would be surprised at the refresh rate of some of the schools with more money to spend. Especially if they are like NY schools with a use it or loose it mentality. But your big issue is after they get a computer who is going to supply the cost of internet service to them?
I believe the best option out there currently would be a raspberry pi 2 (4 USB ports, faster processor, and still relatively inexpensive). It's easily serviced, stupidly simple to get set up, and finally easily unhooked and carried with the student. Any issues encountered can be resolved by re-flashing the SD card. Just make sure your students use a USB thumb drive for file storage. Unfortunately you are off in your cost estimate. You cannot assume that a monitor or television will be present in your student's home. Just the pi, mouse, keyboard, power supply, case, and SD card can run $70. A monitor can run $100 easily on average. Bulk USB thumb drives can be had for as little as $5.
Assuming a $170 cost at the US minimum wage of $7.25 you're looking at 23.44 hours to earn the money needed (3 days pay). That's an expense you cannot shift to your students because you want to get papers typed. Lets face it, this is your requirement. Knowledge transfer is just as applicable via hand writing as the typed word. As you stated internet access is a whole separate issue that you are not addressing.
In today's day and age $170 is really the bare minimum for what can be termed a PC. You can always keep an eye on Woot or Meh for tablets. Meh has a sale on a 9" android tablet for $33 + s&h. This would be without a physical keyboard though.
Your best bet here would be to round up to $200 per student, contact your local cable provider and find out the details on their low income internet program. Comcast has something like this in my area. Slow internet, but it is internet. Then apply for a grant to cover the expense.
Coffee: The lifeblood of intelligence in civilization.
I would set up a kickstarter / gofundme campaign, and buy the parts for the students to build the computers in class for a learning experience that will give them the technological know how. If these students are special needs, then use the money to buy the computers for the classroom.
Really? How about you take your racist CONservative spew elsewhere. Your kind isn't welcome here. Those CONservatives hate education and think only the rich have the right to learn. They're working so hard to close all public schools and libraries. They're trying to not allow us to read. Just today here in Seattle our Republican rulers have shutdown the schools. They have shut them down. Shut them down. Republicans hate children and are using their money to make sure students are not allowed to learn. Not allowed.
Don't many libraries have computers available for general use? Just get the librarian to kick off the porn-users.
Would something like this work?
http://www.amazon.com/COLAPAD-...
You are an English teacher.
There is absolutely zero need to have everything typed as a matter of fact you are doing the kids a disservice here because they need to learn how to write legibly.
There is zero need to have the papers turned in online.
If they need to research online then they can and should use the library.
The English/Literature classes are classes where paper should still rule.
Find a wholesaler that sells old computers for $70 or less. Otherwise, you have to do what others stated and tell them to use pen and paper.
I assign papers that must be typed, I have papers turned in online, and I plan to freely refer to texts, videos, and other resources that are available online. This gives an extra disadvantage to students that may be from the poorer end of the strata, and also means extra inefficiency for me, as I have to make allowances for students who don't have a computer available at home.
In other words, you've build your entire course around the experience and resources of the middle class student and what is convenient for you. You are looking for a quick. cheap, feel-good, solution that ignores --- among other things --- the problem of Internet access for the poor and their lack of experience online.
I wonder if you'll be forced to suck it up and join the time-honored crap-fest of grant proposal writing.
There are various organizations that repurpose old computers. I think Free Geek is one: http://www.freegeek.org/ in Portland, The Kramden Institute (www.kramden.org) in NC is another. There is also One Laptop Per Child (one.laptop.org/). You could call the first two up and see if they have chapters in your area. There is also Interconnection.org (http://interconnection.org/about_us.php). They may know.
Nowadays it seems like having a computer almost requires internet access of some kind. Is that free in your area? If so, it's probably wifi which means your computer needs wifi access. If it's not free, then that's going to end up being a significant part of the cost.
Also, your post implies one needs hdmi out. Why? What's wrong with good old vga?
In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice they're different. (Yogi Berra & A. Einstein)
One decent option, for about $100 is to get an HP stream 7 (usually about $90 at Microsoft store), plus a $10 keyboard/case ; you get an Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, 32GB drive; not the best computer, but ... 7 inch screen may be a dealbreaker.
Also, 11 inch chromebooks (or windows 'netbooks' like the HP stream) are about $120 refurb
I have gotten over 100 computers from a computer recycler.
I put linux mint on them.
I give them to non-profits.
I give them to the Salvation Army after school study program.
I give some to a kid to fix that googles how to fix them.
I told him if he learns to fix computers, he will always have a way to make money.
It is amazing how many tons of working computers get ground up, because it cost to much to fix them.
Hi,
older thinkpads
actually older thinkpads core2duo 1,8ghz / T61 / 14,1" 1280x800 / 160gbyte / 2gbyte / intelgraphics NO NVIDIA = buggy but you dont know if
you can get these for down to 60 - 90â (1$ = 0,89â)
sometimes along with the docking station or even with a 15,4" / 1650x1080 TFT
Even considering it's age it's decent machine, the keyboard quality is unmatched.
Apply an unofficial SATA2 patch install a solidstate drive and you have a boost.
x86-netbooks
atoms, atoms and atoms, and celerons
not as powerfull as the thinkpads but they mostly have a decent battery life.
If the kids(boys) can live with it the pink ones are ultra
cheap (unwanted)
Example: compaq 311 & pavilion (hint!), samsung some crazy letter combination, dell, etc..
running win7 (sometimes only 32bit) no problem
The keyb, sucks often.
This text was typed on a win7-64bit machine 3gb / 128gbyte ssd with a celeron netbook processor (hp pavilion looks like compaq311 no nvidia ion) gotten for ~40â on ebay (cracked tft), decent keyb, superb battery life (7,5hrs. considering an 4 yr. old battery), hdmi, vga, SIM-slot and un2420 umts card.
Replaced the tft for 40â within 1,5 hrs. (the hardware maintainance manual is perfect for figuring out which tft to buy)
And I'm not poor but I'm very stingy!
arm-netbooks
A little less powerful than the x86-netbooks but better battery life, but only for the macguyver style kids.
example: eeepc
Hint:
decent & known manufactureres have mostly the more satisfying outcome than some strange chinese brand.
Refurbished 7" Android tablets are available fairly cheap. I did a quick search and on my first hit found one for $24. While it wouldn't be as convenient as a laptop, it should be able to do what you are looking for here. The student would have to look for free wi-fi hotspots and those are becoming more common with even fastfood places providing it.
There may be some local charities offering free used systems for students as well. We have some in Atlanta. I also know of some businesses refurbishing used laptops for sale. Those businesses might be able to offer some advice as they often deal with non-profits who received used equipment donations.
You could also look to the technology companies in your area and ask them for donations. Companies often look to donate older equipment instead of paying for disposal costs. A lot of this equipment is still quite good.
https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...
Failing that, why not "ubid.com?" after all, their TV commercials claim you can buy a Macbook there for twenty bucks!
Then, when you can't, sue them for false advertising, and use your windfall to purchase all the kids some laptops.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Microcenter has these for $60, $80 on Amazon. Quad core Bay Trail with built-in display, full Windows 8, Office 365 for a year, microSD slot and microHDMI out. Don't like Win8? Nuke it and put a Linux distro on there. It won't get much easier or cheaper than that from a practical perspective.
any middle class family without a laptop computer in this day in age is choosing not to have one, if that is because the old man is loosing a lot at the track then that is a different story all together, but I have seen programs where you can get them for free.
Ask a local company that has a lot of old workstations, chances are there is a CEO looking for a warm fuzzy after outsourcing all of his companies projects to India and he will have many to choose from.
I'd love to see something for $20 that any student could afford easily, or perhaps I could just gift to a few students.
$20 is simply not realistic for new gear.
1) The very cheapest Chromebooks are also in the $170 range.
$170 will get you an HP Stream 11.6 with a celeron, 2GB ram, 32GB SSD and windows 10. Better than chromebook I think. And I see $140-$150 for a chromebook. At least in the US on amazon.
2) Android Sticks have been around for a while, and do cost in the $20 range, but don't seem to have matured into a generally usable technology. Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be a community effort to easily turn these Android sticks into Ubuntu/Mint sticks.
And they'd need peripherals.
3) Students can't be assumed to have the technical know-how to fix up a Salvation Army computer (I wouldn't mind helping out a bit, but I don't want to turn into tech support)
Which would be inevitable.
4) A Raspberry Pi costs $70 once you include a case/power supply/etc, and students would receive a big bag of parts.
Does that 'etc' even get them a screen? Are peripherals free?
5) Cheap Windows Tablets have glitches, and don't have an HDMI out.
They need HDMI out? To connect them to what exactly? They don't have $140 for a chromebook, but they have $100+ HDMI monitors, and $30 bluetooth keyboards?
6) There isn't a good solution to using a cell phone as a desktop computer.
Because current cell phone OSes aren't desktop OSes; and again the peripherals would cost you more than small laptop/chromebook anyway.
In all seriousness. While a salvation army special might be too much work. Lots of 2-6 year old low-end laptops on ebay/craigslist are in the $30-$100 range. Or you could hit your local used laptop store and try and strike up a partnership; they might be willing to donate some of their oldest / least valuable stock or sell it for a song in exchange for some goodwill, advertising space in the school newsletter, sponsorship, referals etc.
That's the route I'd try first.
You might be able to scrounge up some donated hardware simply by sending a news letter home asking if anyone has any old laptops, or soliciting local businesses for same... for units that work that aren't in use they'd be willing to donate. Hell I dumped some shitty sony vaio's with 1GB ram, Vista, etc just the other day off at a recyler. I wouldn't make my own kids use them, but if someone threw Mint on them, and they'd be adequate to use use google docs to write some essays.
These are the only ways you are going to get anywhere near your price target.
$100 for 2012 Samsung chromebook (used)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B009LL9VDG/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used
plenty of $120-$150 used options as well
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=chromebook
Also, may be able to find off lease computers cheap enough. If you (and/or your students) are willing to do a little leg work, might be able to find a local company willing to donate and/or sell their used computers for cheap enough as well. I'd stay away from larger corporations/banks/hospitals/etc., they typically have strict standards on returning equipment through vendors for data security problems.
It's a difficult issue, and as someone pointed out, if they can't afford a computer, then internet access isn't likely to be there either. Sure, starbucks, mcdonalds, libraries, etc. offer wifi, but it does add a layer of difficult. And makes a laptop an absolute necessity. Then again, if you can't afford a computer or internet, then difficult is probably the norm.
Hats off to you though. It may be work taking this a step further, as your students are likely not the only ones who are in the boat, and being without a computer puts you well behind the curve. With a bit of work you could drum up interest from the school system and/or local businesses to create a program to make sure students who can't afford computers receive one.
Also, I wouldn't worry too much on hdmi output. It'd work best if there is any kind of output, but as long as you have usb or display port, adapters are available.
If they have a TV, then all they need is this: Rasberry PI. $30
USB Keyboard $1
USB Mouse $1
SD Card $1
Micro USB Cell phone charger $5
You have a fully functional Linux desktop computer.
Sure you can spend more and get a better computer, but this one will get it done on the cheap.
I would suggest looking at CHIP. It's a single board computer with built in Wi-Fi and a 1GHz ARM chip for $9. You'll need to add a keyboard. It supports composite video out on the board, so depending on what they need to do that should be enough. The Internet resources are going to be the killer though. Not everyone has access at home. Does the school provide free wifi access? If so, I'd recommend getting references / videos in a form that are easy to download and let students use them offline.
If the computer is working at all, the following tricks might make it like-new:
Open it up and vacuum out the dust. Dust accumulates, especially in the CPU heatsinks, over years, causing them to overheat. For a long time the CPUs have had circuitry that slows the clock to reduce the heat - and thus slows the machine way down, which may be why it was finally abandoned. Suck out the dust and the CPU will be back to its full speed.
Replacing the BIOS backup battery is good, too, as it may be nearing end-of-life - especially as the machine sat on the shelf waiting for a new home. Also: A little time with the battery out may clear out oddball BIOS settings in older BIOS chips that are battery-backed-RAM, rather than flash, based.
If the keyboard is dirty or a little flakey, try washing it with clean (better yet, distilled) water and drying it thoroughly. As long as you don't power it while it's still moist, and don't use hot water or the heated drying cycle in a dishwaher, you won't corrode anything.
Then installing Linux from a live disk, with the use-full-disk options, will clean out any malware and give them a modern, supported, OS with a good and easy to use word processor (Open Office) for free.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
They can be had at Walmart for ~$180:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-1...
Microsoft Office 365 is on these for a year or students can use the free Google office apps. Students that don't have Internet at home can go to a public library after school or on weekends or visit a McDonalds, Starbucks or other place where free Internet is available. Generally, one does not need to buy anything to use the free internet in those places. Depending on where you live and your local ISP providers (Comcast), if income is below a certain level, adequate Internet can be had for $10 per month.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Do You seriously expect these kids to copy their assignments to flash drives and bring them in to You?
If they were competent with technology, they would use a BT keyboard with their smart phone plugged into their LCD TV, or they would use a Microsoft keyboard plugged into their XBox.
Try ebay. Go to ebay or another similar site and search for cheap used desktops. I don't know about 20 dollar overall, but 20 USD for a computer and another 20 for shipping will give you your cheapest computer....
You can't handle the truth.
At the end of the day, you can't demand parents buy computers or can provide access.
Unless there was a stipulation that the kids have it, you might be stuck.
So, maybe we can rephrase the question: I'm a complete prat who is going to insist my students have access to computers even if they don't now, what's the best way to do this?
Maybe you need to be having this discussion with your principal and/or school board. You simply decreeing students get computers might not actually mean anything other than you want it to be the case, and no matter how good your intentions are it might not be possible.
People living hand to mouth don't need some teacher telling them they need to buy a damned computer.
This whole question smacks of someone who is a little clueless and out of touch with reality due to not enough real experience.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I've been repeatedly assured that we are now irrevocably in the post-scarcity digital manufacturing world. Can't this school just, like, download new computers and stuff?
In my city, we have a community group that takes hand-me-down computers from corporate and government sources, refurbishes them, then makes them available to schools, other community groups and needing individuals. For example, their computers are in the local senior drop in centres, boys and girls club, and I know a few families who've taken computers home.
Perhaps your city has a similar organization.
Check with local businesses for there EOL procedure on functional laptops. They may be willing to donate after pulling the hard drive. A small replacement hard drive should be pretty reasonably priced.
Ask for donations. I personally have several old PCs stashed in the basement and if anyone ever asked for one, I'd be more than happy to unload one. Granted they might be a little on the slower side, but better than nothing.
You want a working computer for less than a $170 Chrome book? Well sure, who doesn't. But, no such thing exists. Seriously WTF kind of Ask Slashdot is this?
a monitor alone will set you back $100
Go on Amazon.com and type computer. there is your answer.
I know I shouldn't feed the trolls but this is an excellent ask slashdot. And if you have to pay $100 for a monitor then you are not thinking very hard.
17 inch CRT monitors can be gotten for LESS than free. Most places now charge a disposal fee for them. And that's even assuming you need a
monitor as even most poor students have access to a TV and as the OP stated, he wasn't opposed to a solution that allowed a keyboard to connect
to the smartphone the kids likely already have.
You can get 1.5 Mbps broadband from comcast or centurytel for $10/month.
https://apply.internetessentia... http://www.centurylink.com/hom...
The 10.00 per month is meaningless to a family who is in poverty. "It's only 10.00" sounds really good when you are not in poverty. I came from poverty so know what it's like not to be able to eat because I had a bill to pay.
Perhaps you are volunteering to pay some of those 10.00/month fees for families and I just misunderstand, but you can call me a skeptic.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
But the story gets more complicated -- what do they want to do:
A) Chemistry, Engineering, Physics -- Get a laptop with a GPU (at said pawnshop, I got an older i5 Dell with an entry level Quadro for 129). 3D FTW!
B) Video production - Uh. Biggest desktop beast (Sandy Bridge or better), SSD, 2 monitors and an iPad. No shortcuts. Nothing scales like video.
C) Music - Make sure it has firewire. I know it's passé, but you can get stupidly capable mixing boards and UI stuff with firewire interfaces. USB doesn't rate.
D) Others - Something with a nice keyboard, and as much resolution as you can get (if your eyes are good, you'll want the space).
E) And make sure the platform has the right software for what you want to do...
a) Graphics/Video - Mac FTW. PC has some, but not much (Final Cut, AVID, etc)
b) Engineering - Windows. Sorry, nothing competes with Solidworks.
c) IT/CompSci - Linux FTW. Get enough ram for windows VMs... Maybe use windows as the base OS if you're doing cad work, and have Linux VMs.
Too bad I'm interested in all of the above...
In our school district, it's all Apple stuff -- iPads for students, and a lot of Apple hardware in the libraries and so on. I'm guessing Apple has a pretty steep educational discount, as our district isn't particularly wealthy (we aren't particularly poor, either). The vendor is kind of a secondary consideration to the curriculum, though -- and the teachers and staff integrated the Apple stuff into the curriculum so they are using the same applications across the district, so instruction is consistent and any bugs only have to be worked out once. From the IT side it's also vastly easier to have one vendor to deal with, and they can keep spare equipment around so when the inevitable happens and an iPad or iMac meets the floor somehow, they can reimage and replace it quickly. They also have school email accounts for students and staff which are managed in one place, and also sidestep a lot of nonsense with undeliverable mail, full mailboxes, usernames, etc. Since they control the infrastructure they can really do a lot of automation and also lock down the machines so the kids aren't playing Minecraft all day when they should be learning. The teachers can also blank every screen with the touch of a button to control distractions.
Compare that to a ragtag collection of Chromebooks, Windows PCs, Linux, Macs and whatever else may be dragged into the classroom. You get dragged down by anything and everything. Some kids set up a Minecraft game. Someone else is on WhatsApp all the time. Someone's craptacular Salvation Army PC wets the bed, losing all the data. Someone's email gets hacked.
Oh, and then there's the privacy concerns ... keep in mind these kids are not adults, and their parents may have different ideas than you about their access to the Internet, watching videos and so on. And/or having their own email address that's outside of school control and oversight.
Then the teacher down the hall decides they want to do something that doesn't line up with what you are doing, and there's a new set of applications and websites for the parents to get peeved over.
Also, I'm not an Apple fanboy. You could do the above with Windows, Linux or Chromebooks. The key is that the district picks one thing and then you build around that one thing. Same reason businesses, colleges and so on pick one thing and try to stick to that as much as possible to keep administration sane.
1. Reorganize the class so that using a computer offers no substantial advantage. Require that students reference printed resources (which students must produce on demand of the instructor) and require that all papers be handwritten.
2. Require all students complete computer work using some common set of shared resources, e.g., a school computer lab. Enforce this using some combination of class time, academic honesty policy, and technological solutions (e.g., regular "study hall" sessions in a locked-down computer lab running custom software).
3. Get the underprivileged students some decent equipment to help put them on level footing. You cannot expect them to buy it themselves. Either get the school to pay for it, find somebody to donate it, or buy them what they need yourself. That includes Internet connectivity. If you can't afford to buy it for your students, what makes you think they can afford to buy it for you?
A working Palm m105 can be had for $25-35. "Typed" student papers (Graffiti'd in) could be transferred to your computer by IrDA or a serial cradle. If you're willing to reformat electronic readings to ePub format, readings can be transferred to students the same way. "Notes" up to 4kB hold about a page and a half of single spaced text. Small but readable screen, free applications that raise the limit on the editor to 32kB (about 12 pages single spaced). A pair of batteries lasts 1-2 weeks; using the IrDA is the big current suck, so use a serial cradle for everything. The "supercaps" in the m100 series don't hold a charge while switching batteries, so the device resets. "Hotsync" to a PC before & after battery swap makes that irrelevant. For those who must keyboard, an attachable full-size keyboard that folds up to pocket size is another $35.
You can get a POS tablet for $50. Not fast, but will work. Make sure it has Bluetooth, because you need to add a Bluetooth keyboard.
But I prefer a windows-style interface (you can look up something, copy/paste and do that intuitively vs "switching apps" all the time).
you can buy a used laptop on ebay for under $40 or so, put Ubuntu on it and it should work fine. I have done that for my kids to play with it and it's worked fine. they usually don't have good battery and need to be plugged in, buy one with a hard-drive, if not you may have to put one in and that may cost extra. most of them should work fine with Ubuntu 11 or 12.04. should be enough to go online and write papers.
Monitor - $100.
Raspberry PI 2 - $35.
keyboard - $20.
mouse - $10.
Add USB recharger - $10.
Extra Micro SanDisk - about $12.
The Pi + case + USB power can run about $50. But the case can be made from lego blocks for a lot less.
I don't think "middle-class" means what you think it does. If some of your students can't afford computers or internet, in this day and age that's very definitely lower-class.
The only DIY paper computer! Turing complete*
*with an infinite strip of paper, not included
Try it! Library of Babel
Exactly this. Rethink your curriculum.
"I assign papers that must be typed, I have papers turned in online, and I plan to freely refer to texts, videos, and other resources that are available online."
Don't do this. Don't force them to type, don't force them to turn in online, don't refer to text, videos, or other online resources, unless you also offer library resources that allow them to reference the materials without buying a computer and paying for internet connectivity.
"This gives an extra disadvantage to students that may be from the poorer end of the strata, and also means extra inefficiency for me, as I have to make allowances for students who don't have a computer available at home."
Yes. So cut it out. You are unnecessarily disadvantaging them for your own convenience.
P.S.: If someone is using a computer with a spelling and grammar correction capability, how will you catch students with learning disabilities so that they can get help sooner rather than later? How are you going to detect copy and paste plagiarism, if it's possible to copy and paste?
There is probably a computer club at school, and there is most likely a dedicated IT staff. Talk to them. Our local school sold a bunch of old PCs last year for real deal ($30 for desktops, and $50 for a few servers IIRC). Home computers are used/required by most classes anymore; make this an issue that the school addresses. Look into setting up a program where old school computers are leased/loaned/sold/given to low income families.
Alternatively, you could go down to the local recycling center and look into getting old electronics. People recycle old, still working electronics just because they bought new stuff. If there is a college nearby, check the curbs on recycling day near the end of the semester. I have a friend that did this for years (until he moved). You could also run an ad in the local paper asking for old computers to be donated to the school (You'll probably need permission/help from administration for this).
I have a Toshiba Satellite A45-S250 (built in 2004, Intel P4, 1GB of RAM) that is still usable for most everything I need a laptop for. I was able to get it for free and loaded Gentoo with XFCE on it.
Really, the cheaper the option the more work is going to be required, but it can easily be close to $0 for the hardware.
There in no religion higher than truth.
If you have to require computers, help your students look for used laptops. They can be had very cheaply, especially if the battery is dead and the hard disk is damaged. Doesn't matter: Use a live Linux distribution on a USB stick. The bigger challenge is getting them internet access.
There are some on Amazon in the $40 price range.
Does anybody in the class not have a smartphone, podthing or tablet? Maybe teaching based on a mobile device is a good idea?
But in general, if you don't want to be further disadvantaging kids who don't have access to computers, you should probably rethink your entire strategy of basing all coursework around them. The school district I live in got around this issue by issuing all students their own loaner chromebooks for the year at no extra charge. That's one way to do it, but this also happens to be the wealthiest school district in my state.
Even students without traditional computers at home likely have very servicable smart phones in their pockets. Fairly capable smartphones are available at very low prices or free with contract. There's even the so-called "Obama Phones" (cheap phones and cell service offered to various government assistance recipients) that some students may have.
With that in mind think about how you can get them to use those devices they already have to not only access resources but do their homework. Do some research to find out some cheap or free apps that can do the sorts of tasks you need done for your class. For instance a good PDF reader for books and documents and an editing app/suite for writing assignments. Google Docs and Microsoft Office are both readily available for Android and iOS, you could provide some instructions for writing papers and sending them through those services. You can even do document sharing so you can collaborate with them on assignments. Don't limit that concept to the phone-only students. Online collaboration can be a useful skill for them to learn and it gives you as the teacher an ability to correct or advise their work in real time.
There's a lot of cheap Bluetooth keyboards that work very well with Android and iOS. You can recommend (or provide) some for students lacking traditional PCs at home so they can type up long form assignments. Additionally give your phone-only students some idea of places that might have free WiFi (libraries) so they can access higher bandwidth content.
Between students with traditional PCs and only smartphones you're probably going to get 99% of your students. For those handful without either a PC or smartphone there's computers at the public library, school library, or even your classroom. You can always accept handwritten papers and abuse the school's printers to get a few dead tree copies of online documents.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Unless you are going to provide the computers and the home internet connection, you shouldn't be the one requiring this level of commitment from your students. You are the one that needs to make reasonable accommodations for the students who don't have ready access to computers or the internet.
(prices as of time of typing)
So, if you want to buy a whole kit, there's this for $59: http://www.microcenter.com/product/445116/Raspberry_Pi_2_Model_B_Starter_Kit
Alternately, you can price it as separate components:
The Pi 2 Model B $29: http://www.microcenter.com/product/447313/Raspberry_Pi_2_Model_B
A case for $4: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Cover-Raspberry-Model-Access/dp/B00ZF22D44
A power cord for $7 (probably way cheaper if you look around): http://www.microcenter.com/product/441258/iEssentials_2Amp_Dedicated_Micro_USB_Wall_Charger
An 8GB Micro SD card with NOOBS pre-loaded for $8: http://www.microcenter.com/product/448852/NOOBS_Operating_System_-_8GB_MicroSD
Or, if you want to save some money, this slightly slower one with no OS installed from Amazon at less than $2: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Kingston-MicroSDHC-formatting-Certified/dp/9985036182
Some heat sinks (recommended) for $3: http://www.amazon.com/Aluminum-Heatsink-Cooler-Cooling-Raspberry/dp/B00ZCD5AGY
And there are a wealth of USB WIFI adapters that work with the Pi, for less than $5 with free shipping on Amazon.
So, with those prices (which I'm SURE can be beat if you're willing to dig more, this was less than 5 minutes of research), you're looking at $56 (or less) for a Raspberry Pi 2, with all the fixings. The kids don't have to get a box of parts - if you're going this far overboard on trying to help them get a cheap computer, the 10 minutes it'd take to put the heatsinks on, and put the Pi in its case is trivial. Suck it up. The longest portion of time would be flashing an OS to the SD card if you go the cheap route on those, which you ALSO should be in "suck it up" mode over, if you're going to make this something you seriously want to do for your kids.
If you want cheaper than that, you're fooling yourself that you're ever going to find it, and should just give up now. A fully functioning PC for $56 is BEYOND impressive in the current market.
Thing is, they still have to display it somewhere, and have input devices. You can get the keyboard/mouse from any thrift shop for pennies, and you could probably find a monitor too. Then you have to worry about internet access, because what's the point otherwise? At that point, if your students would have trouble affording a $56 PC, you're screwed anyway. Their only option is going to be a PC at the public library.
If you have students for whom $50 is a seriously unbearable tax upon the family, the REAL problem you're dealing with is the requirement you're putting on them to submit things online, and requiring all papers to be typed. You're approaching poverty with a suburban mindset, and that will never work. If they're SO broke that $50 is asking too much, you have absolutely NO right to tell them they can't submit hand written papers.
Since this is English; just assign whatever assignment and be done with it.
1) Does the school have a computer / internet lab? If yes, tell them to use that.
2) Does the school have a library (bonus if they have a computer/internet there)? If yes, tell them to use that.
3) Does the town not have a library (bonus if they have a computer/internet there - most I've seen do have a computer with internet access)? If no, move to another town; that town is dying.
I grew up and went to high school before the internet made everything a yahoo/google search away. I don't know what English assignment would require you to have internet or the assignment cannot be done. A local library mostly solves all assignments I had in high school and it still should. The matter of fact is that you are pandering to their laziness.
Yes, people with internet at home will have an easier time and people that don't will have a harder time. This is just a small inconvenience and not Mission Impossible. Rich people will always have an advantage over poor people; but nothing that you're assigning could be impossible.
Talk to local companies, especially ones that are giving back to the community. There may be a few that are willing to donate old laptops that IT no longer supports, and these laptops will be good enough for your described usage.
If you posted this same thing on your FB page and asked friends or family to donate old tech, I'd bet you'd have way more than you could handle. Then aske others, if they don't have hardware, to donate a Saturday. Sit down with the few dozen machines and reflash them with a basic Ubuntu (or similar) OS and some freeware that will meet their needs.
A good Bluetooth keyboard and mouse can be had for the $35 target price. Pair this with a smartphone with Bluetooth (Something just about everybody has) and you have a device that the student can write papers on, save and email to the instructor, and even handle (depending on OS version) Spreadsheets, small databases, and video.
Go to the source (China)
7" Android tablet ($25.73)
http://www.aliexpress.com/item...
Tablet case with built in keyboard ($4.97)
http://www.aliexpress.com/item...
Under $35 and they are usable, my wife and daughter have used them a lot. ;)
I have several around the house used for general browsing, remote controls for the Kodi systems, and e-book readers.
An HP Stream 8 can use the T-Mobile free 200Mb/month data. Although a low limit, it is enough for some light web access (email, accessing documents, some web searches).
$60 gets you 1 GB of RAM, Win 8.1, with HDMI and USB host ports! Even comes with a year of Office valid on 2 devices.
I'm using a 2 GB version (around $120 upgraded to Win10) and enjoy it a lot.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/439773/TW700_Tablet_-_Black
Why can't the students simply go to a public library and use the computers there? Or go to a friend's house and use their computer?
Typewriters are pretty cheap on eBay these days too.
If you're dealing with families for whom $70 for a RPi2 kit is going to break the bank, they aren't going to have the money to sit at some place with public WIFI all day, they aren't going to have internet at home, and chances are the parents are going to be too busy WORKING to take their kids to the public library for HOURS at a time.
You're handling poverty with the mind set of a middle class, suburbanite, who's never had to say they truly can't afford something.
You're not teaching programming, you're not teaching ANYTHING that requires a computer. If you're so concerned about the financial burden on these families that you're asking Slashdot, you should toss this whole exercise, and accept that the correct answer is to LET THEM HAND WRITE THEIR PAPERS AND HOMEWORK. No buts. No, stop. Nope. I can hear you trying to object from your position of whatever privilege affords you the ability to ignore the basics of this. Let. Them. Use. Pen. And. Paper.
If you can't accept that, you've no business continuing to attempt to mold the minds of the youth, without some SERIOUS soul searching. If you can't get over your artificial reliance on technology after that, you should stick to your primary career, or change to a more affluent school district.
Until all your students have computers, don't assign homework requiring one. It is economic bias to do so as you point out yourself.
What is the subject matter you are teaching? Writing is a lost art. Encourage it. Computer programming, well that's a different matter.
Get your school to issue inexpensive computers to all students. Next time salary negotiations come around remember the students materials come from the same pot. And it is only what the public grants. Your raise often comes at the expense of school programs in athletics and the arts. So be reasonable. We just registered one of ours for high school football and it cost over $250 in fees, plus an expectation of prostituting ourselves selling items for the booster club as well, and a general sports participation fee covering the year. When I played no athletic fees, coaches were paid by the schools funds, and ticket sales balanced out the rest. (Actually swimming and football brought in enough to fund the other sports
basic needs, but the coaches were paid by the school) Our "computer lab" of course consisted of old Wang programable calculators. But was paid for by the school.
Get your school active, have a fundraiser, ask the B&M Gates Foundation for a grant, ask Apple for a grant. Ask them all for grants. But don't wimp out. And until it happens accept hand written papers.
You're a teacher, and you don't know enough to use "give" as a verb and "gift" as a noun.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Find a local auction warehouse and see what they have. (you can ask your local police where they auction their seized goods). It isn't a sure thing, but if you hit it right you can get bulk buys of machines for less than $20 per (usually with all the peripherals included). If its a police seized goods auction they can be brand new (they usually go for more) but a failed startup auction can sometimes net decent machines for near nothing.
I think that is probably the only way to get something around $20 and have it be mostly functional out of the box.
Go refurb. Many old but adaquate name brand PCs are less than $100.
The best thing out there, designed specifically to address your concern, is the XO laptop by the laptop.org people for their "One Laptop Per Child" campaign
The XO laptop is molded in the day-go colors and toy-like shapes that appeals to very young kids. The third-world education minister that was XO's prime market knew from the beginning that it wasn't a product for the middle school and beyond.
First: if you (the school system) are not providing them with the hardware and access on which they can type these papers, you have no business *requiring* them to use a computer to type their papers. Pen and paper are perfectly all right, so is old-fashioned typewriter, even if you "encourage" computerized papers and online submission.
Second: if these kids cannot afford $170 for a cheapie laptop, they are *NOT* middle class.
We're at the point now of retiring 2008-era Core2Duo PCs, and plan to make these (and some Atom netbooks. Ugh what a bad purchasing decision that was) available for free to staff & students that want something for basic word processing and web access needs. Most will go out with Vista Business, which won't hit end-of-life til Spring 2017. All they'll need to get for themselves elsewhere is a monitor.
So hit up your IT people and see what they have.
you fail & are a terrible teacher, please quit and stop drawing a publicly funded salary.
Seriously, when I was in grade school and assigned reports that required research, the school didn't twist itself into knots trying to figure out how to get me an affordable set of encyclopedias or other reference material. I went to the damned library and did the research.
It's my understanding that schools today have internet-connected computer labs and/or public computers in their libraries, so this question is moot.
I have and use daily a TW700 Winbook sold through Microcenter mainly, 3rd party sales on amazon and ebay...
$60.00 new.. I use mine connected via HDMI to 40" LCD and BT mouse/keyboard.. Full size USB port allows easy expansion, 1280x768 screen, supports more for external.. Super power efficient(3-5 Watt running most of the time)...
Limitation is 16gb, wimboot. ie: Not enough room for full Windows updates. TW802 is larger overall but more expensive... Runs windows 10 but wouldn't recommend that.. Anyone who rents MS Office deserves less money...
You can get them cheap - often free from a friend. That was my daughter's first "computer". There are text editing software, spreadsheets, and the like available and you can watch videos as well. REMEMBER - YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE A PHONE SERVICE TO USE THESE, JUST WI-FI ACCESS...
Pay attention for god sake. From TFS, he knows how to do it for $170, but that is too much. So you know it has to be significantly below that figure.
Oh shut up. What do you suggest? Windows? OS X? Do you think he can afford to "teach" those?
Consider the option very seriously of not placing your efficiency or convenience as such a high priority that you are willing to continue placing more contrived obstacles in the path of less advantaged students. It is already enough that you are demanding of 10 to 15% of your students extra time and energy just to be able to turn in their assignments.
Feel free to utilize the already existing venue and technology available to them specifically to equalize their advantages. It is called your classroom.
A cheap computer will not help, instead it will hinder. It will require even more effort on their part to learn how to effectively utilize an unpolished stopgap half-measure at any price point, which will delay them from even getting around to beginning to take advantage of your online references.
Throwing up your hands and declaring, "Well, I tried", is not a substitute for applying time management skills to your problem. However continuing to pursue a cheap fix will consume your time as well, and the end result will be exactly that. Consider investing that time instead on planning and organization.
By far the best option for this scenario is finding a machine owned by somebody else to use. Libraries have computers for public use, there are likely computer labs at the school that are free periodically, and students definitely have friends or relatives with computers. Work with other teachers and the IT department to come up with a solution - if everybody in the school took one evening a month to monitor a computer lab and allow students to continue working, the problem/excuse goes away. If you can't get traction in the school overall, get a desk and put one or two Goodwill computers in your room for students to use before/after school or during lunch.
Fundamentally the "I don't have a computer" problem is an excuse - I guarantee your students have Facebook, when they want to get connected they find a way.
I have an android quad core stick PC ($40). I have Office Pro on it, and remote printing is set up. I have a mouse, a keyboard and an external HD connected via USB. It all works great. Not sure exactly what you are looking for, but my kids can do their homework on the stick.
Also, do the kids without PCs have phones? Everything on my stick PC can (and does) run on my android phone.
Of course, this all assumes they have an internet connection...
I used one to run a web server until I broke it while trying to do crazy stuff like get a kernel running with selinux. So it was my own fault it died. It's actually really easy to get them over to Linux. There's a distro dedicated to it called Picuntu. If you do a bit of googling flashing these things isn't nearly as hard as it was a few years ago when i was playing with them. They would still need a monitor, but if they have a modern TV they can just use the HDMI port there. Mine came with an adapter. Since it's an ubuntu based distro you could always show them how aircrack works if they need wifi...i mean talk to the parents about getting some of those crazy lolcat filled tubes called the interwebz.
If they don't have computers at home, do they have internet connectivity? Otherwise it isn't very useful if you want them to be able to look stuff up online, send in papers, etc. Could you refer them to go use a local college library (which often have longer open hours than a K-12 school) where they could get online?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
http://deals.n1wireless.com/un... for $60
add a mouse and keyboard ($10, maybe $15 if you're lucky) or go second hand.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Raspberry Pi : $30-$35
Memory Card: $8.00 for 4GB Card [on the high side of prices]
Storage: $8.00 - for a USB stick [on the high side of prices]
Power Supply: $8.00 - Typically a bundle that includes USB cable and USB charger @ 1.1A
Case: $8.00
Screen: "FREE" - go to the recycling center, and get an OLD crt
Keyboard: $15.00 - typically the most expensive component
Mouse: $10.00 - the next expensive component
I'm sure the school might be able to do a "group buy" and get a few hundred of these components for cheap?
Part of Comcast's deals with the fcc requires them to supply cheep internet and computers to low income households. https://www.internetessentials.com/
Why not buy used laptops? If a Chromebook is sufficient for your work , any laptop from the last 5 years will also be sufficient.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html...
There's a few hundred under 20$ right there on eBay. Put in some work , install Xubuntu/Ubuntu-MATE and Libreoffice and you're good to go. Go to any large local corporation and ask if they will donate depreciated laptops. When corporations depreciate , they will give away their machines for free. Since you only need about 10 or so machines, this should not be a problem.
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
http://www.heliosinitiative.or... is not quite the same thing, but if you're the type who does homework, you might find interesting stuff.
Is it really possible that you cannot equalize all your students by the simple expedient of insisting they turn in all their work written by hand with a pen or pencil on paper?
Approximate cost, almost zero.
Cheap.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I live in Salem Oregon and we have a recycle center that refurbishes old laptops and other computer gear.
http://www.garten.org/services/admin/oregon/C72/
If you could find a place like that locally you might be in luck. I have seen piles of Thinkpads with core 2 duos there for $20 a piece. The guy that runs the storefront told me they end up recycling a lot of the usable gear because people don 't buy it. I think they may have an ebay store front as well. If you don't have something like this locally you may contact them, tell them your situation and see what they could do for you.
Here in New Mexico where we have some of the poorest counties in the whole US, out GNU/Linux Users Group regularly receives donated laptops and desktops from local businesses and people upgrading their systems that we then refurbish with a Debian install and show kids how to work around the limitations of classroom mandated Windows reliance.
I'd say look up whomever is running the GLUG in your local area.
He must be teaching in a urban or suburban area. The expectation of submitting online would not work were my daughter and grandchildren live. Simply because they don"t have internet access to their house in the rural area they live in. They were told they can receive internet if they were willing to pay $5000 up front for the line to be run to their house on top of the monthly fee after that. So for those living in a urban area your tax to build out the internet in rural areas is not working. By the way the rural area is within 25 miles of downtown Indianapolis not 200 miles from the middle of nowhere Nevada. And I'll bet anyone Shakespeare did not write Hamlet on a computer.
See if anyone is giving away computers or selling them cheap on there. Or Kijiji (but that's more popular in Canada than the US).
If you look around you can find a Proscan Android 4.4 tablet. My local grocery store is selling them for $49.00.
It's not a full-function computer - but it's close. Add in a cheap bluetooth keyboard and you've got more computing capability than I had in college.
Your $20 target might be impossible to reach.
Don't use a vacuum cleaner to clean the dust. The static will kill it. Source: a friend did, his computer is no more.
I'd would use the above combination. Assuming they already have a cell phone and data plan, google docs is essentially free and collaborative too, and they only thing they really need is a bluetooth keyboard, which can be had for $15 on amazon.
I get a lot of work done on vacations with this setup :(
If they don't have a computer, they probably don't have the internet connection they'll also need for your described work flow. In the end, the internet connection is going to cost more than the computer, even with your $170 option.
Of course, they could go use internet at the library, but then it needs to be portable (higher cost) and they already had an option to use a computer there so what are we actually solving.
I think trying to get below the price point of a raspberry pi isn't going to be worth the trouble. I think you can lower your price point on that if you try though.. Looking to price on up cheaply I get: pi 2b ($35), case ($4), wifi ($4), micro sdhc ($4), ac usb charger ($3), usb wire ($2), keyboard ($7), mouse ($2). ...for a grand total of: $61 dollars... OK, and I went with the cheapest available (mostly) so a prudent choice would likely cost a few dollars more.. That means that basically your estimate was right on! Doh! I guess I take for granted that I have almost all those cheap little parts already laying all over the place at our house..
Still, I think you can help them put the parts together, and it's probably your best bet.. Anything cheaper is going to quickly lose functionality/quality. A Pi is a really solid little machine for basic computing, and it's really well supported.
There's tons of cheap, decent laptops on eBay, not too old. Buyer has to know what they are doing, they all need a cleaning, and Linux would "have to do".
More grassroots, workplaces replace their laptops and usually toss very good used ones all the time. (Speaking from experience). Do some calling around and you may find yourself sitting on a stack of 100 of them very quickly.
I like the idea of phone as computer, everyone seems to shell out for phones and they are quite powerful. Peripheral-izing them could be costly tho.
Don't use a vacuum cleaner to clean the dust.
YES!
Take the computer outside, open the case, and use canned air to blow out the dust. When the can starts to get cold, do something else for a few minutes until it warms to ambient temperature (otherwise it will fizzle out before its time.)
Will
You can get a Win8.1 (probably Win10 by now) tablet for $99, OTG USB adapter for $5ish (assuming you can't find a cheap tablet with a USB A port), USB keyboard and USB mouse from goodwill for $5. If you're lucky, you can get a keyboard with a built in hub. If not, another $5 for a hub. So you're looking at $105-115.
However, that's going to be clunky with a tiny screen. A better bet would probably be to watch sites like Yugster and Woot for a netbook on sale. I got a refurbished Asus X205T for $130. It's small, it's light, it's got great battery life, they keyboard's nearly full size (like 95%), the screen is big enough to read. Another option would be to check those sites for refurbished machines. They often sell Core 2 Duo systems with Windows 7 (free upgrade to Win10) for $100-150. $25 for a monitor and keyboard from Goodwill and it's good to go. Neither option is good for gaming but that's not the goal here.
Honestly, you're not going to find much cheaper than that. Even a Goodwill desktop or laptop that's ready to roll will cost more.
And getting them a computer is only half the battle. If the family can't afford to spend $150 on a computer, how are they going to afford $20-50/month for an internet connection?
Are you serious about that? If you are, it should be perfectly acceptable to hand in assignments as plain ascii text. In fact, it should be a requirement. If that is the case, people can salvage an old DOS or lightweight Linux PC for free from somewhere and use that for their typing assignments.
If you'd require regular internet access and/or pro-level processing power from a student without funding plans I'd smack you.
The worst are those idiot teachers requireing assigments to be handed in in MS Word. My daughter has a Acer Aspire One Netbook with Ubuntu - which, for a teenager - already counts as a luxury item in my book. And I'm a computer expert.
Anything you can't do with a computer that costs a few dollars or can be aquired for free from a junk yard or a donation center shouldn't be on a school curriculum.
Kids should learn the basics of computing, not that abyssmal subscription MS junk.
Basic computer stuff can be done with FOSS on anything that runs on electricity nowadays. Or an emulator running in a browser on a library computer. The only two acceptable options for such school assignments - period.
And, btw., handing in handwritten stuff should still be allowed as an option, especiall in a country with a borderline third-world educational system such as the US.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
$100 will get you a RasPi with the official touchscreen monitor that just came out.
It's more than sufficient for most purposes, but if you're going to have them writing long essays, buying a cheap keyboard would also be a good idea.
I think your best option is still the Raspberry Pi. You could easily assemble the Pi computer in a few minutes in the class room and students may learn valuable information about computers. I know several middle school kids who have very powerful gaming computers but use the Pi because of the multitude of things you can do with them. You could introduce this as a class project for all who want participate and see if there is a way to have those with more money contribute extra to cover those with not enough - or have a fund raising event like a 5k run or something.
Middle-class is a social group between the upper and working classes. With that horrible English definition they could afford to purchase their own computers. In French suburbs you can go to a computer fair to purchased use computers. In Britain you can go to a second-hand shop, or in ugly U.S. expression "pre-loved". A new trend in Europe is a trading shop where you purchase or swap Electronics or software in their original packages with their original serial numbers and so on ( purchase or trade ). What they call in East Asia swaps. In the U.S. you have charities who get donated computer systems from companies who are upgrading their computers. These charities then provide those computers to the "needy". When I first come out of a test tube I wanted a computer and I didn't have any money. I was so desperate for a computer that I gradually built my own computer and I had to program it myself to make it work. Then eventually I got a VIC-1001.. Because I was very poor when I come out of the test tube, I had to learn myself from a dictionary to read and because I wanted to use the computer I had to learn to spell and program. I'm no longer poor and I am not very interested in computers any more. If you want something you will learn. You have to need. If they do not have a need and they will not learn regardless of computers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
They provide students access to equipment at school, the op is asking for options for them to be able to work from home. For the most part $50 is going to be the very bottom, but will usually need some things added on to make them really usable, a $50 tablet is going to suck for typing reports without a USB-to-go cable and keyboard.
Something like the Stream 7 tablet at $100 (sometimes less) would be close, but fails the hdmi output they are wanting. Realistically they are looking at $75-$150 to get a decently usable general purpose type of system. The lower end requiring more assembly type of work and technical knowledge.
I think the HP Stream 7 is a very workable device, and often goes on sale for $80 or less. HDMI will become less of an issue with wireless display to SmartTVs (or cheap HDMI dongles that turn regular TVs and projectors to SmartTVs)
Reposting from yesterday's "Best Tablet?" thread:
I'm pretty happy with our HP Stream 7 that we picked up early this year. Win10 on it is fine. Win8.x wasn't as much of a pain as people would lead you to believe. The OSK is still crap, though (even after enabling the hidden full 104-key virtual keyboard), so I threw a bluetooth keyboard and also a nice mouse at it.
$20 BT keyboard http://www.amazon.com/Jelly-Co...
$30 BT mouse http://www.amazon.com/Microsof...
Runs Steam fine, much of my 2D game library works well. People have reported success getting it to boot Linux. Its main limitation is the 1GB of RAM which preempts a lot of multitasking, but for that price, you can buy one tablet for each app you want to run and line them up on your desk and walls and laugh maniacally.
The nice thing about the current proliferation of smartphones and tablets is that, unlike old power-hungry PCs, they're still pretty useful after you retire them to a life as a digital photo frame or weather station or garage door opener or baby monitor or dashcam or whatever.
A second-hand/factory refurb Windows 7 PC can be found from reputable dealers for under $100.
Back in my day, when we all had to walk five miles to school and back, in the snow, uphill both ways. . . All our assignments were written in longhand. Except one. On our senior year, before graduation, we had one assignment in English class that had to be type written.
And then there was panic, because almost nobody knew how to type or had a typewriter! There was much gnashing of teeth, rending of garments, and wailing about the unfairness of such an impossible requirement. There were even stories of students paying enormous sums of money (like say $10) to other students to type up their papers. My parents dragged a portable Sears typewriter, which apparently hadn't been used in about 25 years or so, out of the back of a closet for me, and I completed the heroic task myself.
Today I was tempted to write one of those posts about how a computer shouldn't be needed for High School English class. Good to know others beat me to it. But you know, the world has moved on. I don't know what it's like out there today, and even if a computer isn't strictly necessary these days for teaching English, it certainly seems like a broadly useful thing for students to have. So I'm not going to judge. The question of affordable computers for students is valid to ask.
State insitutions sometimes also sell gear in bulk on eBay. Here's is the page for New York State:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/nysstore-albany/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=
I expect you can get a lot of 2010 office computers for $15 a piece. They tend to take out the hard drives, which would be an additional cost, but not a huge one.
Best buy usually have very cheap android tablets for around $40.
Like this one:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ze...
I never tried these, though, could be garbage.
First Option: Search for a computer recycling center in your area. Free Geek in Portland OR was one of the first. These typically use volunteers to refurbish donated computers set up with FOSS software and provided to charities, churches, non-profits at no cost. I was one of their Build Instructors a few years ago. The volunteers would either contribute 24 hours of service to receive a free computer, or build up 5 computers from tested parts bins to earn a computer of their own, that would be their sixth build. Typically businesses that were upgrading would contribute bunches of used computers for the tax write-offs. Free Geek would sometimes get 25+ used computers coming in on a truck.
Desktop computers that would do what you want would probably cost less than $50 at a Free Geek refurbishing store, including a wifi card. It might not be too difficult to arrange some kind of free-to-deserving-students program, probably by triangulating through an Elks or Odd Fellows Lodge.
Second Option: Instead of providing computers, provide the students with their own personal thumb drives. Let them know that they can put their own music library on the thing, in addition to the school/homework folder, and they will be enthusiastic participants. They will find ways to plug in to somebody's computer, somewhere, whether at a library or a friend's house, or a neighborhood youth center.
These are not mutually exclusive.
I'd suggest talking with your IT people about whether they could put together a bundle of portable software that would handle homework requirements. I used a customized version of Portable Apps Suite several years ago, to provide clients of a workforce entry job training program with something they could develop their resumes on (and which also provided a number of useful reference files, including lists of community resources). Some of the advantages of this approach are that it encourages students to seek out community resources, and since all students are using the same software it is easier for the instructor to provide support. And again the concept that they could put their own music on the thing created instantaneous and enthusiastic buy-in.
Will
It's a fully functional open-source computer.
There's a Slackware port running on it.
Consider involving others as a charity. You may want to talk to some salvage computer business. These folks buy computers by the pallette from govt and industry and schools. Usually these are less than 3 years old and in fantastic shape except most will be missing a hard drive. Almost by definition, anything you buy this way will have an easy to access hard drive bay (otherwise they just grind them up), so it's not too much of a hurdle to recondiution these. Now, getting one at a wholesale price is another matter-- they sell them for a profit. But maybe for a good cause you could talk them into sell you a palette at cost. If you are part of a school this might even be profitable write-off for them. Then run them off a USB stick entirely (128Mb $7 these days). Or if you can get some community organization like the Eagles or Rotary Club to volunteer to put in some harddrives. Let the kids install Linux off a live USB so they all get the same platform and apps.
That leaves you with something far better than an XO-1.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
clinton. "people are soooo poor they cannot afford an rpi. donald trump is the cause. now vote for me and my corrupt little 500 million dollar enterprise and my uaw mafia"
Rpi is a very poor choice compared to Odroid C1
There are a lot of good reasons not to require the least advantaged kids to use computers, and one is that in a tough neighborhood, that shiny laptop will get stolen and it's owner will get beat up as he/she is toting it to and from school. I don't see the wisdom in requiring computers for poor kids (and thus, not from any of them). I think it is a bad enough idea with kids who have means, but that is a discussion for another day, but for kids who's parents or guardians haven't got two nickles to rub together....
Don't step on the baby.
In addition to the many good comments, you're ignoring the realities of home life in a impoverished home and the complication a computer can make.
-If one child has a computer, any siblings will probably use / take / break it.
-The computer is likely to be stolen (from the child)
-One of the parents may take it for themselves
-There may be no way to use a computer in a low income home due to lack of space, electricity, or free time for that student (vs. helping to maintain what meager items and/or income that family may have during after school hours, or subject to abuse or other things that "take up time". Starting in late middle school you also have kids who may be parents themselves.
-The student may not have a practical way to get a computer to and from school due to lack of carrying ability or without being assaulted or having it broken by the other people / children in the neighborhood or at the school.
-The cost for peripherals on non-laptops is significant (monitor / tv, keyboard, mouse, thumbdrive, cables) and would be extra items to be overused by family outside of intended purpose / stolen / broken / sold in time of desperation)
Leave them to fend off on their own. They have no future anyway.
Don't use a vacuum cleaner to clean the dust. The static will kill it.Don't use a vacuum cleaner to clean the dust. The static will kill it.
Thanks. I never heard about that. (Was your friend in a cold state during winter, so the humidity was low, or is this an issue generally?)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
If they need to have internet access at home, the cost of the hardware is insignificant.
Didn't apple announce new products today? Should be a lot of hipsters out there replacing their "old" apple products.
It's never been a problem here in the UK, but then our humidity never drops below 40%
Then "borrow" a shopping trolley and go get a free crt tv from a rubish tip.
... seriously though, if you can't afford $70 for a usable Pi i'm not sure how you eat and live... unless you are a hippy trying to live in a forest, in which case i would have thought you'd consider computer to be an evil un-environmentally friendly product of consumerism, capitalism and human greed. But perhaps you can use twigs and crabs to create a rudimentary computer, there was a slashdot post a while ago about people creating adders with crabs. Btw what are you accessing slashdot with ? telepathy and fruit juice?
Your statement indicates that you have one of two possible beliefs. First, you may believe that 100% of poverty is caused by drugs, booze, and cigarettes? Alternatively, you may be attempting to claim that poverty pushes 100% of the population living that way into drugs, booze, and cigarettes.
Perhaps you meant to say something other than an absolutely false generalization and wish to apologize for being incorrect and induce dialogue on how poverty impacts everyone differently?
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Some people are happy to get rid of an older computer. They don't need a new one to type in an essay.
If they do not have internet access, they need a thumb drive. (a few megs is more than they will type in a night)
Put the work on the drive and bring it in. Then, it is only a few mins on the school computer to upload the work.
Online research etc does put the poor people at a disadvantage.
>Are any of my assumptions wrong? Are there any other options I'm not considering?
Yes. Your assumption that homework must be typed is wrong. Accept handwritten homework. Problem solved.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
My wife is a teacher. She uses this at least once a year.
So far, she's used it to buy a a bunch of building blocks, books, a few bean bags, iPad reading and math apps and a few devices for non-verbal kids to learn to communicate.
It's pretty amazing how much people will contribute to helping kids learn. I suspect if you did it thoughtfully, you could get the $170 chromebooks for every kid in your class (or school) who can't afford one.
A 17" CRT would cost $20 a year in electricity to run if you use it 2 hours a day.
As others have pointed out, you might be able to source a cheap computer or even an android stick, but the problem is that if a family can't afford a computer, they also probably can't afford an internet connection. There are still some free options, like juno/netzero, who have plans that give you 10 hours per month (which is enough to email assignments, and watch a few short videos, but little else.) However, these are dial-up services, which means you need a phone line. These days, I'm guessing that most low income families have a cell phone (lots of cheap options there, like Virgin Mobile or Net10 or T-Mobile, with a plan that has a little bit of voice/text and little or no data) and no land-line. There is freedompop, which offers 500GB/month on a free plan, but then you need a device to take advantage of the service (they use the Sprint network) so you'd need a cell phone or a mobile hot spot, and even used, you already well over the $20 limit before you have even purchased a computer. Also, the way freedompop works, they will want to charge you for more data when you get within 100GB of your limit, so they require a credit card to sign up. You can turn off auto-updates so that when you hit 500GB the service simply turns off, rather than charging you, but as the instructor, you might have to put in your own credit card, as you can't assume a low income family has or would be willing to sign up for something like that.
Another option might be to structure the class so that students can type up assignments at home, and then bring in the files on a USB stick or something and print them out or you can copy them when they come to class. This removes the need for an internet connection at home, but now you need something that can easily interact with a USB stick, so that eliminates most cheap tablets and some android sticks.
As far as sourcing cheap computers, you could look into something like freegeek (or something similar in your area, if it exists.) Freegeek is an organization that allows donations of computer equipment and then will teach people how to rebuild a computer from parts. Once you've built the computer, you get to keep it. The 'cost' is the volunteer time. I is probably too much to ask the kids to volunteer themselves, but if there is a similar organization in your area, you could volunteer yourself and collect computers for free that way, or set up a similar program at your school, and get the more affluent families to donate equipment to the school, and then have kids volunteer to rebuild them (with linux, to avoid licensing issues.) However, this is an entire program that requires storage space, management, time, etc. So, that might not be a good option.
Honestly, as other people have mentioned, you might just need to deal with allowing kids (any kid, not just the low income ones) to write their assignments on paper. If your school has a computer lab, you could take class time to allow kids to type up some assignments just so they get some exposure to using a computer and a word processor, but making it a requirement for everyone all the time is just going to disadvantage kids that already have the deck stacked against them.
7 inch is like 50 bucks. Runs full windows and has full size USB port. Comes with 1 yr office 365.
Please used compressed air to get the dust out. Never vacuum inside a computer. Static can easily kill the machine.
Unless they are literally in abject poverty and/or homeless, I can't fathom even $300 being a huge deal for anyone financially able to raise a child. There's no way a parent couldn't kick back a few less beers or smoke a couple fewer packs so they could afford a decent computer. We're not talking the third world where people get by on lard and beans here; these are people that drive cars and probably spend money on vices.
I grew up in, by American standards, abject poverty. My parents owned an unreliable 20+ year old car that was given to them. Gas was so expensive that riding in a car was an exciting luxury to me. My clothing had patches and my siblings would be wearing those clothes when I outgrew them. We're talking so poor that I got free school lunches and ate government cheese. I still had a pocket calculator.
Now, let's get real: If you can't cobble together a computer out of 5+ year old parts for somewhere between cheap and free, you're way too picky. I guarantee every one of you either sells all their old tech or has some working old computers in your closet gathering dust. A quick search of ebay turns up decent workable tablets/netbooks for under $20. Full laptops for under $40. We're talking pocket calculator money here, less than I spend on a cheap dinner out, less than a single trip to the movies for two, less than it costs to fill my car with gas, less than buying a latte every day for a week. How do you even afford to have children if you can't afford a computer? What happens to these children that grow up in a home and world without technology? There's simply no excuse.
Do these meet your criteria. http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=34-319-525
Are you an example of a non-Republican? Do all members of whichever political grouping you'd class yourself under sound as mentally ill as you do?
I have a top of the line Winbook - 2GB/32GB upgraded to Windows 10 - and that cost me $100. If the student doesn't need Windows 10 and can do w/ Windows 8, s/he could use a 1GB/16GB equivalent for $80. I doubt one would get much cheaper than that.
If one has access to a discarded USB or bluetooth keyboard and mouse, then one effectively has a PC, which could do the work. Assuming that the software one needs - Office, et al - is already there. If you're talking about budgets, it's rather ridiculous to think about HDMI screens - anyone who can afford an HDMI TV can just as easily afford a $250 laptop, which is what I bought recently for work purposes.
I think this solution is simpler than the submitter makes it out to be
Currently it's $40 on Amazon. It has BlueTooth so it could connect to a keyboard.
It also has wireless Screen Projection technology, but I don't know if students will have that. (I'm pretty sure I don't have anything that works with it).
1. Cheapest option: Pen and paper to draft and write and then type it up somewhere on a free computer (e.g at school or a library)
2. Cheap Tablet e.g a 9" Android tablet can be had delivered for $32 from ebay. Get a bluetooth keyboard with it. Type wherever and then use cloud storage (e.g dropbox) or email to transfer files. There's free wifi to be had in a few locations.
3. Cheap PC desktop/laptop from ebay. Can be had for probably around $50 Install a lightweight linux on there (e.g lubuntu) and it would do the trick.
4. Get the school to buy a few cheap laptops and loan them to students
5. Partner with computer user groups or recycling groups or things like freecycle to get free computers. Here are some starting points: PCs for people Project reboot
Comment removed based on user account deletion
They run full Windows 8.1, although they have limited expansion. Same price as a Chromebook, but running Windows.
Flash drives for their files. Help them setup a gmail account if they need email.
Have them go to the computer lab or their public library if they can't afford 150 dollars for a chromebook.
That's the cost of a student book, and those are sold in the millions and cost virtually nothing to produce. Go figure.
This...
The school must provide all materials and facilities needed to complete the assignments. Right there in the California constitution about *free* education. No "bring a pencil from home". The exception is for materials used in a class that produces something you can take home (e.g. sewing, ceramics, wood shop, but not art, science, etc.)
There cannot be any means testing for rebates/scholarships either.
So, what *you* need to do as a teacher is figure out how to teach without requiring typed essays, online resources, etc., unless you are providing the resource, during school hours. You can't say "go do this after school at the school resource center" (if it's even open.. it wasn't at my kids' school). Teachers have been doing this for millenia, particularly for language arts, so it's not impossible.
I suspect this is because you said it is your "second career". If teaching had been your first, you probably would have been aware of all this, having gone through student teaching, etc.
Of course, maybe you're teaching at an exclusive private school. In which case the answer is obvious.
Is this thread to be taken seriously.
I have to mildly disagree with point 6 - it's maybe not QUITE $20, but you can assemble a few components which will make a decent Android phone into something resembling a desktop.
First you need a Miracast dongle - they're available as low as $10-$15 on eBay, though the cheaper you go, the worse the performance can be (they all use the same chipset but some skimp on the antenna...). Second, get a microUSB OTG hub so you can plug in a commodity mouse and keyboard. Third, download Google Docs or get free MS-Office.
Assembly: Plug Miracast into HDMI input of old monitor (or use $5 HDMI-DVI adapter). Plug peripherals into hub and hub into phone.
And that's about it.
I did a lot of product research on these components during the first half of this year, intending to turn it into a pocket-sized product with a custom case and everything, before dropping the project due to lack of time. So I've bought half a dozen kinds of dongle, as well as virtually every folding Bluetooth keyboard on the market (none worked well enough to be worth it for me) and about half the pocketsized Bluetooth mice, and I've done a lot of testing.
Of course this depends a certain amount on the performance of your phone (Miracast does put a load on the CPU) and the availability of monitors and keyboards. But more and more offices are offering docking stations for roving/traveling employees' laptops, which was my intended target market.
As for underprivileged students, my own kids use 4-5 year old desktop PCs my employer gives away for free and every time they get an upgrade, their old ones go to our school for the less-privileged. I just gave away a Core2Quad Dell with 4GB RAM and a 320gig HD, monitor, and color inkjet, with Windows 7 Pro. Because that's what my office was giving away LAST YEAR...
Perfectly Normal Industries
Almost any android phone you can add a standard keyboard with an OTG adaptor. Usb keyboard $5 or free. Try it.
HP makes a stream 13 that with windows 10 is useable. I think I paid around 250 for one not long ago for my mother a portable PC. The only thing really bad about it is the keyboard/touchpad is some kind of software driven piece of crap from what I recall that would lose keystrokes. Well that and the 2GB of ram. Besides that, move to 3GB and make sure it runs linux well and it would be a good PC. (I didn't try it, since it looked iffy, and I could get windows 10 on it.)
I jsut can't hardly believe HP screwed up something so basic as keyboard/touchpad design, but I suppose they saved a buck or two somewhere... Another issue is if you get in a bad state where the system is totally crashed you can't shut the power off. You literally have to wait for the battery to run out. I was in the middle of a bios update and it crashed at one point. Thankfully after the battery died I was able to start again, as the update hadn't really started.
Still, there is no excuse for the power button not being connected directly to, well, power, in some manner that you can force a power down in a short amount of time...
Another cheap, yet more useful option is something like an Intel Pentium 3.2GHz Aniverseray edition, + ram + motherboard. It's just a 2 core chip, but you can overclock it with some motherboards, since it is unlocked. Mine hit 4.4Ghz with no voltage changes whatsoever and with the usual frequency scaling it doesn't even consume much of any power, most of the time. I used an old case, and an old laptop hard drive. It made a nice snappy PC for daily use. It even can software only decode 1080p video.
This post caught my attention because I am doing something very similar, trying to make old computers useful again. I received 3 older computers. (2004) Dell Dimension 4700, dual core, 1GB ram. (2002) Dell Dimension 4550, single core, 2GB ram. (2002) Gateway eSeries, single core, 512MB ram. Parts and prices I have been playing with: $99 Windows 10 OEM version (can't move it between computers once activated) $35 SSD 60GB $16 SATA 3 PCI card $15 1GB 6400 RAM Monitor / keyboard / Mouse donated I started with the newest computer. It already had a SATA 1 port built in. I picked up a SSD for $60 and have since found them for $35 (60GB). Installed Windows 10 OEM on the SSD. Performance was good enough to run a youtube video without jitter if you are not trying to do anything else in the background. Next I tried Linux Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on the SSD. Performance was nearly the same, perhaps slightly better. Next I got curious about the RAM speed. It had 1GB of PC2 3200. Kingston has memory that is twice as fast and compatible with this Dell for $15 each GB of ram, so I picked up 2 GB. Unfortunately trying out the faster ram also means putting the ram in 2 slots to make up a single bank, so it is not possible to know if the speed is making an improvement or having more ram (less swapping to disk). The ram made absolutely no difference in speed that I could see in my linux tests. I reinstalled Windows 10, this time on the old PATA drive that came with the system, and Windows ran pretty well. I think I'll stick with the SSD so the 10 year old drive doesn't die soon on who every I give this system to. The Dimension 4550 and eSeries I tried Ubuntu 14 on the SSD, with a SATA 3 card in these older systems, since they only had PATA built in to the mother board. Their CPUs were maxed out just looking at the performance monitor's graphic view of CPU utilization :/ I have not gotten any further with these yet, but plan to try earlier distros of ubuntu and others to see how linux was actually usable on computers 13 years ago.
What are the basics needed?
An office suite able to open MS Office docs (Office Libre can do that, perhaps not always perfectly, but it works in most cases)
Can view youtube videos without stuttering
Regular security patching
Security patching. I simply refuse to hand someone a computer with Windows XP, or a Linux distro that is not committed to long term patching. My friend informs me that Windows 10 is 5 to 10% faster than Windows 7, so I am inclined to only consider Windows 10 and the more demanding Linux distros like Ubuntu 14.04 and 12.04 LTS.
Internet. Yeah, that is pretty important, and I don't have a solution to that yet. Tether to your phone for temporary internet access? Although I agree that even $10 can be too much to spend each month for some of our community's families, I already have 2 families lined up for these computers who do have it in their home.
Conclusions
A computer from 2004 can work well for an 8th grader needing to look up information on wikipedia, watch youtube videos on Khan Academy, write documents in Office Libre, and email or print to PDF. Price to refurbish with windows is $165 to $180. Perhaps there are educational licenses that can be used instead to bring that cost down, and SSDs are getting cheaper very quickly. Price to refurbish with Linux is about $65 to $80. Stay away from single core old computers.
Final comments
There may be animations that can be disabled and unnecessary services to stop, to squeeze the memory requirements down to not needing to purchase faster or new ram. To help avoid malware from infecting a computer, consider Linux or making the windows user account not be an administrator privileges account.
How many of these poor families have an Xbox, Playstation or smart TV? They may have the tools and just not the knowledge to use them.
Before all the "they're poor you dumbass!" responses think about how many people will drop $200 on a pair of Jordans but a $350 home PC is too expensive.
Womens Timberland companies especially its competitors and which the organizations have and contributes to the achievements of the stated goals or objectives. (Proctor, 2000) A weakness A weakness can be defined as any aspect of the company which may hinder the company from attaining its objectives or goals. Usually, it covers the Marketing is a wide are in the company and Nike has managed to take full advantage of it in as a world number one company in sports wear (Hampy 2006). Product This is an object or service that a company produces or manufactures particularly on large scale with precise amounts (Bakan, 2004). Nike has a large collection of products that it sells to the market, this include shoes, clothes and apparel used for sporting activities. The products cater for different sports like basketball, road running, tennis, soccer, athletics and many more others. Nike products are meant for men, women and children. The company is renowned for its hip hop culture and supplies urban fashions in terms of clothes. In order to improve its products quality, Nike together with Apple Inc. produced the Nike+ line of products that are able to monitor how a runner is performing through a radio device that is place in the shoes which is http://www.timberlandccc.uk/ then linked to the iPod nano. In doing this Nike is able to market its products and retain its market share (Hampy 2006).
I am guessing your a 1st year or 2nd year teacher. I have watched this process a lot of times. First off, if there were $20+ computers with the capabilities your looking for, the store shelves would be full of them. With a little work, you will get a ass load of computers of various usability from parent and community donations. You would be amazed how many computers are setting in closets because someone upgraded what they have. Also, there a "reglue" computer places all over. You should start looking around.
Second thing, how are your students going to be assessed? Most state tests have the students hand write all their writing samples. The students will need to do some form of planning and pre-writing before they can make a finished sample. By the way, that is most likely the way your curriculum will say to teach them. Either way, watching a student get frustrated with hunt and peck typing and switch to watching YouTube videos will be disheartening. At the same time schools really don't teach keyboarding. Also, they have also stopped teaching cursive so they don't have efficient handwriting skills either.
Once you set a student in front of a computer, they will write right off the cuff correcting as they go. The whole plan, pre-write, and write thing goes right out the window, because the backspace and delete keys are instant erasers. Soon as they discover cut-n-paste across the web you will get all sorts of fragmented paragraphs in all sorts of styles as they will freely plagiarize passages from the internet. Will spent tons of your time dealing with that. You will spend more time with that than the time spent grading handwritten work. Getting computer lab time for you students will be a complete waste of time. They will be working in pairs looking at the newest trends in footwear and whatever. Why would they write? They have their buddies with them.
Your best option, is to teach them how to efficiently write off the cuff coherently. Accept material in any manner you can get it, because it will take all your time just to get them writing anything. That is, if you want them to be successful in the state assessments and how they would typically write in a job situation. It isn't the right way to write well, but it is what they are going to do.
Previous comments have highlighted that wifi is probably available at places even if you don't have broadband at home. At this point I think we've also concluded that buying parts for a desktop computer is neither cheaper nor really viable (bringing the computer to school? Not really...)
Yes, we're back to the $170-$200 laptop. That's a lot of money for someone who doesn't have any, but it's a tiny fraction of what even a small company already pays for IT.
Attempt to contact alumni of your high school, reach out to local colleges to get at their alumni networks, talk to local companies and get an article into your local paper. The simple message is that "for $200 you can give a student a vital resource for modern education".
"Are there any other options I'm not considering?"
Typewriters still exist.
try washing it with clean (better yet, distilled) water
As soon as it touches the keyboard, it is guaranteed to no longer be distilled water, so save your money. If you're diligent, you disassemble the keyboard and don't wet the electronics. If you're more adventurous, just use tap water with a little dish washing detergent, and buy a new keyboard afterwards.
Then installing Linux [...] will give them a modern, supported, OS with a good and easy to use word processor (Open Office) for free.
OpenOffice is dead.
LibreOffice is the better Office clone.
(I don't understand why so many students torrent MSOffice when they could get LO legally for free.)
This project for a multitasking system derived from Android has recently been funded through kick starter and looks promising. I think they are expecting it to retail from $50 maybe less.
Www.jide.com
the cheapest function computer may be uses as new technological giant in cheapest Nano Technology.
It's great that you're trying to find cheap options for those students, but to be honest, that's a side issue.
The main issue is that you have what may be an unreasonable expectation about the resources available to these students. They don't have a computer at home, which means their family probably cannot afford to buy one, and even if they manage that, they may not be able to afford internet access. Before you make requirements for papers to be typed and submitted online, or assign materials that can only be viewed online, consider the following:
1. Does the school have computers available before or after school, or during a free period (if the student has one)?
2. Even if the computers are available, does the student rely on school buses that are scheduled too close to the start and end of the day for them to make use of the computers at school?
3. If the public library has computers available, are they in good enough condition and do they have the necessary software for your assignments? Will they charge the students to print out their work? What are the hours of the library, and is public transportation good enough that students can reasonably be expected to get there (if you live in many parts of the country, don't bet on it!)
Remember: these students are already at a huge disadvantage, and even though you' mean well by trying to find cheap options for them, it may not be good enough. But you are obligated to provide these students the same ability to succeed as the others, and that may well mean changing your plans. It may be more work for you, but if you're not up to it, quit now, otherwise you're just helping the system screw those children.
If the keyboard is dirty or a little flakey, try washing it with clean (better yet, distilled) water and drying it thoroughly. As long as you don't power it while it's still moist, and don't use hot water or the heated drying cycle in a dishwaher, you won't corrode anything.
If you have enough keyboards, just stick them in the dish washer. If you don't bother disassembling them, I'd guess the chance of getting an almost like new, perfectly working keyboard is better than 50%. If you disassemble them beforehand, chances are a lot better. In any case, waiting a week for the keyboard to dry out completely is a good idea, maybe use pressurized air or a hair drier set to cold to blow out residual water from under the switches. I haven't really tried that with cheap membrane keyboards, only Cherry MX ones.
I think we might be overlooking a couple of other issues here.. if these kids don't have a computer at home in this day and age... their parents might not WANT them to have one. I know some 'impoverished' folks and although they might shop at goodwill for clothes and eat off of subsidized cards in the generic aisle, the one thing they ALL have is a computer. AND a relatively powerful smart phone. There are certain 'luxuries' in the US that have literally become ubiquitous. If someone doesn't have a computer or easy access to one, there's very possibly another reason than money.
If I sound stupid, it's not me talking....
$170 for _middle-class_ students?
That's how many S*bucks coffees or pairs of jeans? Yeah, $170 is chump change so the real reason they don't use the computers is not because they don't have one or can't afford one, it's because they don't want to do the work. Nothing cheaper computers can do about that.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
There is free app Linux Deploy on the Google Play, which installs Linux into chroot on android device, and allow it to be accessed with VNC protocol. Combine it with some VNC player android (preferrable one which handles physical keyboard well) and you'll easily get ubuntu or Debian on android stick. nd no problem with proprietary video drivers and so on, because hardware would be handled by Android.
Vendor mark up and kickbacks was $1857 per IPad. Furthermore there was a high damage rate because kids didnt treat free stuff well. http://www.npr.org/sections/ed...
Get electrocuted or stabbed by screw driver and a late-night TV lawyer would be on the teachers or school system's ass immediately. This would be a far more expensive solution than anything pre-assembled new or used. Have you seen how politically correct and litigous public schools are?
The school can buy refurbished units (www.TKOEDucation.com) and give them to the kids (called a 1-to-1).
You're still faced with the issue of Internet access. ComCast has free or low-cost Internet through a deal they arranged after buying another entity, but that's not available throughout the country.
About $150 is the least expensive good quality notebook computer that you'll find. Anything cheaper and it will be in very poor condition.
Jason Spisak, producer and voice actor for some top-end video games; formed a non profit to provide inexpensive computers to students needing one. It won't run Crysis or Call of Duty et al but it does nicely for younger students who don't require video editing power. Made from a recycled plastic and using recycled computer parts, Jason's effort, SymplePC; provides inexpensive computers while addressing the mess of electronic waste, at least here in the US. The going price for these machines is $89.00. Jason donated 12 of his SymplePCs to my organization, Reglue.org; which is basically in the same business. My organization places the rebuilt computers. Our computers are repaired from donated machines from the enterprise as well as individuals. We have already placed all 12 machines donated by Jason and the reviews are in and they are all positive. It gets even better when SymplePC guarantees their machines for life. Some critics have emailed me, stating that these machines are too difficult to learn because they come with Ubuntu pre-installed. But I can help with that as well. If you are having trouble using an Ubuntu computer, please contact me. I have hundreds of 12 year old kids that would be glad to tutor you. Their prices are pretty cheap as well. The Var Guy explains all here
Windows assumes you are an idiot...Linux demands proof.
The one at the library
Check with your local community college or CS department at a Regional University. They are usually bound to strict asset disposal rules but often they can transfer assets they are retiring to public schools or sell them in auction. When we auction old PCs they usually go for $20 to $50. Some of our faculty or staff members buy ours and donate them to needy organizations or even students. Linux with Open Office installs pretty seamlessly and you would be surprised how efficient an old PC can be in the hands of some of these youngsters.
I can only recommend the Raspberry Pi 2. It costs 35$, has a quad core ARM processor, 512 MB, and runs Raspbian quite nicely. Install LibreOffice for any document work. It needs a display that can work with HDMI (TV or a DVI monitor, HDMI-DVI adapter cables are fairly cheap), a USB mouse and keyboard. Ask on Freecycle for USB mice/keyboards, or buy them online in bulk from computer recyclers for cheap. The Pi 2 has 4 USB ports and an Ethernet port, it also has a composite video and stereo audio output. Plus, it comes with programmable I/O pins that can be used for all kinds of other subjects. You also need a microSD card which based on size and speed will vary in cost. A 4GB card might be enough, bigger is better. And you need a micro USB power adapter, ask at a cell phone store if they have a few extras that they are willing to donate or give for cheap. So, yes, the 35$ price tag is a bit misleading because you need to obtain a bunch of other stuff, but it will overall clock in way less than 170$ for a craptastic laptop. Alternatively, look into any one of the 99$ Android tablets. I have one that has a USB port that can run with a small USB hub for mouse and keyboard. Has wireless built in and comes with a display...although it is rather small for any extensive writing work. Might find one that also has an HDMI out so that it can be connected to a TV or monitor.
Why do papers need to be typed?? Students can write them by hand and as long as you can read it that is all that is necessary. You make your students life only more difficult by demanding typed papers that need to be submitted online. Focus on teaching and learning, not a rigid process. Look at the many generations before us, they wrote on slate tablets, only more recently on paper. Look how well they have done and what they accomplished! Don't get me wrong, I do not advocate against using computers and I agree that being computer literate is an essential skill that is needed. I object only to have that be a non-negotiable requirement for English class. In fact, the sole reason why you have to turn to /. is this unnecessary requirement of typing papers and submitting it online. Remove that and you do not have to find cheap computers for your students.
Take a look at the series of Michael Clay Thompson. His material is absolutely excellent. Both my sons learned the ins and outs of the English language using his books. He is also able to explain English grammar in five minutes. And no, he does not need a computer for that.
Lastly, as expressed in my other posts, the Pi 2 will be an excellent option. Anything else is either noticeably more expensive or comes with more restrictions. The Pi was designed for use in schools, primarily to teach programming, but it is a fully featured computer and comes with the same requirements for additional hardware as any other desktop PC.
Find a local corporate sponsor and make a huge PR deal out of this. "Big Bob's mattress store helps students in need!" "Johnny's Used Cars does not only move people, but also knowledge." "Sheena's Computer Box helps closing the digital divide!" And get the local paper and radio station in on the action, have them facilitate a donat-a-thon, sponsor one Pi 2 kit for a student and get entered to win tickets for some concert or whatever the papers and radio stations raffle off almost every day. And pick up on this being an excellent teaching opportunity, make it a student project for extra credit, have students figure out the best way to get the funds needed.
Look into existing federal (GSA/DoD) and state level programs which provide surplus technology to schools. These programs aren't just for getting military-grade hardware to rural police forces, they can actually be used for the benefit of the public as well. For added bonus, create/participate in a student-run club which discovers, writes, and submits grant requests for student/school needs like this.
To get you started:
GSA Eligibility Info: http://www.gsa.gov/portal/cont...
Find your State Agencies for Surplus Properties: http://www.gsa.gov/portal/cont...
DoD Defense Logistics Agency: http://www.dispositionservices...
Tried it myself; blew out a $350 Dyson.
You have an incompatibility in your premise.
You know that your students are going to have difficulty getting a computer (and several of your cheaper suggestions ignore the need for a monitor and keyboard and mouse, so that laptop is likely the bottom end for someone starting from scratch). But you're requiring all your assignments to be typed and emailed.
So, my hopefully armor-piercing question to you is - are you teaching English or Computer Studies? If the latter, then the 10-15% are just SOL. If the former, you should be making an allowance for hard copy submissions (for folks without email, or who perhaps have an old typewriter they can use - don't laugh, they still exist!), or for handwritten submissions. It wasn't that many years ago when you weren't allowed to type up your essays, after all - made it too easy to use the computer spellcheck instead of learning to spell yourself.
The Raspberry Pi option would become viable if it could be sold to your local Jaycee chapter as a study in manufacturing for a Jr. Jaycee project.
Assembly of raspberry pi units and loading a viable OS with Open Office and selling as a low cost word processing, spreadsheet, email machine would be a great study in manufacturing and sales. And, provide a cheap source for a basic use computing machine for your students.
What I heard in the original post was a need for submitting work in an electronic format and the ability to pull information off the world wide web. Free wifi at libraries and at school could fill that niche. I'm thinking of the gaggle of middle school students at my local coffee shop working on homework and annoying the adults with the giggling.
NRRPT/RCT
One option would be looking for a charity that focuses on such issues. I know of a small charity called Kids Without Computers in New Hampshire. It's a very small charity run primarily in one guy's spare time, but you can look for something along those lines or even start your own. I'd start by going to every college, school, and medium to large business in your area, explaining your situation, and seeing if they are in the process of decommissioning any computers. You may need to buy a new hard drive if they have a decent data security policy, but at ~$10 a piece for a refurb HD, that shouldn't be an issue. As far as new computers, a Raspberry Pi is probably the cheapest you are going to find. The kits at $70 are probably the best solution, but you could probably bring that down a bit with some footwork on sourcing a cheaper power supply and flash card for it, but the money you would save probably wouldn't be worth the extra work. On thing you forgot in that figure though was input devices. While you can probably scrounge old keyboards and mice (they often outlast computers), you may end up having to shell out another $10 for them.
Internet may be an issue too, but if you are lending a raspberry pi, you could simply collect the device back and check the work in situ, or have a place where they could upload the stuff in class.
So i'm assuming something like wikipedia would be a resource you would want them to have....
You could possible download those and provide them on media ... depending on what subset they might need... Storage size is determined by your subset.
An option
http://www.rene-pickhardt.de/how-to-download-wikipedia/
Then you said video ... I'm going to make an assumption of YouTube i think most other repositories have some method to do this but again you can down load it for them ...
An option
https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/
If you preload it on the computers for them given a laptop for 35 bucks near me has 80 GB hard drive..
So it would depend if your trying to have them watch say hamlet which at 480p from youtube at ~21gb would take up a quarter of that 80 gb drive...
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2853702?hl=en
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8931200/video-bitrate-and-file-size-calculation
So i think the devil is in the details and how bad you want to make the playing field ... "level?"
Ken Starks runs a program called Reglue in Austin TX for just this reason. Its very possible such a reason. Now its very likely the OP is not in that area however, Ken isn't the only one running such a program and if OP does some research he may find a similar program in his area. Kids get free computers and internet access so that they can do their school work. There are some stipulations and such to ensure that the system is used for what it is intended for. Sadly family background checks and interviews etc. In the end Ken runs a highly successful charity and I know he's not the only one.
In Minnesota, we have a great program called Minnesota Computers for Schools. Businesses donate their old hardware to the program. The program wipes or shreds the HDs. After that they are sent to a correctional facility for the rest of the refurb and imaging work (teaching inmates valuable IT skills for when they get out). These computers are then put up for sale to schools and other educational institutions on the cheap. I'm talking $300 for an i5/i7 laptop with 4GB and reasonable HD, more than enough for an average high schooler. They have cheaper options as well, down in the Chromebook price range.
Check around and see if your area offers such programs. Heck, even see if you can arrange for a business to donate some old kit. They get a tax break and lots of goodwill in the process, and their savings on recycle fees help make up for their IT person's time in reimaging the laptops.
Even a B+ can't render Web pages for mainstream sites fast enough. Would that this were not the case, but it can't, I've tried - at least Raspbian and Ubuntu Mate
Justfy that.
You're not doing a course in programming ... no, scratch that, my first computing course none of the students or teacher or school had a computer. There wasn't one in the town's Further Education College either. It was all done by mailing (snail, not e-mail) the coding forms to the computer centre and getting paper tape result back a week or two later.
So, what possible reason do you have for not accepting manuscript?
Do you also refuse to accept Braille scripts?
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Ask the WiFi password of a neighbor, and then agree on a time he will not mind large downloads, for instance 09:00-17:00 or 23:00-08:00.
Offer something valuable in return that does not cost money like bringing old paper or glass bottles to the recycling center every week, or mowing the lawn.
Why does a Raspberry Pi have to be $70?
You need to buy a power supply? Almost every cellphone uses a 5V wall wart as the charger. Repurpose one of those!
You need to buy a case? No you don't! Kids enjoy simple woodworking projects. Make a wooden case. No skills, tools or still to expensive? Just cut some holes for wires in a cardboard box. Maybe even the box the Pi came in! You shouldn't be demanding pretty when you come asking for cheap! Just stick to functional and you will be ok.
Peripherals? Well.. I assume the display is the family TV. Otherwise I don't even know how you got it down to $70! Hand me downs.. thrift shops... garage sales... worst case just go ask around local businesses. I bet many of them have closets they would be happy to free up some space in!
Still too expensive? You could save a few bucks and go with an Orange Pi! http://www.orangepi.org/
Every vacuum I've seen is belt driven with plastic casing, making it a basic Van der Graaf generator.