Microsoft's 10 website has done a short video about a private girls school, Forest Ridge, near Microsoft, where all the 5th graders use Tablet PCs (at their parents' expense). There's more on the topic on the blog written by John Phillips, Director of Educational Technology at the school.
The school sells a package that includes a 6lb Acer TravelMate 312 for $2,016, including a four year warranty with protection against accidental damage, configuration and some instruction. They also use GoBinder 2006.
Lots of Tablet PC trials are also being run in the UK. For example, the use of RM Tablet PCs (made by Tatung) is being evaluated in 8 Birmingham schools, and many other schools have been trying them. Becta, the British Education Communications Training Agency, has a report on Tablet PC use in a dozen UK schools.
The Becta study was led by the Open University, which provides a more detailed account. This concludes: "Overall the researchers felt that the vast majority of the use of Tablet PCs in the case study schools could have been achieved using laptops, though this view was generally not shared by the schools." Indeed: "there was a strong feeling across the case study schools, which was shared by the researchers, that Tablet PCs are qualitatively different to other forms of computer in the way that children react to them."
Comment: Origami-style UMPCs could be much more attractive to schools in being smaller, lighter and cheaper.
