Does your child need a laptop for written work?? If so look at this laptop for £100.

[SparklyGothKat]

I have pre-ordered one for Ds1 as he has CP and it's ideal for his needs. Its not a great, all dancing laptop but will do for his work.

link here

Offering reservation for June delivery for £10 as huge demand expected

Giving everyone a fair chance

The cost of the ONE fits in line with the goal of the DCSF to close the gap in achievement between those from low-income and disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers.

The ONE is designed to aid and encourage digital learning, which Elonex believes should be available to everyone, no matter what their circumstances. Elonex will therefore donate 1 ONE to underprivileged children from disadvantaged areas for every hundred sold.

Elonex will be working with the National Laptop Initiative to review the 'fair chance projects' and to distribute the ONE laptops. The NLI shares the same core beliefs as the NLI which aims to " bring personal computing and the digital world to everyone." You can find out more information about the NLI here.

Keep checking the vision section of the website for updates on fair chance projects, which will be in place for the start of the new school year 2008. To suggest your school to be recommended for a fair chance review please see here.

For ultimate portability the ONE has a small form factor chassis, weighing in at less than 1Kg. Designed to be hard wearing and resistant to shock the ONE will easily take the rigours of daily life, and with solid state memory (no moving parts), the ONE also gives superb reliability.

[Tortington]

thanks

[charliecat]

www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/08/09/elonex_report/

[Tortington]

oh crap!

[foofi]

Curious about this as dh used to work for Elonex. That report's from 2006, so not sure how it effects the current offer.

[SparklyGothKat]

the times report from the 17th feb. it was also on the news

[charliecat]

[PersephoneSnape]

that looks pretty good actually, it does sound like a huge con though the times article has helped a little...

[imaginaryfriend]

so you can do all your usual internet things on it? What about software / games etc.?

[goingfor3]

It has s small memroy so it's unlikely you would be able to put much of your own software on to it but would be perfect for word processing and internet surfing.

[RustyBear]

As that report Charliecat posted says,Elonex went bust in 2006, leaving our school with 18 months of a 3 year warranty stiil to go on our 16-PC computer suite. The name was bought by a stationery company, who assured the customers of the old Elonex that they would be honouring warranties. However, they have not answered their support line phone since nor responded to emails, or to approaches from the education authority, so I would take any assurances from them with a tonne of salt...

[SparklyGothKat]

I am going to ask the EP to see about funding for ds1. It does seems too good to be truth, but what you have to remember is this is a educational tool, not a all singing all dancing laptop. The times whouldn't do an article on a con item would they?

[RustyBear]

I'm not saying that they are setting out to con anyone,SGK, just that their track record with support isn't the best.

We've just bought an Asus Eeee for the children in our ASD resource to use - it arrived today & seems quite good for the price (£199)
The word processor is compatible with word, the wireless internet connection was pretty easy to set up and our version (which we got from RM Education)comes with various educational software, which I haven't had time to assess yet - apparently further programs will be available from their website.
On the downside, it is very small & can be quite tricky to scroll around the screen & use the keyboard - though it may be easier for a child with smaller hands.
It takes a SD/MMC card for extra storage (ours came with 4GB)or you can use a USB drive. It also has picture, video & music management programs, though I haven't looked at those either yet.

[SparklyGothKat]

Ok, I thought it was a good idea for children with problems writing (properably because its close to my heart due to DS1's problems) and thought that other people would be interested

[oliviaelanasmum]

I have preordered one for dd1 as although she isn't sn i wanted she could use and hopefully not break and for £100 i was limited to what we could afford. As long as she can surf the net and use it for word processing im not too bothered on the spec as i still have my laptop.

[Aimsmum]

Message withdrawn

[Reallytired]

I think that children with CP find it hard to use laptops in general. The Asus Eeee is very good, but the keys are tiny. One way around this for a child with CP is to use a keyboard with big keys.

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0012CUU9Q/shopzilcouk-computer-software-21/ref=nosim?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

This is the cheapest big keys type keyboard I have seen on the net.

The Eee PC has USB ports and you can attach an Eee Pc to a USB port.

CP is one of those things that affect children different. Saying a child has CP tells you little about their ablity. Contray to popular belief not all children with CP have learning difficulties. Some children with CP are extremely bright mentally even if they are physically disabled.

The Eee PC screen would be useless for a child with a visual impairment.

The school I work at had one boy with CP who had his own laptop and its was a total utter nightmare. He found it a real struggle carrying it around with him and the keys were just too small. In the end it was simpler for him to use a school PC with a big key board and transport his computer files with a USB stick.

[SparklyGothKat]

Ds1 currently uses a Alphasmart Neo. and that is fine for him (if the school would download the work he has done and let him bring it him) he uses my laptop for homework and puts it on a memory stick (which keeps going missing ) He is very bright and its just the handwritten work that he struggles with and hold him back.

[SparklyGothKat]

bring it home! Not him, why don't I preview??

[SueW]

Why can't he email it home or upload it to google docs if memory stick is a problem?

I bought a Sony Vaio picturebook in 2000 and it was about the same size as the Elonex and the EEE PC from Asus but massively more expensive!

I loved it - it fitted into my handbag and would go everywhere with me. It was our only PC for the entire time (9 months+) we were in Australia but it had its limitations, particularly with DTP or reviewing large documents because of the screen size.

My sony needs a new battery and power pack - the total cost gets close to buying something new altogether with built-in wireless.