Technology At City University of Seattle

One of the things we have been looking for here is very cheap affordable technology for education. We were also anticipating the Crunchpad as a way to use affordable technology in our education programs. As the fallout from the death of the Crunchpad yesterday there is no longer any form of affordable color reader or system out there that is tablet in format that we can use.

What we were looking for in terms of technology for students had to have a color screen. While the Kindle is ok, it is generally being rejected by students in many of its pilot studies at major colleges. The Crunchpad was the next big thing that we were going to try out. Now we are stuck with more vapor hardware, the Apple tablet is not available and the Archos 9 just ended up being too expensive. We are still looking at a 300 to 400 dollar price point for students.

This is where we need to see companies actually deliver on the products that educational technology needs. ZDNet brings up the idea that now is the time for a great color ebook reader – tablet form factor computer for the classroom and we agree. The Crunchpad could have been that, but it is dead now, and there is nothing on the market that will take its place unless the persistent apple rumors actually come true.

In the meantime we will still be looking for great affordable tablet based systems for the school, so we can deliver the education that our increasingly digital students need and want to have.

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