April 6th, 2009
Just say no to the DSi in Ed Tech
I’m always on the lookout for innovative ways to have kids stay connected and find new technology tools for learning and collaborating. Small devices that look more and more like phones can easily get online and be tossed into a backpack, a pocket, or otherwise toted around schools. So I couldn’t help but take a look at Nintendo’s new handheld, the DSi, as a possible choice for a low-cost “1:1″ solution. After all, 1:1 doesn’t have to mean computers, does it?
Unfortunately, the DSi just doesn’t have anything to offer that couldn’t be better served by a low-cost netbook, one of the upcoming MIDs of which we keep hearing rumors, or even a smartphone. I’ll admit that I was a little bit hopeful when I first saw the DSi previewed a while back:built-in camera and microphone, solid WiFi, the Opera web browser, and, most importantly, an “app store” in which programmers could create and distribute educational content.
While the latter remains a possibility, keyboards are our friends in education; even mini-QWERTY keyboards on phones beat anything that developers could do in software on the small lower screen (sorry, this will never be an iPhone or a Storm). Similarly, netbooks are getting ridiculously cheap and a lot of people are beginning to talk about Android creating a realistic price floor below $200 for these small computers. At $170, the DSi simply can’t compete in this market.
Could I think of lots of interesting little educational games to build for the DSi? Sure, but the same could be said for netbooks. We could even make interactive response systems out of them, but again, we could do the same with uber-cheap mini-laptops. This is one gaming platform that needs to stay a gaming platform. Netbooks are where it’s at in Ed Tech.
Follow Chris Dawson on Twitter! Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts and a member of the Internet Press Guild. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.
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