PDA for use in primary school

Hi everyone,

I am very interested in using PDAs with the pupils in my primary school. I have used a Palm Zire 72s for some time. I really like it and at my last school I bought some for use by pupils, who also took to it quickly. It has everything we need, except wireless connectivity.
I now have the chance of buying a whole load to use around school and wifi would be great, but as well as a camera! I can't find any (other than PDA phones) that have cameras and wifi.
It goes without saying that I'd like the most robust PDA possible at a reasonable price!
Any suggestions?

[Martin Laverty]

The PDA's with camera these days are the ones that are phones as well. You can get SD cameras but I havent seen many places selling those at the moment. What other requirements do you have for the PDA's.

Originally Posted by s7ev0

Hi everyone,

I am very interested in using PDAs with the pupils in my primary school. I have used a Palm Zire 72s for some time. I really like it and at my last school I bought some for use by pupils, who also took to it quickly. It has everything we need, except wireless connectivity.
I now have the chance of buying a whole load to use around school and wifi would be great, but as well as a camera! I can't find any (other than PDA phones) that have cameras and wifi.
It goes without saying that I'd like the most robust PDA possible at a reasonable price!
Any suggestions?

Hi Martin, thanks for taking an interest!

Basic ingredients I'm after are:
wifi
bluetooth/infrared beaming
word processing
web access
outlook (or similar)
ebook reader
adobe acrobat
voice recorder
camera
picture/video viewer

Most other programs I think I can download so I think that's it. The PDA needs to be as uncomplicated as possible and easily rechargeable. I don't really mind if it's Palm or Pocket PC, but tend to veer towards Palm.

I have seen elsewhere that schools have used a Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX 720, but this doesn't have a camera. Perhaps I should just get a few of the camera additions that just slot into the PDA? Or simply use a digital camera and get the pupils to put photos into their work on the PC after synchronising?

The Palm T|X also looks good but doesn't have a camera.

[Martin Laverty]

The Palm would od all of that except the voice recording and camera.

http://www.totalpda.co.uk/Palm-Tungsten-TX.aspx

You would have to get one of the SD cameras for this.

Another option would be the HP 2490.
http://www.totalpda.co.uk/HP-iPAQ-2490--NEW.aspx
This would do everything but the camera. You might be more likely to find CF cameras although this does take both SD and CF upgrades since it has both slots.

You might be better off using a normal digital camera most of the kids would be familiar with these and most cameras use SD memory as well so it is possible to use the same card in the PDA. If you give me a call I can go over theser in a bit more details for you.

Originally Posted by s7ev0

Hi Martin, thanks for taking an interest!

Basic ingredients I'm after are:
wifi
bluetooth/infrared beaming
word processing
web access
outlook (or similar)
ebook reader
adobe acrobat
voice recorder
camera
picture/video viewer

Most other programs I think I can download so I think that's it. The PDA needs to be as uncomplicated as possible and easily rechargeable. I don't really mind if it's Palm or Pocket PC, but tend to veer towards Palm.

I have seen elsewhere that schools have used a Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX 720, but this doesn't have a camera. Perhaps I should just get a few of the camera additions that just slot into the PDA? Or simply use a digital camera and get the pupils to put photos into their work on the PC after synchronising?

The Palm T|X also looks good but doesn't have a camera.