MSI's New Wind Top AE1900 Touchscreen Desktop All-In-One

You may have noticed how touchscreens are appearing all over the place, from phones to car navigation systems to tablet PC's.... and this technology makes a lot of sense in education, as I wrote back in a November cover story. One of the devices I mentioned was the HP Touchsmart, which as an all-in-one touchscreen desktop was essentially the first of its kind when it was released last year. While powerful, the Touchsmart came with a price premium, depending on options it could cost over $2,000, not very attractive for schools despite it's many education-friendly features.
Well, touchscreens aren't going anywhere and are in fact continuing to grow in both popularity and sophistication. Successful netbook maker MSI today released their version of the touchscreen all-in-one desktop, the Wind Top AE1900, and it's sort of a netbook-influenced model: an Intel Atom processor, 18.5" screen, 160GB hard drive, Windows XP, built-in webcam and mic. All of these features are decent but not top of the line by any means, which explains the price point: just $529.
It's sort of a netbook/desktop/tablet love child that also demonstrates the influence of cloud computing (watch for a May feature article on that subject by me), because so much work is done online, desktops will continue to become more and more streamlined like this. This trend is great news for schools of course, because it means desktops become less and less expensive, easier to maintain, and less prone to problems. This new Wind seems like a unit with a tremendous amount of potential for school use, touchscreens are more intuitive for younger students in particular to use, and this model still has enough computing power to handle most online tasks.

Comments

[Andrew Pass]

Touch screens are wonderful. But, in reality, at least for instructional purposes, they are only as good as the educational resources that go with them. In addition, their utility depends on the teacher's ability to effectively engage students in using these resources.

http://www.lessontech.blogspot.com

[Kurt]

Agreed... but you could say the same thing about any instructional technology, not just touchscreens. You've made a pretty universal observation that can and should apply to almost anything: textbooks are also "only as good as the educational resources that go with them... and also depend on the teacher's ability to engage students." Very true Andrew, thanks!

[Cheap Used Computers]

Touch Screens are mostly made for educational purposes because in classroom you can easily take your notes instead of typing down the notes which is going to take time, If you look for professional purpose than I think its not suitable for professional use.