Headline :: PSP set to break into educational sector

[Steven W]

Sony have been training staff at a school in Birmingham on how to use the PSP in preparation for a Playstation pilot scheme to educate our kids.

Check out the Headline

[MadduckUK]

nah. something pda-like with a touch screen is whats needed at the very least.

[nichomach]

Well, the PSP ought to fit the bill - personally, I think a touch screen's a red herring, given the savagery displayed by the average youth toward anything sensitive and electronic, and the screen on the PSP's a bit better than the common run of PDAs.

[GeorgeTuk]

Another education system gimmick. Whats needed is liek madduck says is like a PDA device, at the very least but really they need tablet PCs or just laptops.

Its a gimmick because what possible application could a PSP have, I know you could put different programs on etc but still its very limited in scope for such an expensive device.

Headteacher Martin Bayliss: was MD OF TABS LIMITED, a company which operated Best Training Centres in Salisbury, Southampton and Portsmouth. All now closed. Nice record for a head teacher.

[nichomach]

It's about £140 for the base pack including VAT from Dixons. Now, if the education sector is buying in bulk, it won't be VAT-able, so knock £20 off that, then think about the amount of discount they'd get on the units. If it came in at anything more than £100 per unit, I'd be VERY surprised. It'd be easier to control than a PDA or laptop; place a lock in the firmware so that it'll only run approved disks. OK, software'd have to be developed to fit the national curriculum, but I'd bet pounds to peanuts that there's already a lot there capable of being adapted. It already has WLAN built in, so better than the cheap end PDAs. Personally, I think it COULD prove an absolute winner.

edit: A quick Dabs hunt shows the cheapest WIFI equipped PDA they list as the Palm PDA TX Handheld - and that comes in at over £182 ex VAT, although I think the closest to what they'd want'd be the Nokia 770 internet tablet, and that's coming in at a princely £192.86 ex VAT. Bit of a difference. They do the N800 as well, but that's over £250 ex VAT.

[Spud1]

PSP for education purposes? What?

As has been suggested a PDA is a *much* better idea..the PSP isn't exactly tough either you know..and PDAs can easily be ruggedised with cases etc - all for less than a PSP if yuo go for a mid-ranged PDA and buy in bulk (both what an education authority would do)..

Just can't see the point in this unless Sony are giving the PSPs away for free..

[nichomach]

If you're buying your PSPs in bulk, you get a discount off them too, you know, and semi-hard cases for PSPs are available for £3 or less, hell you can get a black aluminium case from expansys for less than a tenner, and expansys aren't cheap. Just do a quick Froogle for "PSP case" minus quotes. The basic fact is that the device is cheaper than a WLAN equipped PDA.

Sorry, but I think a lot of the criticism here is based on the idea that "we're wasting money buying games consoles for schoolkids", and no-one's actually stepping back and considering the hardware's inherent capabilities.

[Spud1]

It's cheaper than any natively wifi equipped PDA that I know of yes, but aside from the fact that wifi isn't strictly needed (well placed bluetooth basestations would work perfectly well in a classroom setup) you can buy very cheap CF wifi cards for PDAs, so I think that when you take into account the fact that it is education, and that they will be bulk buying, that the prices will be about the same.

We can't compare on retail prices anyway as thats unlikely to be representitive of the actual costs - a school is hardly likely to walk into dixons and buy 100 psps/pdas are they?

Then think of the development costs for the actual software - MUCH cheaper for PDAs, heck they can even do it in-house very easily and do it all with .NET - you can produce bluetooth networkable .NET apps for PDAs in a few short hours..very easy - don't even have to program if you don't want to (you can use VB). No messing about with UMDs or Memory Sticks, no need for external developers to get involved if you don't want them to (or even easier to find someone to write it for you....)

I just can't see a single benefit of using a PSP over a PDA in an educational environment. A PDA also has the added advantage of familiarising pupils with some technology that they may never usually use until full time employment - which could be an advantage there too

[nichomach]

WiFi cards are not a good idea, especially when the alternative is a device with WLAN built-in for less than the cost of a WiFi-less PDA plus WiFi card. I also doubt that the prices will be the same since you're assuming that there's a discount for buying PDAs in bulk, but that there wouldn't be a similarly proportionate discount for buying PSPs in bulk, and the PSP is cheaper to start with.

Bluetooth is SHOCKINGLY poor, and very poorly adapted for school-wide wireless networking (leave aside its much poorer data rate and appalling file transfer speeds even at that rate). Also bear in mind that a school is probably going to be using a WLAN with multiple access points linked into the core structured cabling for seamless roaming, so the kids'll be able to connect wherever they are to submit work or pull content down.

Software development isn't an issue; Sony want to do that anyway. Who'd develop the .Net software for the schools? Well, they can either develop it in house (which'd mean lots of schools, or at best LEAs all busily reinventing the wheel, even if they had the resources) or they'd get external companies to do it for them, or the external companies would do it as a commercial venture and the LEAs would buy it, the same way they buy educational software now. The first'd be a nightmare, the second not much less of one and expensive to boot, and the third'd leave them no better off than buying from Sony anyway.

As for familiarity with software, the use of PDAs is in decline anyway, so I can't see much advantage there. The only area where they're still much in vogue as opposed to smartphones is in vertical applications like stock control, logistics control, that sort of thing, and there's little point in assuming that mucking about with Pocket Word's somehow going to be useful there.

[Spud1]

Totally disagree on the bluetooth point - its only rubbish when people don't use the technology to its potential, or design systems badly. Data transfer rates are not an issue as your not going to be transferring large files about here..think about how this sort of system would be used in a school?

The best use I can think of is for some sort of support system where a student can quickly ask a teacher a question by sending a quick message. Or to search a database, or recieve results from some measuring equipment. How about to quickly type some notes?

A use like that would work fine over bluetooth, range isn't an issue these days and bluetooth devices can roam just like wifi devices anyway - without the need for expensive access points to get this support.

I think that software development IS an issue, unless Sony decided to fully back the scheme and help out in some way to make things easier..in which case that issue would likely dissapear.

I still see no advantage in a PSP over a PDA for non-gaming purposes..maybe there are some applications I have not yet considered which would make it a better idea...if you have some examples that would be great

[nichomach]

I AM thinking about the sort of usage this would receive in a school; and if you think about distributing podcasts etc, then the filesizes could get quite large. Access points WOULD be a requirement unless you're imagining that the transfers would simply be device to device, and the fact is that WLAN access points are a LOT cheaper and more plentiful than Bluetooth access points, even for devices that support enterprise level features such as RADIUS authentication, policy-based security etc.

Application-wise, how about teacher distributes lesson plan and materials to device (and with a classful of 30 kids, I think you'd find Bluetooth staggering a bit even WITH bluetooth access points), including video content, although possibly that would run direct from a server (and then you REALLY don't want to think about Bluetooth), kids use device to navigate through content and possibly complete and submit questionnaires on same - maybe then, maybe after the lesson.

You're going to be dealing with a situation where large numbers of pupils are going to want simultaneous access to file, streaming or database materials, and without access points Bluetooth couldn't do it at all; with them it'd do a lot poorer and more expensive job than WLAN. It's simply not designed for that job. Wireless ethernet is.

As far as software is concerned, Sony already want to do it; education's a big market, and they want a slice of it.

[Spud1]

I don't think that podcasts would ever be used in a school setting, in fact thinking harder about this i'm struggling to come up with any ideas that would actually be used in a UK school..beyond timetables, diary functions, note taking and basic teacher-pupil IM (all things best accomplished on a PDA as oppsed to a PSP) I can't see a real world use. Can you think of any real world examples that woudl actually be used in a school? Bear in mind that the odds of these devices ever leaving the classroom are miniscule - they would get nicked/broken/damaged...schools already guard pens and exercise books..with a £100 device they are going to be very careful!

You are, of course, right about WiFi Vs Bluetooth for high bandwidth things, my point is/was that you don't need the high bandwidth for any of my suggestions, and that having more bandwidth would be useless in a school environment (uni/college is completely different..but when dealing with younger people you have to think differently). Bluetooth access points are fairly cheap anyway compared to high end wifi ones..although that said its hard to compare since they are two entirely different technologies without many features that can be directly compared.

[MadduckUK]

so nichomach, would these PSP's have some sort of extarnal keyboard, or would you expect people to navigate to the right letters with the d-pad? or are they just not going to be used for any purpose that involves inputting information more complex that "yes or no"?

[shaithis]

They could theoretically replace exam papers.

The collection/input of data while on field trips.

Timetables and notice boards.

Podcasts could be used instead of wheeling TVs and VCRs around the school.

Replaces the calculator.

There are plenty of uses you could put them to.

[Spud1]

Agreed with the above except for podcasts/videos - I think this works better on the big screen..oh and all of those would be better on a PDA with pen input would they not?

[GeorgeTuk]

Agreed with the above except for podcasts/videos - I think this works better on the big screen..oh and all of those would be better on a PDA with pen input would they not?

I agree.