[OPLINTECH] Reading Literacy System (software/OS ect)

Tue Jul 30 12:45:29 EDT 2013

Steve-

Could you send me a picture of one of your stations with the rigged up headphones?  We have 130 AWE stations which work great, except for the headphone jacks continually breaking.  We've tried a number of solutions and never have come up with a way to prevent them from breaking it seems.

I like the AWEs, but must say they are getting old in the tooth.  A lot of the content feels very 90ish.  So many of today's kids want a tablet with more "stuff."  I know AWE has been working on something with tablets, so maybe someday.

However, I'm with Jim in that it is an easy solution to put in place and forget about.

Thanks!

Greg.

Greg Syferd │ Infrastructure and Network Services Manager
Columbus Metropolitan Library │ Operations Center
101 S. Stygler Rd │ Gahanna, OH 43230

614.479.3037 office │614.264.9393 cell
gsyferd at columbuslibrary.org<mailto:gsyferd at columbuslibrary.org>

On Jul 29, 2013, at 3:45 PM, Steve Owley <sowley at westervillelibrary.org<mailto:sowley at westervillelibrary.org>> wrote:

Same experience here as Jim.  Seven stations, no printing or networking, kids on ‘em like flies on honey.  The only issue is keeping them supplied with headphones and mice as these are destroyed by the kiddies at quite a rate.  We route the headphone jack to the front with a pigtail so that if the child walks away with the headphones on the jack will simply disconnect instead of pulling the whole PC along.

S.

From: oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org<mailto:oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org> [mailto:oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org<mailto:bounces at lists.oplin.org>] On Behalf Of Mann, James H.
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2013 3:55 PM
To: Chad Neeper; OPLINTECH
Subject: Re: [OPLINTECH] Reading Literacy System (software/OS ect)

OK
GCPL has some 20 AWE stations.
We have always had a spare, but our experience with AWE support is that they send you a loaner overnight to avoid downtime.
I doubt you can ghost them since you have no control…they are the most locked down computers I’ve ever seen. I’m too lazy to Google it but AWE stands for something like advance workstation systems and they have several other products. And yes they don’t connect to the network, but do you really want kids printing hundreds of copies of dino dollars to your public printers?
I’m pretty sure you can still get the “ladybug” mice and our mice are black with yellow ears…maybe an early version of the touch screen computers.
We’re getting headphones from Gayloard, but Ohionet used to sell supplies. I think I found Chestercreek a bit pricey for headphones.
I may be talking out of school here, but in years past AWE and Ohionet have had a group purchase/upgrade/tradin/ tied to the OLC trade show. We did a trade in and saved enough money to make it worthwhile.
If you have the service contract AWE sends out yearly updates via a USB drive so you get newer versions and additional versions of the software each year.
I remember Jamie Mason coming up to me at the trade show several years ago and saying “you gotta see this” so we bought and haven’t looked back.
It’s not that I’m getting lazy in my old age, but you buy them, turn them on, and never look back…I wish all my other public computer options were that easy and secure.

PS: If I were doing an open source computer I’d use Qimo
http://www.qimo4kids.com/
PSS: If I could lock a PC down I’d use the Zac browser:
http://zacbrowser.com/

Jim Mann
Technology Coordinator
Greene County Public Library
76 E. Market St
Xenia OH 45385
937 352 4000 x1210
Discover. Learn. Grow.<http://www.greenelibrary.info/>
jmann at gcpl.lib.oh.us<mailto:jmann at gcpl.lib.oh.us>
<image001.jpg><http://www.facebook.com/greenelibrary.info><image002.jpg><http://twitter.com/#!/greenelibrary><image003.jpg><http://www.youtube.com/greenelibrary><image004.jpg><http://www.flickr.com/photos/greene-library>

From: oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org<mailto:oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org> [mailto:oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org] On Behalf Of Chad Neeper
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2013 3:16 PM
To: OPLINTECH
Subject: Re: [OPLINTECH] Reading Literacy System (software/OS ect)

...unless you preemptively image the hard drive and stick the copy on a shelf/server somewhere as cheap insurance against failure...  Should be simple enough via Ghost, clonezilla, whathaveyou...

______________________________
Chad Neeper
Senior Systems Engineer

Level 9 Networks
740-548-8070 (voice)
866-214-6607 (fax)

Full LAN/WAN consulting services -- Specialized in libraries and schools

On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 3:10 PM, Ed Liddle <eliddle at marysvillelib.org<mailto:eliddle at marysvillelib.org>> wrote:
You can buy the cute kids mice and keyboards here http://www.chestercreek.com/
We have 2 AWE machines we got from a grant. They came with usb injet printers which caused more problems than they were worth. The models we have can not use a network printer, but the new version of AWE machines I think can. We didn't want to spend money on the upgrade to get them to print to a network printer. Chester Creek is the company that made the mouse and keyboard that ours came with.  AWE machines are good if you don't want to mess with them other than rebooting them. If you try to do anything else with them you will become very frustrated (like get the ones we have to connect to a network and  print to a network printer)  Since ours did not come with any media to reload the OS, AWE softare, and games back on them, once the hard drives fail the AWE software and games will go away.

-Ed Liddle

Marysville Public Library
http://marysvillelib.org

________________________________________
From: oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org<mailto:oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org> [oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org<mailto:oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org>] on behalf of Don Yarman [yarmando at delawarelibrary.org<mailto:yarmando at delawarelibrary.org>]
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2013 2:51 PM
To: OPLINTECH
Subject: Re: [OPLINTECH] Reading Literacy System (software/OS ect)

We have the AWE stations. If you've got the money and don't want
to devote much energy to providing computers to preschoolers,
they're fine. Personally, I think that's a lot of money to pay for
Reader Rabbit.

We weighed some alternatives. We use KidZui for our schoolage/
tween computers. Our children's librarians looked at Zoodles,
ABC Mouse, and PBS Kids Play, eventually selecting the latter.
We'll be moving to that when our AWE contract is up.

        Don Yarman, Deputy Director
        Delaware County District Library
        yarmando at delawarelibrary.org<mailto:yarmando at delawarelibrary.org>

Currently listening to "Stiff" by Mary Roach, and
reading "Man in the Empty Suit" by Sean Ferrell.

On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 1:39 PM, Chad Neeper <cneeper at level9networks.com<mailto:cneeper at level9networks.com>> wrote:
> I've always highly recommended the AWE Early Literacy Station ever since I
> first saw it years ago when one of my libraries purchased one with money
> from a small grant.
>
> http://www.awelearning.com/en/markets/libraries/in-the-library/the-early-literacy-station/
>
> They're an excellent set-it-up-and-forget-about-it solution and the kids
> (and parents) absolutely LOVE them. I used to try to put together a solution
> like that myself, but once these came along, I stopped. I couldn't do nearly
> as good a job as AWE has. Worth every penny and then some.
>
> They're also perfect for small grants/gifts from local businesses.
>
> Chad
>
> ______________________________
> Chad Neeper
> Senior Systems Engineer
>
> Level 9 Networks
> 740-548-8070<tel:740-548-8070> (voice)
> 866-214-6607<tel:866-214-6607> (fax)
>
> Full LAN/WAN consulting services -- Specialized in libraries and schools
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