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Wikipedia 

RM specialises in providing products and services to schools, colleges, universities and government education departments & agencies. While RM is primarily involved in supplying information communications and technology (ICT) services to UK education, the group also includes companies providing educational software in the US and school management software in the Asia Pacific region.

RM is also the company that is developing the Scottish School’s Digital Network- ‘Glow’. This is being done in collaboration with Learning and Teaching Scotland.

RM had a huge presence at the BETT Show with many able consultants more than happy to demonstrate their recently hardware. One of their latest releases, the Asus Minibook, was something that I was keen to see. Here in East Lothian we will be trialling five of these machines in one or two of primary and secondary schools. It was the first time I had been given a ‘hands on’ experience of this super little machine, so I thought I would write a small review.

Here is what RM have said:

• Everything a pupil requires for mobile computing:
  · With a 7″ screen and weighing less than 1Kg, it’s smaller and lighter than many textbooks. 
  · Robust solid-state hard drive provides fast boot-up / shut-down and preserves pupils’ files.
  · Integrated webcam (4G model only), microphone and speakers for easy web video-conferencing.
  · Integrated 802.11b/g wireless and optional 3G module provide great connectivity.
  · Integrated card-reader and three USB 2.0 ports provide a simple way to add additional storage and easy connection for peripherals.
  · Full-size VGA-out for connection to projectors or monitors.

I have to say that I was very impressed. This little machine is compact, light and very chic. It has a brilliant built in camera that produces excellent images. I had thought that the key pad might have been a little small, but I really didn’t find it a problem. We were given the opportunity to have a second look and play with these devices at the Teachmeet at BETT on Friday night.

No prizes for guessing which site Karen logs on to first! Karen is an old University friend of mind who teaches Media Studies at the Charles Darwin School.

One quirky little thing I noticed is that the Minibook was spell-checking everything I typed (i.e. underlining text in red if it was incorrect, similar to a word document). This is something that I think could be quite useful especially for those that have spelling difficulties. The operating system on these machine is Linux. The upgraded model of this Minibook will be released in April 2007 and it will have Windows XP. This upgraded version will however come at a hefty £289! That is nearly twice the price of the original! We are due to start our trials of the Minibook next week so I will report back our findings and experiences in due course.