Awhile ago I was contacted by one of those “influencer” networks that have been slowly creeping into the blogosphere after years of supplying mainstream media types with fancy gadgets and demo units to show off and explore with the public consumer in mind. So in the interest of full disclosure, I happily received a brand new Lenovo ThinkCentre m90z (a big fancy title for one of those nice all in one desktop computers, with a fancy touch screen).
It’s a really BIG machine for a desktop unit, measuring in at a whopping 23 inches, and it’s actually pretty cool to watch my Kindergarten-age daughter playing with it. It takes up a good portion of our computer desk at home, and when I first took it out of the box I thought to myself, “Wow, if any schools really wanted to outfit a lab with these things, they’d have to seriously consider just how much space they have.” Besides the fact that it has size going for it, the touch screen is pretty responsive; enough so that it really wouldn’t cause many headaches with someone using it on a regular basis in the classroom, where notoriously fickle technology often doesn’t get a second chance.
I don’t want to bore anyone with the same write up you could find at any tech review blog, or watch on some youtube “unboxing video”, so I thought I’d bore you with a 9 minute video demo of an actual kid using the computer, so you can see for yourself where the computer shines (the ability to touch it), and where it falls short (extra “clicks” required to let the computer know where you’re finger is before using a tool). Thus, I present to you the first of my Lenovo ThinkCentre Touch Screen Ed-Smack Down series…..Tux Paint edition 🙂
Other Lenovo m90z Edu-Smack Down Videos:
Lenovo Edu-Smack Down – Google Earth
Other edu-bloggers talking about the Lenovo m90z:
Teach42 (teach42.com/2010/09/02/ unboxing-the-lenovo-thinkcentre-m90z/ )
Miguel Guhlin (mguhlin.org/2011/02/ kindling-imagination-exploring.html)
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Loved it!! She is cute (clearly Mom influence!)!!!
I wish I’d thought of TuxPaint!
Thanks Miquel, my wife will be glad to hear that my looks aren’t rubbing off on the kids. TuxPaint was an easy choice for me because I have such a young one, and I get to hear it’s lovely little noises all the time. Curious to see what others will use the computer for first.
Thanks for posting this Ben, that was actually quite interesting. Especially considering that this particular computer is being pushed as an enterprise/business all-in-one by Lenovo, it’s interesting to watch a a child interact with it.
I was intrigued when I was originally contacted to review the unit too, since I’m purely ed focused. What perplexes me the most is why a touch screen would be marketed as an enterprise all-in-one as I really don’t see the advantage of having the added cost of the touch screen as a business workstation unless you were using it as a kiosk and/or presentation unit.
That having been said, it certainly has great applications for the education market, although if you come back for future videos you’ll see where the touch screen doesn’t lend itself well to many multi-touch applications.