Bulletproof Whiteboard Offers Those in the Classroom a Last Line of Defense

My heart breaks every time I hear about school shootings and other incidents where people with guns fire at innocent people for no apparent reason. It’s especially heartbreaking if it happens at a school, no less, where almost no one expects to get hurt because they’re there to learn.

In response to the most recent school shooting in Connecticut, military armor maker Hardwire has taken it upon themselves to create something that I never thought you’d need in school – bulletproof whiteboards and bag inserts to provide teachers and students with their last line of defense.
Bulletproof WhiteboardWhen faced with a shooter, they can basically take the bulletproof whiteboard and use it as a shield to protect themselves. The whiteboard comes with two handles so it’s easy to grip and handle. While the whiteboard might not be large enough to protect the body of an adult, it will be enough to at least shield the vital parts of the person’s body.

Hardwire has also made a bulletproof insert for backpacks, transforming bags into potentially life-shaving shields in the face of danger.

Bulletproof Insert

The bulletproof whiteboard is available in two sizes: the smaller clipboard version costs $109 (USD), while the larger 18×20 inch board is priced at $299. It can shield a person’s head and torso. The bulletproof bag insert is priced at $100.

[via CNET]

GoNote 10-inch hybrid netbook / tablet bringing Ice Cream Sandwich to UK classrooms next month

GoNote 10inch hybrid netbook coming bringing Ice Cream Sandwich to UK classrooms next month for $236

Ergo Electronics, the company behind the GoTab, is looking to help bring Android to UK classrooms in the form of the GoNote, a combo tablet / netbook running Ice Cream Sandwich. The device has a 10-inch 1024 x 600 display, a 1.2GHz ARM Rockchip RK2918, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, expandable via a MicroSD slot. Aimed at students, the GoNote also has four USB 2.0 ports and a VGA camera on-board. It’ll be hitting in the UK in September for £150 ($236) in black and white options. More info in the press release after the break.

Continue reading GoNote 10-inch hybrid netbook / tablet bringing Ice Cream Sandwich to UK classrooms next month

GoNote 10-inch hybrid netbook / tablet bringing Ice Cream Sandwich to UK classrooms next month originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 02:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceErgo Electronics  | Email this | Comments

Lenovo unveils toughened ThinkPad X131e for education, hikes price to $499

Lenovo unveils toughened ThinkPad X131e for education, hikes price to $499

Lenovo must have struck a chord with schools looking for some rough-and-tumble ThinkPads, as it’s bringing out the ThinkPad X131e even while teachers are still drafting their course plans for the fall semester. The new model keeps that better-than-military ruggedness in an 11.6-inch laptop while freshening the choices of AMD E-series chips or their Intel-made Celeron and Core i3 challengers. Dolby Advanced Audio even gives the speakers boost when it’s not a matter of all work and no play. Educators, in turn, get the usual options for extended support or customizing the laptops with a little school pride. There’s a premium to pay for putting classrooms on the cutting edge, however: at $499, the new systems are $70 more costly than the launch price of the X130e portables they replace, which leaves quite a bit less money for notebooks of the paper variety.

Continue reading Lenovo unveils toughened ThinkPad X131e for education, hikes price to $499

Filed under:

Lenovo unveils toughened ThinkPad X131e for education, hikes price to $499 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceLenovo  | Email this | Comments

Google: Chromebooks now serve web-happy students in over 500 European, US school districts

Google Chromebooks now serve webhappy students in more than 500 European, US school districts

Whatever you think of the latest round of Chromebooks, school districts have clearly latched on to existing models. Over 500 school districts across Europe and the US are currently deploying the Google-powered laptops for learning the web way. Specialized web app packs and that rare leasing model are already keeping the material relevant and the hardware evergreen, but new certification for US ready-for-college criteria will go a long way towards making sure principals everywhere take a shine to Chrome OS in the future. That still leaves a lot of schools going the more traditional Mac or Windows PC route, with the occasional tablet strategy thrown in; regardless, we’re sure Google doesn’t mind taking any noticeable chunk of the market in a relatively brief period of time. We’ll see if there’s more reasons for Mountain View to get excited in a few days.

Google: Chromebooks now serve web-happy students in over 500 European, US school districts originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 19:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourceGoogle Enterprise Blog  | Email this | Comments