BUY BUY BUY (Alphasmart 3000)

Member Name: LEIGHWHARTON

Product:	Alphasmart 3000
Date:	30/05/01 (431 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Notetaker, Good Price, Lighter than a laptop

Disadvantages: Can get scratched

As part of my HND course, I was asked to, to use and evaluate a piece of equipment for a person with a disability and I choose to evaluate the AlphaSmart 3000.

The AlphaSmart 3000 is a simple, portable key board/ Note taker. It is compatible with any computer, Macintosh or PC, and with most printers. It enables users to type, edit and electronically store text (for example, reports, essays, email messages or notes), and to practice keyboarding, without having to be at a computer.

It is basically a full-size keyboard, made of a blue plastic keys ( that can get scratched easily) and all, about the size of a three ring binder. There's a line of grey opaque function keys above the number key row, and a four line LCD character display above the keys . The whole thing runs on three AA batteries.

The AlphaSmart includes a calculator, which allows equations up to 14 lines long to be typed into the applet. The word processor includes all the usual functions such as cut and paste, spell check and find.

One feature of the AlphaSmart is the ability to change keyboard layouts. The usual QWERTY is standard, but Dvorak can be chosen. Left-handed only or right-handed only can also be chosen for persons with disabilities. There is a sticky-keys option to type combination keystrokes without having to actually press the multiple keys simultaneously.

Text typed into the AlphaSmart can be transferred to a PC or a Mac, with cables which connect to the keyboard ports or USB ports.

The AlphaSmart 3000 holds about 100 pages of single-spaced text in eight It automatically saves your text, and your place in the text, even when you turn it off. It includes cut/copy/paste and a built-in 70,000-word spell checker. It can print directly to most printers through its printer port.

Also included are features for individuals with special needs (sticky keys and key repeat control), All of the files can have a password on it so no
one else can access any of your work. Good when there are little children about.

The AlphaSmart has four different speeds:-
 Very Slow
 Slow
 Default
 Fast

This enables the speed of the letters to be typed to go from slow to fast. The AlphaSmart has also got four different keyboard layouts.

QWERTY- this is the standard keyboard for most computers and typewriter’s
DVORAK- this is a scientifically designed keyboard which requires less finger reaching and stretching.

There is also two more options of a layout which is right hand and left hand only. This enables faster typing for a person with limited hand movement.


Benefits

The benefits of the AlphaSmart to a user with a disability is that they can carry on there education and gain a better knowledge of certain subjects. The AlphaSmart is portable, so that it can be moved around, and be taken to every lesson. It is very light, lighter than a laptop, so it can be carried around or stored in a persons bag. It can store over 100 pages in one text file, of which there are eight. It runs on 3AA batteries, and it can run on these batteries between 200 and 500 hours. Therefore I think that having a AlphaSmart will benefit any person with a type of disability.

I also think that the AlphaSmart can also benefit people who do not have a disability. As it is light and very portable can be used for people on the go, and who don’t want to carry a laptop around with them all day. I would certainly recommend this piece of equipment to anyone.

Summary: