A Caregiver's Dream - The Almost Perfect Alphasmart 3000
Written: Mar 25 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Allows many disabled kids to take notes, easy to use, almost indestructable, optional word prediction
Cons: Clumsy file transfer, small display, low file capacity.
The Bottom Line: Low cost, durable, portable, and easy to use typing tool. If that's all you or your student needs, by all means take a look at the Alphasmart line of keyboards.
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| heckonwheels's Full Review: AlphaSmart 3000 |
When you only have the good use of one hand...and limited use at that...taking notes in class or doing writing assignments can be a great chore or even impossible. Think about studying for a test and either having no notes to count on or borrowing somebody else's notes that may be of questionable value.
This is the dilemma my son has. His cerebral palsy severely restricts the use of his hands and writing with a pen or pencil is out of the question. Fortunately, somebody thought of this great portable keyboard and many our our problems are solved.
The Alphasmart 3000 (there is also the more advanced Palm OS Dana model available now) is a basic portable keyboard. It's not a laptop and I question even the categorizing of it as a PDA. It allows a user to type basic text files and to save up to eight of them.
It comes on with a simple one button on/off switch. It automatically opens the last file worked on. A user switches between the files by simply pressing the F1 through F8 keys at the top.
Once a file is open, you just start typing. Turn it off and the file is saved without any input from the user.
Our son just pops it on his desktop in class and starts pecking away. He has gotten good enough that he single-finger types 26 words per minute on it. It's very nice to come home from work and hear that all his homework is done and just needs to be printed out. He will not go to school without it.
Still, even at 26 words per minute, the lecture can pass him by at times. Fortunately, Don Johnston Company makes an applet for the Alphasmart 3000 (not available on the Dana yet) called Co:Writer that gives the Alpha word prediction capability. Whenever you type a letter, a list of eight of the most common words that are typed with that letter appear and you just have to hit the corresponding number to put that word in.
We are just starting to work with that applet but it appears that it will increase his typing speed substantially as he gets used to it.
The Alphasmart comes in a hard plastic shell. I remember the first time Tim dropped it off of the table and my heart sank. I picked it up and there wasn't a scratch. It still worked perfectly. The unit he uses is now in it's fifth year of use and it still looks and works like new. Like a Timex, it really takes a licking and keeps on ticking. We have had to get a new carrying case because the first one wore out.
There are a couple of drawbacks that make me take a star away from a perfect score.
First is the file transfer. A clumsy system of wires is needed. You open up your word processing program, unplug the keyboard of your PC, plug in the wire from the Alpha, and send the file. The Alpha then proceeds to paste the text into your word processor...it's not a true file transfer. You need to unplug the wire to get out of send mode to select another file (unless you've got a great memory and can remember which number file your next one is) and then plug it back in to get to the send mode.
When you're done, you need to get back behind your PC and replace the Alpha's cord with your keyboard plug. Now, you can go to the PC and do spell checking, proofreading, etc.
There is also an infrared transfer option which we don't have but you must be line-of-sight and very close to get it to work. A USB cable can work and you can also send the file straight to a printer.
What would be really good is the ability to save a file to a diskette and then just plug it into the PC.
Next, the display screen just shows three lines on a very basic monochrome LCD display. If you make a mistake, you only have the destructive backspace to delete characters and correct them. Going back and forth several paragraphs for editing your essays is a chore best left for after you've transferred the file to the PC.
And finally, you're limited to eight files. You better be able to get everything you want done in eight files because you don't get a number nine. We get around that by simply doubling up assignments into one file when necessary but more file capacity would be nice (which is one of the improvements the Dana makes).
The Alphasmart 3000 does a splendid job in it's basic capacity as a note taker and text file typer. If that's all you or your student needs, this low-cost, very portable, and durable keyboard just might be the ticket for you
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 250
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Epinions.com ID:
heckonwheels
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Location: Los Angeles, CA USA
Reviews written: 77
Trusted by: 14 members
About Me:
Southern California native who travels around the country a lot.
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