Asus Minibooks at the British Museum

Yesterday I worked with a Year 5 class on a Trip to the British Museum. The difference with this to normal trips was that we didn't take clipboards and worksheets, we took 10 Asus Minibooks.

This was a first for me and the school I was working with. Within Redbridge a few other schools has taken these laptops on trips so I was keen to see the advantages that they offered.

Their task was to throughout the Greek galleries they where asked to choose artifacts and then record information about it. The children used the web cam on the laptop to take pictures, then inserted the picture into a prepared Openoffice presentation file and added text.

The children had used these laptops before the trip and had recapped the main skills a few days before the trip.

There where 2/3 children working with each laptop, it was interesting to see the children at work. It was obvious that the fact they where using laptops excited the children, but they where all working on the tasks. They had to look carefully at the objects they where taking photos of and then had to find, read and take notes about the artifact.


These mini laptops were well used and provided children an alternative focus to the traditional worksheet. I would definitely think about using them again, you just need to make sure you have an appropriate task in mind to use the laptops. One of the other ideas we had was to use googleforms to do a survey or questionnaire, unfortunately the British Museum doesn't have wireless but I could be an idea in other places.

The children are now going to review there work and prepare to show their presentations to other classes their school. When they are finished I will update with their presentations.

Has anyone else used these laptops on trips? Please leave a comment.