$f66|1-COMMODORE SCHOOLS CATALOGUE $afc By Mitch Reynolds $e77 I was helping out at school recntly in our computer rooms and we were tidying up. I noticed that there was an old Commodore Schools Catalogue (and you thought that the Amiga was never pushed as an education platform). So I quickly swiped it and bunged it in my back. I though that it may be of interest so I have retyped some of it, just for you! INTRODUCTION For more than thirty years Commodore has been developing an enviable reputation for the production of business machines which are both innovative and value for money. Today, Commodore is the second largest computer manufacturer in western Europe ( Boo Hoo! - Mitch). In 1987 Commodore UK made a conscious decision to commit itself to education and liaised directly with relevant educational bodies (DES, LEAs and techers) in order to create products which were ideal for use in education. A Primary advisory panel was developed in 1989 to identify the strengths and weakness in both software and hardware. A team of independant Regional Education Consultants - all ex-teachers - started visiting schools to demonstrate hos the Commodore solutions could be used as teaching aids in the class room. The wide range of products and solutions offered by Commodore bridges the gap between industry, school and the home: MS-DOS PCs for business applications; Amiga computers for creative applications such as art and music; and CDTV, the TRUE multimedia machine. Peripherals such as special needs accesories, networks, training and on-going support are all part of the quality solutions Commodore is able to offer at cost-effective prices. Stephen Franklin Managing Director, Commodore Business Machines (UK) Ltd. --COMMODORE COMPUTERS-- CASE STUDIES Feltham Community School, MIDDX Feltham Community School identified a need for a computer that was easy enough for every one to operate and yet robust enough to survive over one thousand pupils passing througj in one school year. Tony Loughlin, head of business as the school said, "We asked ourselves a question - what do we want? What will do the best job?". The computer room now has 27 networked Amigas, led by Tony Loughlin, the students and teachers are encouraged to use Amigas and PCs across all curriculum areas, from geography to business studies. "An added benefit of the Amiga", said Tony Loughlin, "is that it is an affordable high street machine that many pupils have at home and are therefor able to do their homework on them and just bring the disk into school". Blake School, Bridgewater Mel Petty, IT coodinator at Blake School in Somerset had to meet certain requirements when searching for school computers. They needed to have good graphic capabilites, to be cost effective, user friendly and also available through highstreet dealers. The Commodore Amiga 500 computer fitted the bill. The effect in the classes at Blake School was immediate. Groups of pupils with mixed abilities were all comfortable with the machines, whilst pupils with reading and writing difficulties found a whole new mediium in which to express themselfves. Pupils could work at their own pace and share problems with each other and this encourages interactive communication skills. Used in art and design, the Amigas have helped each pupil with a range of cognitive skills and have accelarated the devlopment learning process. Mel believes the most important aspect is that the pupils use the Amiga as a tool, in much the same way as a paint brush, but they use it with much more of a discerning eye and with an ability to ease which knows no bounds. --COMMODORE COMPUTERS-- THE RANGE Amiga 500 Motorola 68000 8Mhz processor, 1M RAM, 880K Internal Floppy Disk Drive, Serial, Parallel, Mouse, Joystick, Stereo Audio, RGB Analouge and digital and composite video ports plus peripheral Expransion port. Amiga DOS 1.3. Amiga 2000 Motorola 68000, 8Mhz, 1M RAM, 880K Floppy Disk Drive, Serial, Parallel, Mouse, Joystick, Stereo Audio, RGB Analouge digital and composite video output, plus peripheral expansion port, AmigaDOS and 40M hard disk. Amiga 3000 Motorola 68030 25 Mhz, 1M RAM, 880K Floppy drive serial, parallel, mouse, joystick, stereo audio, RGB analouge, digital and composite video ports, plus additional peripheral expansion ports. Amiga DOS 2.00 Available with 50M/100 M Hard Disk. CDTV As A500 with MIDI interface, infra red remote control and CD-ROM drive (660M). **Then there are lots of PCS - Mitch There then are a lot more pages covering CBM Amiga and PC software. I just though that this may interest some people. $ff0 [I remember when I was buying an A500 back in 1988 and Commodore had this attitude where it was a "serious machine NOT a games machine" and all the shops had that waterfall anim on it in the display window. When asked to see it running some software they would load up a wordpro or paint package. "Games" was a dirty word back then but the way the Amiga was used by games programmers made it so popular that the big C had to give in. Kei] $e77 end