Bedmas Educational 101 Keyboard
Working in conjunction with Bedmas Educational, a hardware manufacturer and our panel of educators, technology coordinators, superintendents and principals, we are proud to present the Bedmas Educational 101 Keyboard Kit (Version 1.0).
What is the Bedmas Educational Keyboard
Kit?
Using feedback from our Advisory Panel we collected a wish list of any feature you would like to see in a keyboard designed specifically for schools. Bedmas engineers and manufacturers then went to work to create a keyboard and mouse kit that has as many of those features as we could fit while keeping the price low enough to make sense for purchase by schools.
Why bother designing a keyboard?
Part of our commitment to our educational customers includes constantly combing through our customer service reports to identify anything recurring that is causing problems for the Tech-Coordinators in the schools who maintain our equipment.
What we found were very few failures with our standard PC's, Notebooks and LCD's but a disproportionate number of issues with the generic keyboards used by the computer industry. We thought we could design a new keyboard that was:
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more durable than the standard, generic keyboard
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comparable in price to the cheap, generic keyboards
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full of features schools would appreciate
What features made it into version 1.0?
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Aegis MicrobShield - Aegis is an
American company who specializes in a
variety of anti-microbial coatings primarily
for the hospital garment industry. While
expensive and difficult to set up, Aegis
Authorized Manufacturers are able to bond
the Aegis MicrobShield to most plastic
surfaces. The MicrobShield mechanically
kills 99.99% of all microbes on contact
without any toxic chemicals.
- Because we incorporated the Aegis process during manufacturing the protection is fully bonded to the plastic (as opposed to inferior spray-on solutions) and is guaranteed for 7 years of protection.
- Higher quality recycled plastics - this was a difficult decision and we're not sure we chose correctly. Generic boards are made from recycled plastics and while using recycled plastics is the responsible, environmental thing to do, it also results in a slightly softer, more flexible board which in turn results in more breakage under stress. We are carefully monitoring our failure reports and considering using virgin plastic in version 2.0
- Spill Proofing - by segregating all electronic components into a water tight enclosure we managed to make the rest of the keyboard spill proof. Liquids simply run through the board to the surface below with no chance of failure.
- Laser Etched Keys - considering the heavy, constant use some of these keyboards get we noticed that after 2-3 years many of the generic keyboards' keys had faded and were no longer visible. By Laser Etching the keys we are able to guarantee visibility for the full life of the keyboard.
- Longer Cables - one of the most common complaint we received is that the 6' cables provided with most generic keyboards were simply not long enough for most classroom setups. We've extended the length to 10'. For version 2.0 we are also looking at thicker cables with more shielding to avoid any interference or heat build up.
What are the results?
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We are happy overall but there is a lot of room for improvement. The features included above all work as advertised. The keyboard is slightly more durable than the old, generic keyboard it replaced.
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However, we were not completely satisfied with the quality of the plastic and the fit and finish. We were hoping to increase the quality considerably from the standard keyboards and we only got half way there. There were also some very minor issues with the spacing between the keys.
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We are already hard at work to fix those two minor shortcomings. The process is difficult as keeping the price low is also of paramount importance.
