Which computer ? .....and which software

XLlogger works with any Windows based computer using Windows and Excel from version 2000 onwards. XLlogger is an application described in MS jargon as an Add-In which means it  ‘sits inside’ Excel and works in a fully compatible way  with the normal software.  Therefore any computer running Windows with Excel 2000 onwards will function fully with the sensors once XLlogger is loaded.

It is also fully functional on school networks running the correct software as described above. Your ICT coordinator will of course have to load it onto the network but it is a simple task for anyone to load it onto a non network computer of any type.

What may be more important to the user is the type of computer available to you or which computer you wish to use.

Desktops & Tower systems: This may well be available to you as a teacher in your classroom or laboratory. XLlogger will function here in a demonstration situation or as a teacher lead activity linked to a PC projector or Interactive Whiteboard.
If it is the only computer available in the lab’ you may wish to demo’ data capture using XLlogger to students whilst they do the same experiment traditionally. This may lead to questions about experimental and data errors highlighted between the electronic and manual data. You may discuss the accuracy of electronic data and it’s stability or consistency. Consider sample time, length of recording and the automatic function of computer generated data.

Laptops: These offer a flexibility of use in laboratories and classrooms and are ideal as class sets for student use. Equally you may be constrained by your own teacher laptop for class use, in which case you may have to revert to the ideas above.
However, with a class set of laptops and pupils working in small groups there is a real opportunity for shared work and data sets using XLlogger data easily transferred between students and teacher either via the school network, memory sticks or Bluetooth options.

Netbooks/notebooks: This is the new breed of mobile computers and will no doubt become the future of computing as technology continues to become ‘faster and smaller.  Since these were launched at BETT, London, UK in 2008 we have seen a revolution in mobile computing. With some quality netbooks at less than £250, which may well be the cost of a datalogger, XLlogger is ideally suited to this new generation of technology. All you need to do is plug in a sensor and open Excel..!
Some netbooks now offer 7 and 9 hour battery life enabling longer term remote logging in the field. More robust and rugged versions for field work are also available.  For field work XLlogger would recommend a netbook which, with data saved as an Excel file, can be shared quickly and simply with students via the network once back in school or field centre.
XLlogger does not offer particular advice on individual netbooks your ICT coordinator can do so – with school site licences for Microsoft Office/Excel it means that for less than the cost of most actual dataloggers or interfaces your science students could be logging data individually rather than by demo or larger groups.

Interactive Boards: These are now common, if not standard in classrooms and laboratories. As with your computer type you are not constrained by the type of board. Open Excel and XLlogger as normal and use with the board. Use to display XLlogger data as real time logging, show the class the uses of Excel data analysis with XLlogger menus or the full functionality of Excel. Share experimental data sets by importing into one large class spreadsheet or encourage students add manual data to electronic data sets for comparison. 

Students and Open Source software:  The new netbooks were designed for use with free or Open Source software. What does Open Source mean? Open Source software is free software which is increasingly available and as robust as other systems. So instead of Microsoft as your operating system then you might choose the free download called Linux. Rather than Microsoft Office you can freely download Open Office and find a complete suite of programs almost identical to MS Office and with inter-compatibility between the two e.g. an Excel file can be opened  in Open Office Calc (equivalent spreadsheet) and vice versa.
Therefore, although at trhe moment you can only log data in Excel it is possible for students to manipulate data in Excel or equivalent Open Office systems.
We hope, in the future, to provide the opportunity to log data in Open Source systems as well as Microsoft operating systems.