The latest trend in laptops seems to be small and efficient.

These new mini laptops, usually called “netbooks,” are designed with office productivity and internet usage in mind. They aren’t burdened with too much power, which keeps them efficient and cheap.

Sounds to me like these are a good candidate for use in the classroom. I’ve been thinking of testing one out, and now thanks to Free Technology for Teachers, I’ve got the perfect excuse to do that.

Acer Netbook Promotion

Acer is currently running a promotion where you can test run a netbook for 30 days – no strings attached. Acer of course is trying to get you to purchase a whole slew of the computers for your school, but you aren’t obligated to purchase anything and you don’t need to pay anything up front to participate.

I spoke with a representative from Acer last week, and I signed up for the program. Initially, I thought they might only be looking for tech coordinators – since they make the purchasing decisions – but it was not a problem that I’m just a lowly classroom teacher. [Note: Only one person from each school can participate, so it would be a good idea to talk to your tech coordinator, just in case they were thinking of joining the program.]

Besides getting to test out the laptop, there are two other reasons to join the program.

$200 netbook. The Acer netbook normally sells for $400, but at the end of the promotion you can purchase one unit for half price. I haven’t checked out the details to see if I can purchase it personally (and thus not have it be school property), but I’m hoping that’s the case.

Chance to win a free set of Netbooks. Participants can win either a full computer lab of Acer desktops or a classroom set of Acer netbooks. Your chances of winning are pretty slim (4 prizes over all), but why not give it a shot?

Tiger Direct has a couple of Netbooks (include the Acer offered through this promotion) on sale for $300. The Acer and the Sylvannia netbooks are both currently $300, although the Sylvania looks slightly better (faster RAM, bigger hard drive) but it comes with Ubuntu (a Linux OS) instead of Windows.

I’ve also heard talk of a new netbook coming out from Asus that will cost $200. Supposed to be released sometime in 2009. Hmm… that could be interesting.