Product Profile: PC TableTote
By Mitchell Levine

Blame it on the new millennium, future shock, or just successful marketing, the reigning concept in education procurement today is “technology.” While some might argue about the ultimate utility of this current sprit of technical acquisitiveness, the only thing no one seems to be able to do is ignore it. With massive initiatives like the New York Board of Education’s experiment in distributing laptops to the 4th grade students of districts 6 and 10 already in play, our administrators intent to bridge the “digital divide” has never been clearer.

Unfortunately, since public education is predominantly funded on the basis of local property values, schools in lower-income districts, which need the access most, also have the least space in which to house it. Spending vast amounts of money on hardware does little good if it can’t be used, so a major battle in the war to equalize opportunity is being fought in the effort to optimize space. One solution that deserves serious consideration is the PC TableTote.

Robert Scott, marketing manager for The Gibbs Group, tells the story of the product’s inventor, a bona-fide traveling salesman, who discovered that his supposedly “portable” computer was next to impossible to use within the confines of a typical airport’s waiting area.

To maximize his ability to sell one product, he created another. Doug Gibbs, the principal design engineer, combined a polycarbonate desktop with telescoping leg assemblies made from aircraft-grade aluminum into a compact, portable folding workstation. His implementation was so effective that freestanding the product can support either desktop and laptop computers or AV equipment, while still maintaining a form factor capable of fitting into a 10 3/4” by 12” case, when folded. A typical classroom closet can easily contain a stack of thirty or forty of the units.

Even better, with its adjustable, collapsible design, the TableTote workstation can quickly be configured without tools to accommodate heights from 13 to 30 inches— covering dimensions appropriate for students from grade school to higher education. At a net weight of about three pounds, it comes with standard safety features like non-skid rubber feet and desktop areas— something which certainly cannot be said about the “legacy furniture” now in use in most classrooms.

The company offers a series of progressive discounts for institutional buyers: Education Update’s administrative readers mentioning this article will receive an initial 15% off the suggested manufacturer’s retail price of $49.95, with even further savings on high-volume orders. Furthermore, the company provides significant customization options for interested schools, like unique colors and name imprinting.

Readers on the West Coast are invited to check it out themselves at the Camex trade expo, being held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from the 20th through the 24th of February. For those that can’t make it, more information on this state-of-the-art functional design concept can be found on the company’s website at www.pctabletote.com, or by contacting Robert Scott or Doug Gibbs directly at 877-318-2253.#

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