Philippine province tests tablet devices in classrooms By Adrienne Valdez | 27 May 2011 http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2011/may/27/philippine-province-tests-tablet-devices-classroom/
The Philippine province of Laguna’s provincial government will soon be unveiling a locally made tablet device for the education sector, the first project in the country to explore the concept of a digital classroom in public high schools. Photos The prototype of the tablet device was unveiled for the first time and the various functions and features explained to the public school teachers who will be its first users in a writeshop-workshop for teachers and various stakeholders of the project. Neil Andrew Nocon, Board Member of the Laguna provincial government, said the plan is to pre-load the books and other classroom learning materials in the tablet and distribute it to all public high school students in the province. According to Nocon, “The idea is to be giving away the devices in much the same way books are given to students at the beginning of every school term. But this time, we are giving them a tablet preloaded with books and other learning materials.” Instead of purchasing more desktop PCs or laptops, the project’s implementing group opted for a tablet device as they cost less, they are handy and can be brought home and they are popular among the young. In the demo of the prototype device to teachers during the writeshop-workshop, Val Carandang of Ionics EMS Inc., the company tapped to develop and manufacture the tablets, explained that the tablet will be available in two sizes — the 7-inch and 10-inch devices. Each classroom will have its own mini server and the teacher will be able to upload and download new content in the servers for students to download. They can also upload lectures, PowerPoint presentations, videos and even exams on the device. The long-term vision is that every public school kid in the province to have one but since a gradual roll out is the practical route, Nocon said it would probably be pilot-tested in the first 1,000 students hopefully this school year. -- carlos nazareno http://twitter.com/object404 http://www.object404.com -- core team member phlashers: philippine flash actionscripters http://www.phlashers.com -- poverty is violence _______________________________________________ OLPC-Philippines mailing list OLPC-Philippines@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-philippines
