Several schools and colleges in developed and developing markets are buying
tablet computers in order to replace their text books. The new trend is contributing significantly to the growth of tablet makers.
Verizon Wireless, top service provider, will provide Samsung
Galaxy Tab 7.0″ to 480 senior students of East Orange Campus High School.
All 480 senior students will start using tablets instead of
textbooks this school year. Verizon Wireless http://www.verizon.com will
provide tablets at a promotional price and a private and secure mobile network.
“Introducing tablets in our local schools is a great
initiative. It is a fun and engaging way for the students to learn and interact
with their classmates. It is also a lot more convenient since there will be no
need to carry a heavy backpack every day,” said Pat Devlin, president of
Verizon Wireless for the New York Metro Area.
The tablets will run on an encrypted mobile network,
provided by Verizon Wireless, which will allow students to do work anywhere in
a safe web environment. Additionally, the school officials will have access to
every tablet and have the ability to completely deactivate a tablet in the
event that one is lost or stolen.
“This is a logical next step for school systems;
delivering information in a way that our students are accustomed to consuming
it,” said Makeba McCray, Technology Coordinator for East Orange Campus
High School.
The trend is likely to spread to emerging telecom markets as
schools are keen to avoid the increasing cost of paper. The tablets will also
be preloaded with all necessary textbooks, as well as various educational
applications and news sources.
Students will receive a Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Tab
7.0″. Through Schoology, an online learning, classroom management, and
social networking platform, they will be able to collaborate with their
teachers and classmates and access the curriculum and supplemental content at
any time.
Students at Burlington High School near Boston will also
start the year with new school-issued iPads, each loaded with electronic
textbooks and other online resources in place of traditional bulky texts.
Apple officials
say they know of more than 600 districts that have launched what are called
“one-to-one” programs, in which at least one classroom of students is
getting iPads for each student to use throughout the school day, according to a media report.
Nearly two-thirds of them have begun since July, according to
Apple.
Kentucky’s education commissioner and the superintendent of
schools in Woodford County said that Woodford County High will give each of its
1,250 students an iPad.
For some schools, the $500 iPads a better long-term
investment than textbooks, though these schools will still use traditional
texts in some courses if suitable electronic programs aren’t yet available.
New York City, Chicago and many other urban districts also
are buying large numbers of iPads.
The iPads cost districts between $500 and $600, depending on
what accessories and service plans are purchased.
The tablet usage is catching up in India as well. The
government of India is buying 100,000 Akash tablets from DataWind for Rs 2,250
per unit. The industry is not sure whether the entire Indian education system
is getting ready to replace text books. But Indian students will start using
tablet computers. They will also get text content on the tablet computer.
Under NME-ICT, the government intends to deliver 10 million
tablets to post-secondary students across India.
Though the Aakash tablet will only be available to
post-secondary students through the NME-ICT, DataWind will offer a commercial
version, called the UbiSlate, starting late November for Rs 2,999. The
price difference between the Aakash and UbiSlate is because the commercially
available product will include a cellular modem, allowing it to deliver web
access anywhere there is a cellular connectivity, and also to function as a
mobile phone.
By Baburajan K
[email protected]
