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  1. #1
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    First tablet PCs going out to kids soon

    Bangkok Post : First tablet PCs going out to kids soon

    First tablet PCs going out to kids soon

    The Ministry of Education will soon distribute the first batch of 600 tablet PCs to selected schools to gauge what impact they will have in the classroom.

    Sahaviriya OA Public Company donated the tablets to the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for the government's one-tablet-per-child policy.


    Woravat: Impacts on pupils to be gauged

    Education Minister Woravat Au-apinyakul said his ministry will distribute the computers to selected groups of Prathom 1 and 4 students (Grades 1 and 4) from five pilot schools once it receives them from the ICT Ministry.

    The five schools are Rachawinit School in Bangkok, Anuban Lampang School (Khelang Rat Anuson) in Lampang, Anuban Phangnga School in Phangnga, Sanambin School in Khong Kaen and Srinakharinwirot University Prasarnmit Demonstration School in Bangkok.

    "The donated tablet PCs will be handed out to 50 students at Prathom 1 level and another 50 for those at the Prathom 4 level in five pilot schools," said the minister. The remaining 100 will be kept in reserve.

    "We will not give the tablets to all schools at once as the ministry must consider the readiness of students and teachers, and other facilities such as an internet connections," Mr Woravat said.

    The Education Ministry will also conduct a study on the potential impacts of the devices on pupils. The study will be carried out in collaboration with the Office of the Basic Education Commission and Srinakharinwirot University.

    It will focus on children's eyesight, writing and reading abilities, and learning performance. The results are expected early next year, the minister said.

    If the study finds the devices have negative effects on young pupils, they could be given to older students instead.
    "Slavery is the daughter of darkness; an ignorant people is the blind instrument of its own destruction; ambition and intrigue take advantage of the credulity and inexperience of men who have no political, economic or civil knowledge. They mistake pure illusion for reality, license for freedom, treason for patriotism, vengeance for justice."-Simón Bolívar

  2. #2
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    Bangkok Post : School tablet PCs costed at B1.6bn

    School tablet PCs costed at B1.6bn

    The Education Ministry wants 1.6 billion baht from the government's 2012 fiscal budget to purchase tablet computers for first-grade students, education permanent secretary Sasithara Pichaichannarong said Monday.

    Ms Sasithara said the Basic Education Commission, Private Education Commission and Higher Education Commission offices will oversee the budget for the one-tablet PC-per-child policy.

    The budget allocation is needed to buy 470,000 tablet PCs. The cost of each tablet PC was 3,100 baht and the software installation cost 310 baht for each computer, she said.

    Elementary schools under other ministries, such as the Interior Ministry's Department of Local Administration, will have to set up their own funds for purchasing tablet PCs, she said.

    The permanent secretary said there are about 850,000 first-graders and 569,000 of them are in schools under the Education Ministry.

    The ministry will first give the tablet PCs to schools with proper utilities and internet access, she said.

  3. #3
    Excommunicated baldrick's Avatar
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    $100 USD resistive touchscreen generic chinese tablets have minimal battery life - with out 6+ hours of batt these will not be useful

  4. #4
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    wouldn't that money be better used to save flood victims ?

    those tabs are not going to be useful when submerged in water,

  5. #5
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    You miss the real logic behind these tablets; give them to promising students from non-elite families, which will likely assure they will be playing Angry Birds during class thereby remaining ignorant and compliant for the remainder of their lives. Well worth the cost to stamp out the treat of critical thinking.

  6. #6
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    Bangkok Post : Tortured path to tablet PCs

    EDITORIAL

    Tortured path to tablet PCs


    It has been 134 days since the general election swept Puea Thai into power with a host of populist promises. The party has partly delivered on several details _ but almost every government policy remains hazy. The programmes forge ahead despite the focus on flooding emergencies. But they remain stubbornly opaque. Authorities reported a spurt of activity in plans to give tablet PCs to first-year students, but virtually no details.



    It appears, however, that there are too many hands involved to allow the project to succeed.

    The promise to put a tablet in the hands of every Prathom 1 student dates back to the election campaign of last May and July. But the idea of handing technology to students goes back a decade. Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the media lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, conceived of the idea that every child in the world should have a computer, especially poor children in developing nations. His One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) gave then-budding politician Thaksin Shinawatra an idea. After his first election as prime minister, Thaksin even considered joining the plan on behalf of Thai students.

    OLPC was a terrible idea which deserved to die. The variant promised by the Pheu Thai Party last June, however, is a different matter. OLPC was an old idea that needed a new product _ a computer so simple that even a teacher could use it. A tablet PC is a thoroughly modern twist on an old idea. It requires little input, and is so intuitive that almost anyone can master it _ even an adult. Today's slick tablets connect to the internet automatically, and work almost entirely from icons. Functions are controlled by hand and finger movements _ pinch fingers to make a window smaller, for example.

    Since the start of the administration of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, many adults have opposed giving tablets to school beginners. Almost none of the opposition has voiced rational opposition. Last week, Education Minister Woravat Au-apinyakul got on the wrong side of the still unsettled argument, by pandering to people who are truly off the illogical scale of this programme. Announcing a pilot plan to give away 600 tablets to selected classes around the country, the minister claimed his officials will conduct detailed studies of the lucky 600 youngsters. The studies will rate the writing ability of those with the tablets, the learning performance that the tablets provide _ and whether the eyesight of the students is affected.

    Perhaps the first tablet should be given to the minister. Then he would know that tablet PCs, by design, are not for writing. Tablets are almost exclusively a one-way device, allowing owners to get and to manipulate information, but not to write it, at least not easily. Mr Woravat seems to have mixed up tablets with desktop and laptop computers, which come with keyboards, large screens and the built-in function of writing and editing. It is not even clear why the minister is concerned about eyesight, since hundreds of studies are freely available on this.

    There are problems with tablets, to be sure, but they do not concern the students. Like a previous, hugely abused programme to provide personal computers to schools, the tablet PC programme has huge potential for abuse by the officials, politicians and private companies which will be involved.

    The tablet PC project does not need fusspots worrying about whether children can use computers. It needs hard-headed inspectors and accountants able to ensure that the children _ and the taxpayers _ get what they are entitled to.

  7. #7
    The Pikey Hunter
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    Quote Originally Posted by StrontiumDog
    a computer so simple that even a teacher could use it
    Need to get a few of those for our resident TEFLer posters.

  8. #8
    euston has flown

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    Quote Originally Posted by baldrick View Post
    $100 USD resistive touchscreen generic chinese tablets have minimal battery life - with out 6+ hours of batt these will not be useful
    given the internet links are going to cost $100 million, you would have thought that they could afford to increase the budget by 50% and double the amount available to up the spec a bit

  9. #9
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    Obec reviews course content for tablets - The Nation

    Obec reviews course content for tablets

    Wannapa Khaopa
    The Nation November 21, 2011 1:00 am


    Minister wants materials to reflect focus on job skills


    The Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) is reviewing its digital instructional materials to ensure they are ready for installation in tablet PCs to be distributed to Prathom 1 students next semester under one of the government's key election policies.

    Education Minister Woravat Auapinyakul last weekend told Obec to review the electronic instructional media it uses to teach Prathom 1 (Grade 1) students both online and offline to ensure they cover all the important subjects before they are installed in the tablets.

    Woravat also wants other agencies within the Education Ministry to adjust their digital instructional media to ensure they accord with the ministry's new curriculum, which focuses on equipping students with skills tailored towards specific work fields.

    Over the weekend, the minister called a twoday meeting with the agencies and had them present the digital instructional media they use to teach students at different levels. He reviewed the media created and used by the agencies, before leading a discussion on how to improve and adjust them to make them more suitable for Prathom 1 students and bring them in line with the new curriculum.

    Chinnapat Bhumirat, secretarygeneral of Obec, said Woravat discussed the idea of distributing tablets to students in other levels as well, and was studying the feasibility of incorporating the tablets in the free compulsory education scheme.

    "The minister said his idea was to include tablets in the list of resources available under the government's free education policy. It would be like a shopping list. So, students could decide what they need among such things as uniforms, textbooks or tablets. If one chooses a tablet, he or she will probably have to use the government subsidies given to them over three years to pay for the tablet," said Chinnapat.

    Obec's new curriculum aims to teach skills in the following areas: agriculture, commerce; industry; professions that use creative thinking; and specific professions in different areas with different capabilities and resources.

    "Obec is adjusting its curriculum in line with an 'education for career' policy. Upper secondary students will be offered an alternative to the current curriculum that will allow them to study vocational subjects. This will give them job skills and make it easier for them to get a job," Chinnapat added.

    "We can't wait until parents and students change their attitude, or until more students opt for a vocational education. Obec has to act and provide more vocationalskills training to students," he said.

    To aid in this process, Woravat said at the meeting he wanted the agencies to adjust their electronic instructional materials to encourage students to learn about careers.

    Changing or adjusting the digital media would be done in time for the launch of the new curriculum, which the ministry expects will occur in the next academic year.

    Local executives of US tech giant Apple have reportedly contacted Woravat to discuss the issue. They are expected to meet him this week.

    The ministry plans to hand out the tablets in the first semester of the next academic year and seeks Bt1.6 billion for the government's One Tablet PC Per Child policy. Around 470,000 Prathom 1 students under Obec, the Office of Private Education Commission and the Office of Higher Education Commission are expected to receive the tablets. The Interior and other ministries that oversee primary schools will also seek budgets to buy tablets for their Prathom 1 students.

    Approximately 560,000 Prathom 1 students under the supervision of various ministries are in line to receive the tablets, out of a total 850,000 firstgraders countrywide.

    Chinnapat said directors of education service area offices would survey and select eligible schools in their areas of responsibility. Chinnapat expected that around 50 per cent of the 38,000 schools under Obec would be given the tablets.

    "Teachers and especially school administrators who show they are active and eager to use the tablets to teach will be considered. If they are enthusiastic to try using the new technological tools, it won't be difficult to train them how to use them in their teaching."

    The secretary general hoped that the tablets would help ease the teacher shortage problem, particularly those who teach important subjects, including mathematics, English and science at schools in remote areas. "Using the tablets to teach English, students can hear how native English speakers pronounce words without paying expensive salaries to hire them."

    Meanwhile, Srinakharinwirot University is studying the pros and cons of using tablets to teach Prathom 1 students at five schools in different regions of the country. The university will see how the tablets affect students' learning behaviour, their academic performance and their health. The research is expected to be concluded in February next year, Chinnapat said.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by hazz View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by baldrick View Post
    $100 USD resistive touchscreen generic chinese tablets have minimal battery life - with out 6+ hours of batt these will not be useful
    given the internet links are going to cost $100 million, you would have thought that they could afford to increase the budget by 50% and double the amount available to up the spec a bit
    Actually if you look at rates of AIS, DTAC, or TRUE, they are quite affordable, and there are promotions too. All offering 3g to HDSPA+ for internet access.

  11. #11
    euston has flown

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    ^But whats their cost for 10Gbit fibre internet?

  12. #12
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    On True I get average 7mbs on different locations in bkk with samsung galaxy 2 (yeah I am a rich fucker hate me) and same in pattaya and hua hin, and other places. Naturally I have 3g enabled sim cards from AIS and DTAC as well, all taken into account

  13. #13
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    "other places" is Chiang Mai, so far

  14. #14
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    Oh and Phuket, had good fast access there

  15. #15
    euston has flown

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    ^^^Its not a typo. they are getting 10Gbit as in 10,000Mbit fibre connections

  16. #16
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    rayong though is lacking. was driving along the beach, google maps had difficulies to update on edge speed

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by hazz View Post
    ^^^Its not a typo. they are getting 10Gbit as in 10,000Mbit fibre connections

    What you need to pay for out connections is same everywhere. Not about Thailand.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by hazz View Post
    ^^^Its not a typo. they are getting 10Gbit as in 10,000Mbit fibre connections
    Eh?

    Each tablet will have a 10Gbit connection, or have I misunderstood?

  19. #19
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    If you want commercial level access you will get it, and pay for it, like with my office high availability all times to UK/US. If you are a hobby like torrent downloader fuck off.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Moonraker View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by hazz View Post
    ^^^Its not a typo. they are getting 10Gbit as in 10,000Mbit fibre connections
    Eh?

    Each tablet will have a 10Gbit connection, or have I misunderstood?
    Silly boy. Did you buy one on that marketing scam?

  21. #21
    euston has flown

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    The schools will get a 10Gbit fibre connection to Uninet and thereby internet.
    the internet will then distributed around the school via ethernet cable and wifi

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by hazz View Post
    The schools will get a 10Gbit fibre connection to Uninet and thereby internet.
    the internet will then distributed around the school via ethernet cable and wifi
    Ah

    Guessed it might be something like that.

    Cheers

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by hazz View Post
    The schools will get a 10Gbit fibre connection to Uninet and thereby internet.
    the internet will then distributed around the school via ethernet cable and wifi
    Hate to repeat myself, but computer access to kids in thailand is bloody great. They wlil learn things. Some will be experts.

  24. #24
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    But for how long will the tablets work?

    Is there a budget for maintenance and repair?

  25. #25
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    There is no infrasructure to have giga connections yet, which is why i label certain people as -

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