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FUN LEARNING: SMK Seri Permaisuri students keeping up with their lessons with Intel Classmate PCs. An evaluation of Intel's 1:1 e-learning model showed that both students and teachers found the PCs improved the teaching and learning atmosphere. |
KUALA LUMPUR: A pilot project involving 10 public schools in the peninsula to test the benefits of providing students with low-cost portable computers scored high marks among the teachers and children.
An evaluation report said 85% of the teachers in the test schools found the programme allowed them to better create an innovative and collaborative e-learning environment in the classroom.
It said the teachers also reported that the laptop computers – called the Classmate PC and provided by chipmaker Intel Corp – helped the children open up during question-and-answer lessons, as well as encouraged closer student-teacher relationships.
These findings were listed in the Ministry of Education-Intel School Adoption Project Phase One Evaluation Report, which was released recently.
The report, however, also stated that there are several hurdles that need to be overcome before the programme can be implemented on a nationwide scale.
One challenge is getting teachers to improve their information technology skills. According to the report, some teachers could not operate the Classmate PC confidently enough to integrate the technology into their lessons.
Another is that several teachers found the laptop’s screen too small and also complained that the device does not have enough storage space for their needs.
The laptop is equipped with 2GB of NAND Flash memory, which acts as a more robust hard disk drive since it has no moving parts, and a Celeron M processor. It has a 7in display, runs Microsoft Corp’s Windows XP operating system, and is priced at US$300 (RM1,050).
It is a low-cost laptop specially designed by Intel for education purposes, and part of Intel’s 1:1 (one to one) e-learning programme.
The programme is aimed at providing schools with affordable ICT (information and communications technology) tools that will enable teachers and students to use the Internet, a wide range of software, and other digital resources.
Big hit
Teacher Muhammad Khuzairi Abdullah said his students preferred the lessons where the Classmate PC was used, over those that involved traditional teaching aids. “That would be the plain, old blackboard,” he laughed.
“Yes, the laptop was quite a hit among them,” he added.
Muhammad Khuzairi, who teaches Form 2 students at SMK Sri Permaisuri in Cheras, believes the Classmate PC needs to have more storage.
Two gigabytes is not enough to store all the information that students get in a day, said the teacher who is an IT graduate.
“They would need to invest in secondary storage devices, and even the relatively inexpensive thumbdrive may be too costly for the average student,” he said. “I hope Intel can improve on this area of the Classmate PC.”
Form 2 student Nurul Afifi Azahari said learning on the Classmate PC is “100% more fun than using textbooks.”
“We can instantly look for more information (using the device),” she added.
Her classmate, V. Pavittrati, said using information technology in the classroom makes things easier for both teacher and student.
Pavittrati cited copying notes as an example. “The teacher no longer needs to write down all the information on the blackboard and we no longer need to copy from the board. The information can be sent from the teacher’s computer to our Classmate PCs,” she said.
Intel is pleased with the outcome of Phase One of the project. Navin Shenoy, general manager of Intel Asia Pacific, told a press conference the company intends to go ahead with Phase Two but declined to provide more details at this time.
The chipmaker donated 460 Classmate PCs in April, last year, for the pilot project. It is committed to donating a total of 2,000 units to Malaysian schools by April, 2009.
Intel is not the only organisation pushing the benefits of arming students with very affordable computers. Technology guru and US philantropist Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative moves along similar lines.
The OLPC device is similar to the Classmate PC, but needs no electrical socket; power is generated by turning a handcrank on the device which is named XO. The other difference is that the XO runs on an open-source operating system, and costs US$200 (RM700).
Since the Classmate PC and XO were designed, other low-cost portables have hit the market in recent months.
Among them are the Asus Eee PC costing RM1,299 (Celeron M processor, Linux operating system, 4GB solid-state memory, and 7in LCD screen); InkMedia Inc’s device of the same name priced at US$300 or RM1,050 (Freescale processor, Linux operating system, 8.6in screen, but without any storage); and FTEC Resources’ just-launched Smart Book, priced from RM1,199 (Celeron M processor, Linux operating system, 7in screen, and 40GB hard disk).
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1 comment:
With this low cost laptop, do you think it'll help the students as well as the schools to have better prepared for total computerization in education?
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