There are so many things going on in the world of classmate PC, I had to share a bunch of them with you all! I was at IDF 2010 in San Francisco yesterday where we had a lot of things going on classmate PC related including a great press showcase, some local students who have classmate PCs in there class – roving around the show, a great class on developing apps for education and classmate, a new App Up education channel, and lots of the latest designs to play around with! Check out our latest press release related to these topics.
Part of the news at IDF was about a new clamshell classmate PC design. The new design includes a number of updates:
- Improved ruggedness: the new design can be dropped from a kid’s standard (up to 70cm) and even land on a corner without damage. This has already been a handy feature for my 4-year old.
- Day-long battery life: With more than 8 hours on a charge allows students to work all day long.
- Water -resistant keyboard: protects against accidental spills. It takes half a juice box and keeps on computing (up to 100cc). We all know that spills happen, so this is a great feature with kids.
- Improved antimicrobial coating: protects kids from bacteria, mold, mildew, fungi, algae and yeast
- And the design shares a similar design language with the convertible classmate PC!
Another piece of exciting news that I wanted to give more details on that we unveiled at IDF was the new Intel Learning Series Education Channel on the Intel AppUp Center. Consumers can browse and buy software for classmate PCs directly from the AppUp Center customizing the 1:1 learning experience to their needs. Each student can get the tools to succeed that they need. So a kid who is struggling in math can download an app to help while his friend can get an app for English and grammar. Education can be totally customized to the needs of the individual. All the apps are designed to work seamlessly on classmate PCs.
The latest cool news is that respected text book manufacturer, McGraw-Hill is selling the McGraw-Hill Companion Touch bundled with their curriculum content programs, based on the new convertible classmate PC reference design. We showed off some of this content at the IDF press showcase! The awesome thing about this announcement is that it is seeding the shift from physical text books to truly interactive eLearning in a classroom! No longer do our students have to be bored reading a plain textbook or even that same textbook rendered electronically in an eReader – they can now get excited about full interactive content that exercises all the learning modes; Visual, Auditory, and Experiential! More details on this will be detailed in an upcoming blog of mine on eLearning…keep an eye out for that!
Lastly, we had some kids from a local school come to IDF for the day to demo classmate PC for attendees and media. I’ll post some photos and videos and share them soon! Keep an eye out for some special interviews we’ll post to the Inspire site too!
