Heard from a source familiar to the project that St. Paul College in Pasig is in the process of acquiring 5,000 units of Android tablets for its students which will replace most of the textbooks.
Apparently, the tablet project will eventually replace the books being used by the school for its students. The transition will happen in the next school year.
Several suppliers were invited for the bidding — Apple, RedFox, Archos, Acer and Toshiba, among others. St. Paul has some requirements in the hardware, operating system (Android 2.2 Froyo) and of course pricing.
It’s a relatively huge project, considering it’s for 5,000 units. I am told this is just an initial roll-out which will probably be for high-school students of the Pasig branch for the meantime. The cost of the tablets will be added into the tuition fees of the students. That should offset the cost of textbooks which goes for tens of thousands per year.
St. Paul will be doing some testing and development, which may include apps for research and other teaching tools the students can use. Of course, there’ll be provisions for security and parental control.
If the tablet will last for about 2 to 3 years, it might turn out cheaper than the actual books. Now that’s what I’d call one-tablet-per-student program!
Update: Have talked to several people who are familiar with the project. Turns out several other schools are doing something similar. St. Scholastica and de la Salle GreenHills are also looking into the tablet solution.
As for St. Paul’s initiatives, it seems that Jun Lozada is the man behind the idea (he’s the Technical Consultant of the nuns in those schools) and he’s very adamant about going for Android.
i think the figure for the price of textbooks per year is too high. what kind of textbooks do you sell to them? frankly it is a private school but the amount do not suffice the enrichment or value of the books. those android units are in the market for 12K to 18K. how well do you know that this technology will work successfully and safely in an instant. you do trust well this technology, i guess, but this better be not a high leap at once. consider several runs and safety measures before jumping too high. there are a lot of things to consider and should take into account. please do intellectual research and to the writer, please be more detailed. to not to confuse and turn readers into a lot of speculations.
+1 to P. Anda ^
[...] Android tablets in Manila (Courtesy: yugatech) Heard from a source familiar to the project that St. Paul College in Pasig is in the process of acquiring 5,000 units of Android tablets for its students which will replace most of the textbooks. [...]
[...] Android tablets in Manila (Courtesy: yugatech) Heard from a source familiar to the project that St. Paul College in Pasig is in the process of acquiring 5,000 units of Android tablets for its students which will replace most of the textbooks. [...]
Go Paulinians!
“Pera lang habol niyan kasi kumonti ng 600 estudiante sa St. Paul Pasig sa ilalim ng directress na si Sr. Teresita Baricaua. Maraming programa ginawa yan na walang pahintulot ng mga magulang para lang pagkwartahan sila. Yan directress na iyan ang nag-ambisyon na nangakong gawing wifi zone ang buong St. Paul, nag-tayo ng internet cafe at pingkakalat na ang webpage ng iskwela ay gawa ng Microsoft Philippines nuong ginawa niyang requirement ang Microsoft Vista ang OS sa St. Paul na sa panahong iyon alam na ng lahat na maraming problema… LAHAT PALPAK DAHIL HINDI PINAGAARALAN at pera lang talaga habol. Tanungin niyo ang mga taga St. Paul Pasig… Dapat nga inspeksyonin ng DEPED iyan eh… dami sinisingil kahit sa gitna ng taon hindi naman ginagamit… bawal yon!”
— THESE ARE ENTIRELY UNFOUNDED AND BASELESS ACCUSATIONS! Tanga ba mga SPCP parents not to react or even file complaints if these were true? Parents in SPCP are HIGHLY educated; i.e., professionals. Andaming lawyer parents sa SPCP…Did the school even receive any complaint? Katabi lang ng SPCP and DepED Central Office. Kung totoo mga accusations ni Leslie, eh di sana matagal nang may nag-complain na parents. Hindi naman yata kasing-tanga ni Leslie mga taga SPCP!
It’s about time! It’s heavier for us students to bring LAPTOPS to school, so having a tablet would be so much better!
[...] heavily of the adoption rate of tablets and eBook readers in the country. However, if schools (like St. Paul, et al) starts to standardize the use of tablet and eReaders in the classroom, we might be able to see [...]
This sounds TERRIBLE. For one thing, you can’t WRITE (as in old school “write”) on these tablets, meaning one of the physical movements that help learning will be taken away. These technological advancements must be studied, discussed, and researched before being made available! I wonder if they REALLY spent time doing those.
I’m sorry, but to me this just sounds like showing off and HAVING expensive stuff (that people don’t need) just for the sake of… well, having them.
I love my alma mater, but when it pulls these stunts (e.g. the gym renovation that took YEARS to finish because there was a lack of funds, aka a lack of proper planning), I get really disappointed.
I just got a letter from SPCP asking for donations because there is an unfinished project (the gymnasium) and now they’re looking into purchasing tablets for students? This does not look or sound right.
okay yan at least kahit papano nag eevolve na rin tau sa technology. but…
sana pagaralan nila un pros and cons, like kung matuto talaga un mga bata using the gadget (pero depende din to sa estudyante. ke sa private o sa public kung tamad din mag aral balewala pera ng magulang), availability ng resources at support etc.
anyways, if the parents has money to burn para pambayad dian di go. whatever floats their boat hehe
wow umaasenso na ang st. paul college pasig…… awesome
)))))))
actually st. paul college pasig announced it in there newspaper and is expecting it to be used next year… they might do a bidding by first week feb 2011… how awesome is that… but it might be optional
Im a paulinian. We actually had the evaluation for the ebooks this morning. It was held at our eRotunda. There were several brands we had to test like Samsung, Cherry mobile, Apple, Dell, Red Fox, Acer, and Archos. Personally, the Dell is the best one.
[...] in point: this news report about E-tablets replacing bulky books and this blog post about an all girls’ school in Metro Manila also exploring the use of tablets to replace their books.) In both of these reports, the tablet seems to be touted as no more than [...]