When I was in High School, the most high-tech gadget we had in our classroom was the microphone and cassette player one of my teachers used so the entire class could hear her voice. It was almost tied with the scientific calculators with the dot matrix screen and the overhead projector we use for our reports.
Who would have thought that in just a few years—okay, okay I’m lying… its already been two decades.
Last year, tech giant Samsung partnered with the flagship Diliman campus of the Philippine Science High School (PSHS) to create the most advanced classroom in the country– the result was nothing short of amazing.
After 10 months of conceptualization, design and meticulous construction through a P10-million grant by Samsung, the Smart Classroom was finally unveiled to media last February 10, 2014.
The Samsung Smart Classroom can accommodate 30 students at a time with each using a Windows-based tablets to use during class.
Instead of a blackboard or whiteboard, the teacher used a touch-enabled large-format display (LFD) to display his lecture for the day, and he can also easily project the lessons to the tablets–which looked much easier than him using the touch pen.
All the tablets are wirelessly connected to the teacher’s main computer, so that they could immediately access the lecture and as we saw in the demo, answer a surprise quiz and get the results in no time. The teacher even showed the percentage of how many students answered each question correctly– Although, I honestly had no clue what the subject was all about– except for the gears and the flowchart.
So much for “kodigos” and “bayanihan during exams.”
At the back of the classroom, where i would probably choose to sit, are five 55-inch Smart TVs where students can hook up their USBs for their reports or use the TVs to mirror the contents of their smartphones or tablets. Plus there are also three huge 75-inch LFDs mounted vertically.
The Smart Classroom also features; Server, device storage, and charging stations; 36 notebook PCs and 30 tablets for teachers and students; Video walls for projecting, sharing, and mirroring content; Touchscreen display within a whiteboard Samsung Smart School Solution for interactive class management and Teacher training by Samsung.
It was not the first time Samsung partnered with secondary schools. In 2011, the Korean company teamed up with La Salle Green Hills (LSGH) in Mandaluyong City to launch the Pearl Project where Samsung tablets were used as a Personal Learning Device for digitized curriculum materials. Samsung also worked with Don Bosco Technical College donating LED HDTVs and air conditioning units for the school’s technical laboratory. Last year Samsung tablets, loaded with e-books, were provided to parochial schools Pasig Catholic College (PCC) and San Isidro Catholic School (SICS) in replacement of traditional textbooks.
(additional information sourced from www.NEWSBYTES.PH)
