900,000 Tablet PCs To Be Handed Out Now: Thai Education Minister Suchart

[IAMHERE]

700,000 for 1.7 billion ($90 apiece) is a MUCH better price than 200,000 for the extra ($166 apiece) 1 billion. So, why so much more for the 200,000 ?

[FOODLOVER]

I know phatom 4 students that are good whit the computer, they don't want a tablet becouce they can't work whit things like powerpoint, excel and so on on that!

So I think its like many say its good for facebook and angry birds but not for real life work!

Win 7 model can. Apple cannot.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375572,00.asp

[madmitch]

A tablet isn't a patch on a laptop for work purposes. I tried using my daughter's Ipad after my laptop was stolen a few weeks ago and it was so slow to use.

I have used a cheap Chinese tablet and it was useless; basically the touchscreen was just not sensitive and you had to press really hard to get any reaction.

I wonder what OS they'll be using?

[sparebox2]

Good idea, lots of fore thought ,well planned , nice execution in risk assessment. Who pays for the network provider???

it will all be free...

Thailand wires up with free Wi-Fi

The Thai government announced it will be offering free public Wi-Fi in the Greater Bangkok area starting on Wednesday, and the roll out is part of its 30 billion baht (US$957 million) ICT master plan called Smart Thailand.

Thailand's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology Minister pointed out that the Wi-Fi coverage has been planned for city halls in 77 provinces, 878 district offices, 2,010 municipalities, 7,355 tambons (sub-districts), 5,765 tambon administration organizations, 12,355 schools, 1,278 hospitals and 8,269 police stations.

ZDNet Asia - December 27, 2011

http://www.zdnetasia...fi-62303326.htm

Wonderful. So next time I want to read e-mail, instead of the net-cafe, I have to go to a hospital or police station.

[anon467367354]

I met a 10 year old girl on the boat about three weeks ago, and she said in her school, they do use tablets, but the students cannot take them home, they belong to the school and stay in the school. This idea of handing out a gaming toy to every Thai kid is ludicrous. This talk about another billion baht here and another billion baht there is totally irresponsible, and I'm willing to bet no one's keeping track of the finances either.

[rikkie]

Good idea, lots of fore thought ,well planned , nice execution in risk assessment. Who pays for the network provider???

it will all be free...

Thailand wires up with free Wi-Fi

The Thai government announced it will be offering free public Wi-Fi in the Greater Bangkok area starting on Wednesday, and the roll out is part of its 30 billion baht (US$957 million) ICT master plan called Smart Thailand.

Thailand's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology Minister pointed out that the Wi-Fi coverage has been planned for city halls in 77 provinces, 878 district offices, 2,010 municipalities, 7,355 tambons (sub-districts), 5,765 tambon administration organizations, 12,355 schools, 1,278 hospitals and 8,269 police stations.

ZDNet Asia - December 27, 2011

http://www.zdnetasia...fi-62303326.htm

i am waiting for the black market now, ohooi can make money

[rikkie]

Good idea, lots of fore thought ,well planned , nice execution in risk assessment. Who pays for the network provider???

it will all be free...

Thailand wires up with free Wi-Fi

The Thai government announced it will be offering free public Wi-Fi in the Greater Bangkok area starting on Wednesday, and the roll out is part of its 30 billion baht (US$957 million) ICT master plan called Smart Thailand.

Thailand's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology Minister pointed out that the Wi-Fi coverage has been planned for city halls in 77 provinces, 878 district offices, 2,010 municipalities, 7,355 tambons (sub-districts), 5,765 tambon administration organizations, 12,355 schools, 1,278 hospitals and 8,269 police stations.

ZDNet Asia - December 27, 2011

http://www.zdnetasia...fi-62303326.htm

i am waiting for the black market now, ohooi can make money

before Thaksin give free phone i still have 50

[Gweiloman]

I won't debate the merits or demerits of handing out tablets to school kids but I would just like to drag some of you kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Point about handwriting: firstly in Thailand, it is unlikely that many Thai students will write in English. Furthermore, hardly any one writes anything nowadays. I can type faster than I can write (I touch type) but I'm nowhere near as fast as the kids nowadays using only their thumbs on their smartphones. In any case, even typing could well be an obsolete skill in the next few years - ever heard of Siri?

Laptop vs tablet: Laptops will become obsolete soon. It's heavy, slow to start up, requires too much footprint to work properly, consumes too much energy / electricity. The processing power is much much more than what's required for 99.9% of users. Not a very efficient approach then, is it? I can do most of what I need to do equally as efficiently on my tablet, including word, excel, powerpoint and many other better productivity apps. Only reason I need to use a laptop is because of huge complicated spreadsheets.

[kartman]

When I first saw the photo in the OP I thought the lady standing behind Suchart was holding a grenade launcher. I'm not joking.

And the man between them can actually hear what the Minister is telling the press.

[volk666]

With tablet comes the great portability - what's the point of having them if they are never to leave school? It looks like the most traveling they'll be doing is from teacher's locked cabinet to students desks.

What's the point of having all the textbooks on them if kids still have to buy paper books to take home for their homework? How are they saving trees?

Will these tablets be reliable enough so that kids don't have to carry actual books from home at all? I doubt it.

Simply having electricity at school is not enough - they need charging stations at each desk, too, that's a lot of wiring and classrooms will never looks the same, not to mention that desks will become unmovable - probably not the best idea for little kids education.

[Buchholz]

700,000 for 1.7 billion ($90 apiece) is a MUCH better price than 200,000 for the extra ($166 apiece) 1 billion. So, why so much more for the 200,000 ?

The additional ones are for the first grader Doraemon computers

They've gotten the seller to come down from their retail price.

[volk666]

even typing could well be an obsolete skill in the next few years

Considering that even local banks with all the money to invest in latest technology and train their stuff are nowhere near going paperless and probably decades behind the best international standards in efficiency and service, writing and typing as essential skills for millions of Thai children are safe for the next few lifetimes.

[Buchholz]

I know phatom 4 students that are good whit the computer, they don't want a tablet becouce they can't work whit things like powerpoint, excel and so on on that!

So I think its like many say its good for facebook and angry birds but not for real life work!

Win 7 model can. Apple cannot.

http://www.pcmag.com...,2375572,00.asp

Nice, but the quoted costs exceed the allotted 2700 baht by a smidgen for a sample Asus

32GB - $999

64GB - $1,099

,

[Bagwan]

One of the advantages of using a keyboard machine is that the system should include a spelling and grammar checker. One can dash off a letter or memo and then go back afterwards and check for, and correct, any errors. A further read through should ensure that the whole thing scans and that there are no unintentional puns or such like. I wish more posters here would do that so that readers clearly understand a point of view or an item of information presented to them. Furthermore those whose first language is not English will, as a by-product, improve their knowledge, surely something to their own advantage. It seems to me that such a facility should be of incalculable value to Thai people of all ages. Whether they would avail themselves of this without a degree of compulsion or identifiable advantage is open to debate. A more ambitiious scheme for advanced students would be to include a Mandarin language facility. Perhaps the highly respected (but not by me) Thai academics and Ministry officials involved in the provision of higher education should get to work along these lines instead of worrying themselves about the tightness of students shirts or the brevity of their skirts.

Amongst the things that I intended to do when I retired was to study French and German to 'A' level - and, believe it or not, learn to play the violin. Unfortunately I have been both distracted by other things and/or lazy and done none of these things; so I have to admit that I am in the same boat of many here, albeit in a different language.

When I went to school the only teacher aids were a blackboard, a stick of chalk and text books which proved to be sufficient, but I hesitate to pontificate about the usefulness of tablets as a teaching aid in case I am accused of being a latterday Luddite. My gut feeling is that Thai people will come to rely on intelligent machines, just as they presently do with calculators, since most are, seemingly at least, unable to do the simplest mental arithmetic or understand the rules thereof.

[Robby nz]

Wonder who ownes the Chinese company that will produce these?

Could someone with the initials T S be involved?

[toenail]

iPads or "tablets" will not act as a "pill" to make the students smarter. First, each school and classroom has to be hooked up with Wi-Fi (and the homes also). The other aspect of using technology is having trained teachers that can show students how to do research on the "tablets" and what websites to go to. Finding the appropriate website at their reading level takes a lot of time. Another aspect is spending time with the students about the misuse of using social websites (you are suppose to be age 13 for using Facebook) , protecting your ID, and about cyber bullying. I almost look at this "handout" as a political token and will not add to the quality of Thai education; infact, the millions of baht should have been spent on teacher training and better text books.

Edited January 26, 2012 by toenail

[Buchholz]

A tablet isn't a patch on a laptop for work purposes. I tried using my daughter's Ipad after my laptop was stolen a few weeks ago and it was so slow to use.

I have used a cheap Chinese tablet and it was useless; basically the touchscreen was just not sensitive and you had to press really hard to get any reaction.

I wonder what OS they'll be using?

2700 baht doesn't buy much, so they'll have to go with an inexpensive, but reliability-proven, system

[Bagwan]

A little basic maths says that an extra 1 billion baht for the remaining 200,000 tablets is roughly twice the unit cost for the first 700,000. I wonder why?

"Honi soit qui mal y pense"

What? Nobody pointing out that all postings are to be written in English? Tut tut.

What has the motto of the UK's most disfunctional family got to do with Thai education?

[FOODLOVER]

I know phatom 4 students that are good whit the computer, they don't want a tablet becouce they can't work whit things like powerpoint, excel and so on on that!

So I think its like many say its good for facebook and angry birds but not for real life work!

Win 7 model can. Apple cannot.

http://www.pcmag.com...,2375572,00.asp

Nice, but the quoted costs exceed the allotted 2700 baht by a smidgen for a sample Asus

32GB - $999

64GB - $1,099

,

Comes with carrying case.

[Mitker]

When I first saw the photo in the OP I thought the lady standing behind Suchart was holding a grenade launcher. I'm not joking.

No. It's just a machette.

Second hand from Rwanda.

[connda]

With a 1.9B baht budget, this is going to have no effect on 32% of the kids who need it the most (yeah the ones without electricy in their schools or teachers who are incapable of using the techonology).

...and the rich get rich and the poor get poorer.

In the mean time,

In between time,

Ain't we got fun!!!

More fuel for the social and economic disparity fire.

Edited January 26, 2012 by connda

[Mitker]

The whole scheme is just pointless.

Start with competent teachers teaching relevant matters to educated kids. Very first one: responsibility.

Throwing costly gadgets is not the answer.

[Mitker]

Wonder who ownes the Chinese company that will produce these?

Could someone with the initials T S be involved?

or his brother in law or cousin or.. driver and maid?

[newsweird]

I want one of those lovely photo shopped T-shirts of the PM

Sad when one has to fake their popularity

[eljeque]

I am pretty sure that plenty of tablets are made in Thailand as well.

Buy Thai!

[connda]

Why tablets - because they are trendy? Notebooks give a lot more bang for the buck

Laptops will be obsolete in a few years.

I think Tablets and Netbooks/Laptops will merge. Tablets are more fun and portable, but it's not convenient to type text on them. I think we'll see more and more clones of the Eeepad transformer with a dock with keyboard where you can plug your tablet.

PS: 700,000 tablets for 1.9 Billion, that's 2700 Baht per tablet, a bit more than what the Indians pays for their Educational tablet (Aakash): equivalent of 1800 Baht.

Actually I think the original price was 3400K baht. And India can do it for 1800. So let's do the Math! 3400 minus 1800 gives us 1600. So after all expenses are paid, there should be about 1600 baht per table that can be distributed as "bonuses" to the government and business elites who are staging this dog-and-pony show. This whole thing is just rife for corruption from the top down. By the way, how much money was set aside for maintenance? Upgrades? Quality educational software? Training programs for the teachers in order to make the most effiecent use of said software? Development and dissemination of a set of clearly define educational objectives for the use of these computers in the classroom that are targeted specifically toward P1 students?

I'm thinking maybe 0.00 baht? But, correct me if I'm wrong.

Why do I think this is a great idea that will utimately fail due to a lack of planning and foresight, and a culture of unabashed corruption.

Edited January 26, 2012 by connda

[KKK]

Just a few days ago there were 470,000 pathom 1 students to get tablet PCs.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/528092-tablet-pc-project-under-pressure-thailand/

Now there are 860,000???!!!

Where do they get these figures from? Can't they make up their mind. Don't they know how many students there are in each grade?

And who are the 40,000 pathom 4 students to get tablets? What's so special about them?

This tablet PC thing is a total farce ... it will never happen...

[animatic]

iPads or "tablets" will not act as a "pill" to make the students smarter. First, each school and classroom has to be hooked up with Wi-Fi (and the homes also). The other aspect of using technology is having trained teachers that can show students how to do research on the "tablets" and what websites to go to. Finding the appropriate website at their reading level takes a lot of time. Another aspect is spending time with the students about the misuse of using social websites (you are suppose to be age 13 for using Facebook) , protecting your ID, and about cyber bullying. I almost look at this "handout" as a political token and will not add to the quality of Thai education; infact, the millions of baht should have been spent on teacher training and better text books.

Well the new Apple / Houghton Mifflen interactive textbooks are really good. I just got the Geometry one for the iPad to help my daughter move ahead of her class more quickly. I was really pleased at the quality and facility of this part book part multi-media app. If this is an indication of the future of Pads in school situations, I am all for it. Imagine one device to carry 40lbs of school books with cut an paste to create reports footnotes and save your research etc.

Not an ad, but an example./

http://itunes.apple....d490217893?mt=8

On the other hand the price point of

1,900,000,000 / 900,000 = 2111.11baht ( = US$66.80 per unit.)

What kind of unit will you get for $67????

INCLUDING shipping and handling.

The web browsing abilities of a tablet can be limited to just go through the schools server, and thus to specific places and no others. Adding and subtracting software links to the device can do that easily enough. Of course there will be crackers and PC owners that can replace them for those motivated get around this.

As for abusing social websites or viewing inappropriate materials, there are many internet cafes and gaming places in EVERY Thai town. I am sure the kids know more than those ludittes at MICT trying to regulate their viewing.

The schools and parents can talk till the wind dies about morals and kids will do as they please. Of course the parents should still try and give their kids a healthy basis for life, but the kids know computing past their parents abilities, because the slightly old kids tell them the latest stuff. It is part of their rites of passage to know the latest games and social sites.

They even know to have a approved site one click away from a bad one in case the Cafe Manager walks by, they just change the window till he walks on. Seen this myself.

Edited January 26, 2012 by animatic

[belg]

its all ok...they order now , pay and supply comes in a few years

[newsweird]

its all ok...they order now , pay and supply comes in a few years

Or pay when they take a jet and hold it for ransom