Tablet Computer Distribution Kicks Off In Thailand

[Reasonableman]

Issam rider

Member Since Today, 03:10

Welcome to The Machine

[trimesh]

Well, just in case anyone is interested, I have had a chance to play around with one of these tablets - and they aren't anywhere near as bad as I was expecting.

The overall appearance is a bit like a smaller version of the V1 iPad - the case is machined out of Aluminum with an etched surface and a little plastic insert at the top edge (which I suspect is for the GPS antenna).

The display is WSVGA (1024x600), and seems to a regular (non IPS) LCD. 1GB internal RAM, 8GB flash. CPU is a Rockchip RK2918 - there are 4 physical buttons - power, back and vol +/-. The only external connectors are the charging socket, 3.5mm headphones, micro-USB (OTG, with the host cable supplied) and the SD card slot.

Its running Android 4.0.3, but no indication of which build - the build string just says "eng.azg.20120612.155921" - so it looks like it was compiled about a month ago. The platform is pretty locked down - there is no market installed and attempts to install APKs from a browser prompt for a password. The "USB debugging" option is checked, but although the ADB interface appears there doesn't appear to be any ADB daemon listening on it. There are also only 3 languages installed (Thai, English and Chinese (simplified, PRC)). Most of the Google apps are missing - just Gmail, Maps and Google talk are installed.

The software installed seems a little odd - there are some programs for kids (including 2 origami programs), a Thai handwriting training program, "vLife" (all in Thia) and a program called "Learning System" (which is the only program on the initial launcher screen) - the last is very colourful, but also 100% Thai, so I can't make much comment on it. It also has Kingsoft Office installed.

Oh, and the touch screen is actually pretty good (at least on the sample I've got).

Trimesh. Is this one of the units delivered to your school?

Any news from the MOE about how to use in the curriculum?

Any info on further apps?

What are your school doing reference charging and storage ( do the kids take them home)

Does your school have wifi ( I know not extremely important. Just wondering)

Please keep us updated. Thanks

sent from my Wellcom A90+

Unfortunately, I'm not involved with these things in a teaching capacity - I just got this sample to do some tests on how well various apps and web sites display on them. Having played with it for a bit, I at least now have a certain degree of confidence that they won't all break instantly once the kids get their hands on them.

Here are a couple of photos

Rear panel

http://bayimg.com/mAAnDaAEC

One of the screens of the preloaded software

http://bayimg.com/MAAngaAeC

[nurofiend]

Now you truly are dreaming.

Try underlining a sentence in a paragraph or highlighting it and see if it is there the next time you read that page if indeed the machine will let you do it. Try writing in the margins. These are methods I found very helpful in collage.

Your complete disregard for the need of a teacher and high ideals for a machine tell me you don't understand education.

Your idea of education seems to be the ability to google any thing you want. Or other search engines.

Your idea of education seems to be the ability to google any thing you want. Or other search engines.

lie

Your complete disregard for the need of a teacher

lie

Try underlining a sentence in a paragraph or highlighting it and see if it is there the next time you read that page if indeed the machine will let you do it. Try writing in the margins.

try learning about technology.

[Issam rider]

Cheers

[Grafted]

I've changed my tune, the spots are off and all stripes gone revealing a tiger and white horse respectively.

Now I feel that to give each child a tablet is indulgent. If the school has a school set or two such that each child can have controlled use for say a maximum of 1 hour per day for curriculum oriented study and internet research etc it is sufficient. Currently just 55,000 children have the use of the tablets.

If each child were to have a one hours use of a tablet (perhaps in 2 half hour periods- I'd consider that sufficient) then effectively 6 or 7 children couold use the one tablet each day. Say 6 to be conservative. That means that the current set off 55,000 would be utilised by some 330,000 children. My estimate is that there are about 8,000,000 students. By concentrating efforts on those grades for which engaging apps and curriculum content has been developed the immediate return on the investment would be more apparent.

Acccidents and lost equipment would be minimal.

[Buchholz]

I've changed my tune, the spots are off and all stripes gone revealing a tiger and white horse respectively.

Now I feel that to give each child a tablet is indulgent. If the school has a school set or two such that each child can have controlled use for say a maximum of 1 hour per day for curriculum oriented study and internet research etc it is sufficient. Currently just 55,000 children have the use of the tablets.

If each child were to have a one hours use of a tablet (perhaps in 2 half hour periods- I'd consider that sufficient) then effectively 6 or 7 children couold use the one tablet each day. Say 6 to be conservative. That means that the current set off 55,000 would be utilised by some 330,000 children. My estimate is that there are about 8,000,000 students. By concentrating efforts on those grades for which engaging apps and curriculum content has been developed the immediate return on the investment would be more apparent.

Acccidents and lost equipment would be minimal.

There are about 11,000,000 students that fall under the Yingluck's NTF90C scheme* that pledged to provide tablet computers to all primary, secondary, and vocational students.

* No Tablet For 90% Children project.

[Buchholz]

OBEC: 3rd lot of tablet PCs ready for shipment to schools this week

BANGKOK, 15 August 2012 (NNT) – The state office in charge of the government-sponsored tablet PC distribution has announced that the latest shipment of the gadgets to schools will be made this week.

The Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC) Secretary-General Chinnapat Bhumirat said on Tuesday that the third shipment of state-sponsored tablet PCs, totaling more than 63,000 units, is now ready for shipment to state-run schools, which are yet to receive one.

The shipment is set to be commenced this week, after all tablet PCs have been inspected by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.

Mr. Chinnapat is confident that the delivery of the gadgets will also be completed before the end of the week.

He added that the OBEC has been informed of some minor technical problems with some of the tablet PCs shipped to schools during the first 2 deliveries.

Despite this, he assured that all units have been working properly.

-- NNT 2012-08-15

[rubl]

He added that the OBEC has been informed of some minor technical problems with some of the tablet PCs shipped to schools during the first 2 deliveries.

Despite this, he assured that all units have been working properly.

'have been working', 'are working', 'might work'? If a tablet has 'minor technical issues' can it still be called to function? The fact that 'minor issues' are mentioned suggests a few failures. Insufficient data to judge though.

So, now the question: how many of the 190,000 tabletPCs received from China are actually in the hands of P1 kids?

[Buchholz]

He added that the OBEC has been informed of some minor technical problems with some of the tablet PCs shipped to schools during the first 2 deliveries.

Despite this, he assured that all units have been working properly.

'have been working', 'are working', 'might work'? If a tablet has 'minor technical issues' can it still be called to function? The fact that 'minor issues' are mentioned suggests a few failures. Insufficient data to judge though.

So, now the question: how many of the 190,000 tabletPCs received from China are actually in the hands of P1 kids?

Some have evidently been delivered to Tak province to schools there without electricity.

http://www.thaitvd.tv/home/?p=1957

[whybother]

So they have another 5 days to deliver the remaining 500,000 tablets.

[rubl]

So they have another 5 days to deliver the remaining 500,000 tablets.

Close to 900,00 are ordered and till now 190,000 delivered, but maybe only 110,000 distributed. As far as I know, that is

[BuffaloRescue]

Apparently these tablets are really good because they dont use any power, they use their own custom made operating system. They are very robust and should be "Thai child" proof - more about them here http://www.gogoflorist.com/blog/2012/08/thailand-tablet-computers-finally-released-and-distributed/

[Buchholz]

So they have another 5 days to deliver the remaining 500,000 tablets.

Close to 900,00 are ordered and till now 190,000 delivered, but maybe only 110,000 distributed. As far as I know, that is

Well, here's 10 more of Thailand's OTP10C ScoPad tablets out of the 900,000... that are close to being done.

Video of the very polite tablet testing operations at the Shenzhen Scope factory.

Posted yesterday:

.

Edited August 16, 2012 by Buchholz

[Buchholz]

Article in the other paper this morning is reporting on problems with the tablet's battery life not measuring up to advertised specs.

Numerous students in the classroom are having to power down and share a tablet with another student when theirs runs down. A teacher explains they are unable to recharge all the tablets at the same time because the school doesn't have enough electrical outlets to do so and it takes 5 hours to full charge the tablets.

Another teacher noted the tablets can only run for a few hours before needing a full 5-hour recharging.

.

Edited September 3, 2012 by Buchholz

[thaicbr]

Article in the other paper this morning is reporting on problems with the tablet's battery life not measuring up to advertised specs.

Numerous students in the classroom are having to power down and share a tablet with another student when theirs runs down. A teacher explains they are unable to recharge all the tablets at the same time because the school doesn't have enough electrical outlets to do so and it takes 5 hours to full charge the tablets.

Another teacher noted the tablets can only run for a few hours before needing a full 5-hour recharging.

.

They knew this BEFORE they ordered.. the battery size which is 3,000 mah i believe is to small.. on the Samsung WIFI tab i have, the battery is 4,400mah and it lasts approx 6-7 hours with NORMAL usage ( internet, occasional youtube etc) the smaller battery on the Scope would last about 3-5 hours.

[OzMick]

You would think when buying around a million of these things that the contract could have included multi-battery chargers (with timers), so that one or two could hold enough for a normal size class. What a pain doing individual charges, after class has finished.

[thaicbr]

I've changed my tune, the spots are off and all stripes gone revealing a tiger and white horse respectively.

Now I feel that to give each child a tablet is indulgent. If the school has a school set or two such that each child can have controlled use for say a maximum of 1 hour per day for curriculum oriented study and internet research etc it is sufficient. Currently just 55,000 children have the use of the tablets.

If each child were to have a one hours use of a tablet (perhaps in 2 half hour periods- I'd consider that sufficient) then effectively 6 or 7 children couold use the one tablet each day. Say 6 to be conservative. That means that the current set off 55,000 would be utilised by some 330,000 children. My estimate is that there are about 8,000,000 students. By concentrating efforts on those grades for which engaging apps and curriculum content has been developed the immediate return on the investment would be more apparent.

Acccidents and lost equipment would be minimal.

There are about 11,000,000 students that fall under the Yingluck's NTF90C scheme* that pledged to provide tablet computers to all primary, secondary, and vocational students.

* No Tablet For 90% Children project.

Ah, the blessed voice of negativity. Still, good news about the quality and "fit for purpose" reports from someone who has actually examined one (instead of commented on from afar) of the tablets that have arrived eh Buchholz?

And yet in the 'other ' newspaper there have been reports that they are not 'fit for purpose'

What's your take on that?

Seeing as the Government knew about the battery issues!

sent from my Wellcom A90+

[Buchholz]

Article in the other paper this morning is reporting on problems with the tablet's battery life not measuring up to advertised specs.

Numerous students in the classroom are having to power down and share a tablet with another student when theirs runs down. A teacher explains they are unable to recharge all the tablets at the same time because the school doesn't have enough electrical outlets to do so and it takes 5 hours to full charge the tablets.

Another teacher noted the tablets can only run for a few hours before needing a full 5-hour recharging.

.

They knew this BEFORE they ordered.. the battery size which is 3,000 mah i believe is to small.. on the Samsung WIFI tab i have, the battery is 4,400mah and it lasts approx 6-7 hours with NORMAL usage ( internet, occasional youtube etc) the smaller battery on the Scope would last about 3-5 hours.

Thanks for that info. I was unaware what our iPad was and discovered it is 11,666 mAh.

Today's article referred to a teacher limiting their student's ScoPad's use to one hour of classroom time a day because of battery and charging issues.

.

[KireB]

Ah, the blessed voice of negativity. Still, good news about the quality and "fit for purpose" reports from someone who has actually examined one (instead of commented on from afar) of the tablets that have arrived eh Buchholz?

If those batteries would be better, they might actually work!

[maidu]

sorry, I haven't read the pages yet. I am probably among the most anti-tablet - you'll find anywhere. Thailand is already rife with limp-wristed boys, quick to anger kids/adults, mega-vain girls, very quickly/violently offended people. Here are just a modicum, among many personal experiences:

>>> farang man moves to rural house with his Thai wife. She freaks out, as it's her first time away from a city. After 3 days of crying and trying to run away from the house, she adapts.

>>> 3 Thai men accompany 2 young farang women coming to see a cave with me as guide. Two men won't approach the cave entrance (afraid of ghosts). The bravest Thai man comes within 7 meters of the entrance, and starts bleating about snakes, scorpians, etc. while trying to dissuade the trekkers from entering. I and the two farang girls enter the cave (I've been through it dozens of times, about a hundreds visitors). We all have a fun time.

>>> A Thai couple comes to visit a rural house. The wife is crying the whole last Km of the trip because the road has ruts (afraid of car breaking down? I don't know).

How, you may ask, do stories like this speak out against tablet gizmos for kids? Here's why:

Thailand is already rife with limp-wristed folks who are afraid of their own shadow. Kids need outdoor healthy social interaction, not staring at tiny electonic game screens all day. Currently, Thai schools are only required to have Phys.Ed for one hour per week. ONE HOUR PER WEEK! Thais are getting increasingly out of touch with nature and the outdoors.

[Rimmer]

Off topic baiting post removed also quoted replies removed.

[Buchholz]

ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap has now dismissed the teachers' experiences about the short-life batteries by saying his office has not received any complaints.

He also said his ministry anticipated passing on 860,000 tablets through to the Education Ministry by next month. Half that total have been received by the ICT Ministry and tested with the remaining 430,000 tablets expecting to be shipped to them by the end of this month.

Relative to thaicbr's post # 195, ICT Minister Anudith said the tablet's spec for battery power was 3,000 mAh (milliampere-hour) and that's what was delivered.

He said the 3,000 mAH battery would enable users to operate the ScoPad for about six hours, but he also said that supplier Shenzen Scope was in the process of verifying with battery suppliers that their 3,000 mAH battery will actually provide for six hours of usage.

The operator of Scope service centers in Thailand admitted that the charging time was 5 hours and also that there is no automatic cut-off on the ScoPad when they reach full charge.

(AFAIK, continually charging a battery after it is fully charged shortens the battery's life and impacts its performance.)

.

[rubl]

Whatever the battery lifetime as in hours use after fully charged might be, more than an hour at a time might not be good for young kids (or even older people) anyway

"Light From Self-Luminous Tablet Computers Can Affect Evening Melatonin, Delaying Sleep"

http://news.rpi.edu/...tcenterkey=3074

[borovik]

Tablets in schools will be used in classrooms mostly,yes?during that time they can be powered from chargers.It is very obvious for anybody but complete technological nitwits.

Couple of months ago there were threads in TV Computer Section about tablets from China,full of interesting details and positive opinions.

Computer section is devoted to technology,you will not find there any poltics or politicos...

[OzMick]

Tablets in schools will be used in classrooms mostly,yes?during that time they can be powered from chargers.It is very obvious for anybody but complete technological nitwits.

Couple of months ago there were threads in TV Computer Section about tablets from China,full of interesting details and positive opinions.

Computer section is devoted to technology,you will not find there any poltics or politicos...

As a tech nerd you have solved the problem, but overlooked the SLIGHT problem that most classrooms are not fitted with 50+ power outlets, so we are looking at a rat's nest of extension cords and 220V leads in a room full of 6 yo children. OHS nightmare, and possibly why the teacher does the recharging.

Edited September 4, 2012 by OzMick

[OzMick]

While the discussion of the benefits of tablets is still open, any argument for will have to take into consideration an availability factor of <100% it seems.

As all other spending on school education upgrades, not to mention subsidies for uniforms and textbooks which assist the poorest, have been abandoned for the "great leap forward", it will be interesting to see as battery life continues to degrade whether it will turn into the "great stumble" or "fall flat on your face".

Edited September 4, 2012 by OzMick

[thaicbr]

Tablets in schools will be used in classrooms mostly,yes?during that time they can be powered from chargers.It is very obvious for anybody but complete technological nitwits.

Couple of months ago there were threads in TV Computer Section about tablets from China,full of interesting details and positive opinions.

Computer section is devoted to technology,you will not find there any poltics or politicos...

Unfortunately the nitwits forgot the budget for enough plug sockets in classrooms :lol:

sent from my Wellcom A90+

[Buchholz]

Tablets in schools will be used in classrooms mostly,yes?during that time they can be powered from chargers.It is very obvious for anybody but complete technological nitwits.

Couple of months ago there were threads in TV Computer Section about tablets from China,full of interesting details and positive opinions.

Computer section is devoted to technology,you will not find there any poltics or politicos...

Unfortunately the nitwits forgot the budget for enough plug sockets in classrooms :lol:

While still other nitwits are still waiting on electricity to their schools.

.

[thunder30101]

My cheap 2500B chinese Ipad 6 lol has charging auto cutoff and has worked very well for almost a year now, but I will admit the battery is the Achilles heel of it. I also find that with wifi on the battery really dies fast. The sad thing here is there is prob no one qualified to fix them when they die a premature death. The whole tablet program is a scam Im sorry to say for the kids.

[Nickymaster]

Can we now conclude that this whole tablet thing is a joke and was only implemented to get (buy) votes?

Or is it still too early?

Edited September 5, 2012 by Nickymaster