Intel-powered Classmate PCs Go to Developing Countries

Intel‘s new creation, convertible Classmate PC has all chances to make pupils forget what books look like even in the developing countries very soon. 

According to Mashable, a low-cost, high-function laptop designed to get beat up, dropped and educate children around the world. Light-weight, with a soft rubber backing and carry handle it has a swivel screen, allowing the laptop to turn into a pseudo-tablet with full touch-screen functionality. It also has a webcam and an accelerometer. The battery lasts four to eight-and-a-half hours working on a minimal charge.

Tough conditions are to be challenged easily as the new Classmate has been drop tested, baked in an oven and frozen in a refrigerator and the tests ensured that the computers can’t break down in the remote areas where they’re being sent. For now, Intel has placed more than 4 million PCs into places like Argentina (1.5 million), Nigeria (150,000) and the Republic of Srpska (10,200). That’s nearly twice the amount delivered by One Laptop Per Child, a non-profit trying to get low-cost computers into children’s hands.

Intel, one of the 5 most reputable companies in the world, has also created a software suite of education tools to help teachers in the classroom. This includes cloud-based programs that allow teachers to send out quick questions and quizzes to their students and collect data from work projects. Intel’s employees head to classrooms across the world and help train teachers to get the most out of the hardware and the software.

The idea was to get computers into young hands to connect them to a larger world and improve the learning experience in global classrooms, explained Wayne Grant, the director of research and planning for Intel’s Education Market Platforms Group.