Pressmart signs pact with De La Salle schools, Manila for tablet based education

US/India, Thursday, November 24, 2011

Manila, November 24, 2011 - Pressmart, a leading provider of multi-channel content publishing services today entered in to a historic agreement with the premier schools group of Manila, De La Salle Green Hills (LSGH) to build a robust and comprehensive 'digital education' system based on tablets. Nicknamed 'Pearl', the project envisages a completely digital classroom where the students will carry an advanced Android based tablet device instead of a bag full of textbooks and a large touchscreen e-Board will replace the conventional writing board.

"We are going beyond the conversion of just the text books for the tablets. We are building an interactive learning platform where the students will also be able to write their tests, see results, get notifications and communicate with their teachers and vice versa" - said Vik Torpunuri, the Chairman of the Board of Pressmart.

A live demo class conducted by a LSGH teacher for her fifth grade students, each carrying a tablet, was impressive and gave a glimpse of new learning horizons the technology is opening up. The text books are made more interesting and interactive by including modeling, maps and rich media on the pages. The teacher conducted a 10-point quiz on the e-Board and the students responded on their tablets. The results were shown instantly and the parents were informed of the results via email automatically and almost immediately.

"The LSGH students will be the first in the country's basic education community to use the tablet PC as a personal learning device" said Jun Lozado, LSGH information technology consultant, who initiated the Pearl project.

Still in its pilot phase, the school-wide roll out is planned from the new academic year of 2012-13.

More news on Pearl:

http://www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?articleid=751325
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/101439/la-salle-green-hills-classrooms-go-high-tech