The high-tech classroom of the future will center around a wireless bridge of information between teachers and students that allows educators to keep real-time tabs on student progress, experts said yesterday. Taiwan's high-tech industry hopes to play a pivotal role in making the vision a reality within the next decade.
"This is a unique opportunity for Taiwan," said Chan Tak-wai (
Around 100 delegates took part in a workshop that ended yesterday as part of the program, dubbed G4P or Global Public Private Partnership Program, that aims to make use of mobile computing devices universal in schools. "We cannot achieve this huge societal shift if we stick to blackboard media," Chan said. "A more interactive experience raises the level of all students in the classroom."
Program organizers yesterday demonstrated their vision of the future classroom, where each student works on a tablet PC -- a flat, mobile computer with a touch-screen on which students can write using a stylus. The teacher monitors their progress through a wireless link from a central computer to the students' tablets, and can intervene immediately when a student has not grasped a particular point. The whole class can monitor progress on a whiteboard, which is also linked to the central computer.
The government appears to be behind the plan.
"This is the first time that there has been such an initiative between the government, academia and industry," said Hwang Tai-yang (
Participation by Taiwan's computer-manufacturing industry is seen as key.
"My colleagues and I from different universities build and test ideas that improve learning, but the only way to have an impact is to make them available to everyone -- and that is where we have to partner with industry," said Jeremy Roschelle, a researcher at SRI International, formerly the Stanford Research Institute. "Why did we bring this conference here to Taiwan? Because of the tremendous respect that researchers from all over the world feel for Taiwan's ability to innovate and translate that innovation into practical use."
Industry representatives say that participation by academics is crucial.
"We as an industry know how to produce the right products for the users, but still we need teachers to create the content," said Lin Wen-yen (
Companies hope the educational push may help tablet PCs enter the mainstream.
"Some tablet PC vendors might be prepared to take a loss as part of a long-term strategy to increase sales volume," said Ruben Tan, an analyst from research firm International Data Corp (IDC). "Within five to 10 years the tablet will be firmly entrenched as an entry-level notebook computer."
In the future, tablet PC prices would need to drop from current levels of over US$2,000 apiece before students are able to afford them, Marcelo Milrad from Sweden's Vaxjo University.
The government has made a commitment to the new technology, recently establishing the five-year US$120 million National Science and Technology Program for mobile learning that seeks to incorporate mobile learning devices into the school curriculum in Taiwan. Already over 100 schools and some 35,000 primary and junior high school students are involved in the project that is a collaboration between the Ministry of Education, the NCU and local device and software makers.
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