Digital Textbook

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The Digital Textbook program was announced by the Education Ministry of South Korea on March 8th 2007, the program intends to provide for all Korean schools by 2011.

Fujitsu Stylistic ST5030

Manufacturer	Fujitsu
Type	Tablet PC
Connectivity	Intel® PRO/Wireless a/b/g Bluetooth v1.2 10/100M ethernet 56K V.92 2 modem IrDA 1.1 4Mbps
Operating System	Windows XP Tablet PC Ed.
Media	40GB IDE hard disk
Input	Touchscreen Stylus
Power	6-cell Li-ion battery
CPU	Intel® Pentium M CPU
Memory	512MB SDRAM
Display	12.1 inch diagonal LCD 1024 x 768
Dimensions	324.4mm x 220mm x 22.3mm

1 History
- 1.1 Pricing
2 Technology
- 2.1 Hardware
- 2.2 Software
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

The Korean Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development stated that it will develop the digital textbook as a study assistance tool, which utilizes digital media, to go beyond the limitations of conventional paper textbooks. The digital textbook's available content can be updated on the fly without the need to wait for new yearly revisions.

The government tested the system last year with the help of 300 elementary school students from four South Korean schools. According to the study, students, especially those whose school records were in the middle or lower achievement brackets, showed marked improvement.

The Korean Ministry of Education intends to deploy the Digital Textbook program for all fifth and sixth grade students in elementary, three unspecified middle school grades, and two unspecified high school grades. They intend for the new system to be adopted in 20 targeted elementary schools by 2008 and in 100 elementary, middle and high schools nationwide by 2011.

In total, 66 billion South Korean won from the Ministry of Education's budget are earmarked for the project.

[edit] Pricing

The Education Ministry will distribute the tablet computers to elementary school students, and charge 100,000 South Korean won (roughly 80 Euros, or 105 United States dollars) for middle and high school equivalent students.

[edit] Technology

[edit] Hardware

Dimensions 324.4mm x 220mm x 22.3mm
Model: Fujitsu Stylistic ST5030
CPU: Intel® Pentium M Processor
CPU clock speed 1.20GHz (2MB L2 cache, 400MHz FSB)
1024 x 768 pixels 12.1 inch LCD display (XGA TFT)
512MB SDRAM, upgradeable to 2GB DDR2 400MHz
80GB Notebook IDE hard disk (ATA-100 and S.M.A.R.T. Support)
Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 900, 2D/3D graphics (maximum shared memory of 128MB)
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2915 a/b/g chipset (Separate ON/OFF switch), Bluetooth v1.2
10/100M ethernet
56K V.92 2 modem, IrDA 1.1 4Mbps 4
PC Card Type I/II x 1, dedicated Smart Card x 1, MS/SD x 1
Integrated USB 2.0 x 2
SigmaTel STAC9753A AC97 codec with internal speaker and dual microphones
Stereo 2 channel audio, jacks for external headphones and microphones, headphone-out, and mic-in
Fingerprint sensor
TPM1.2 (Trusted Platform Module from Infineon Technologies)
Power source:
- 6-cell Li-ion battery 5200mAh – approximately 6 hours usage

[edit] Software

The Digital Textook will use Windows XP Tablet PC Edition as its operating system.

[edit] See also

Children's Machine (XO), also called the $100 Laptop Project
Classmate PC, a low cost machine developed by Intel
Longmeng or Dragon Dream is a low-cost computer being designed in China
Tianhua GX-1C, part of a line of affordable machines developed by Sinomanic in China
OpenBook Project, a project functionally similar to the Children's Machine
Simputer is an earlier project to construct cheap handheld computers in India
VIA pc-1 Initiative a project of VIA Technologies to help bridge the digital divide.
Wizzy Digital Courier: Internet access for rural schools via USB stick
Edubuntu: A free Linux distribution designed specifically for use in schools and home classrooms