By Guest Blogger: Lila Ibrahim, general manager, Emerging Markets Platform Group at Intel

In the past year or so, I’ve traveled to more than 20 countries and have seen first-hand the impact that technology can have on education. I watched children in Peru using PCs from their hospital beds to stay connected to their classrooms. I met teachers in Nigeria whose students missed their computers so much that they begged to go back to school over the summer holidays and continue using their computers for learning.

It’s marvelous to see students get excited about what they can achieve when you put the right technology tools in their hands. It transforms their lives.

At Intel’s Emerging Markets Platform Group, we believe every child deserves the opportunity to move forward. And because we want children all over the world to feel empowered and energized and eager to explore, we know we need to design technologies for diverse learning environments and classroom experiences.

I’m proud of what our team is introducing this year at CES. On Jan. 9, Intel will officially launch a new convertible classmate PC design that supports more kinds of teaching models, including collaborative, project-based work. This flexible laptop opens like our traditional clamshell model, but converts quickly to a tablet-style touch-screen model, giving children the benefit of a more intuitive, interactive and mobile learning experience and more ways to express their creativity.

The new design complements our existing classmate PC model, which Intel has applied successfully in many parts of the world. A great example is Portugal’s Magalhães (Magellan) Initiative, a countrywide educational technology program that includes providing 500,000 locally manufactured Intel-powered classmate PCs to all elementary school students. The government has also enabled training and services to provide the most holistic approach to educational transformation I have seen around the world. Because it is so successful, other countries, such as Venezuela, are now also working with the Portuguese government to bring the Magalhães PC to their students.

Both classmate PC designs are part of our Intel® Learning Series, a cost-effective and comprehensive education offering that we’ve created in collaboration with local technology companies around the world. We know that no one company or country can do it alone. That’s why we work with local PC manufacturers, governments, and a wide range of software developers to bring the Intel-powered classmate PC design to students along with local content and applications, offering training as well as supporting infrastructure. The knowledge and work of local businesses makes the design more local, relevant and unique for students.

At CES, we’ll talk more about this initiative, which combines Internet connectivity, hardware, software, localized content and teacher training so countries can adopt a culturally relevant, sustainable education solution that supports their local economy.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 6:39 pm and is filed under CES. Reply to this post, or trackback from your own site. Follow responses to this entry through the comments RSS feed.