An Android tablet intended to make learning engaging and fun for today?s digitally-savvy generation
As the popularity of tablets grows, parents and teachers are embracing technology?s role in students? development. When loaded with e-books, games and educational programming, the tablet becomes a great learning tool for the young generation. Sensing a market opportunity, Best IT World, the Mumbai-based promoter of iBall product range comprising laptops, keyboards, speakers, mouse, MP3 players, among others, has debuted an Android-based tablet called iBall Edu-Slide. The company feels that its new slate will make learning easy, engaging and fun.
The offering naturally has two major components?the tablet and the content. To make it popular in the student community, both aspects have been given the maximum attention. This trendy tablet (i-1017) is intended for students ? from Standard I to XII for both CBSC and SSC (Maharashtra) in English medium. Marathi medium content of SSC is also available for standards V to X. The tablet retails for R12,999 with one standard education content included.
Using the latest Android 4.1 Jellybean operating system, this tablet comes with 10.1 inch screen size to ensure the product is ideal for reading and learning purpose. Its dual core processor (Cortex A9 with 1.5 GHz) and G400 Mali graphic processor and 1GB RAM gives pretty good performance for the animated content for education and will keep the young users hooked onto the subject when they open their text books next.
To compliment the processor, the tablet has a quick responsive 10.1-inch screen with 1280 x 800 full high definition screen resolution and with IPS technology. I feel that the IPS screen gives the ease of using and holding the tablet in any angle for clear viewing. It also provides very smooth touch and feel to enjoy the learning on the tablet.
At the core of this product is its content. The content by e-Teach has been created by a group of IITians who had been working for over last five years to bring something really useful for students. eTeach curriculum is based on the one provided by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and can be easily stored on the 8GB in-built flash memory. Alternatively, the educational content can also be provided in an external micro SD card.
Switch on the device and it becomes apparent that the content is presented in a manner that makes education easy to understand as well as interesting to learn. Students get easy access to tests and question banks, which are evaluated on a real-time basis providing users a platform to gauge one?s own performances.
Along with the customised educational software that iBall Edu-Slide provides, parents and students can download various education apps, books and games from the Android market which can further enhance their learning experience. Photography of important text notes as well as video-chatting with mentors is possible thanks to the 2.0 megapixel rear camera and the VGA front camera.
Based on my own experience that I have had with my six-and-a-half year-old daughter, I feel that visual explanations of scientific processes are always fun to learn with. And tablets are exciting, skill-building tools for kids, just plain fun to be precise. Best IT World?s new gadget definitely has the potential to add delight in education!
SPECS
* Display: 10.1 inch IPS HD screen (1280 x 800)
* Processor: Cortex A9 dual core 1.5 GHz processor
* Operating system: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
* Memory: 8 GB built in
* Storage: 1 GB DDR3 RAM, micro SD slot with upto 32 GB expandable
* Camera: 20 MP (rear); VGA front camera
* Connectivity: Wi-Fi, micro USB OTG, 3G on data card
Estimated street price: Rs12,999
