Samsung donates ‘smart classroom’

Samsung Electronics has established a “smart classroom” and donated it to Nohwa Elementary School on Wando in South Jeolla Province, the company said Thursday.

The smart classroom offers an electronic board and dozens of Galaxy Tab 10.1, a tablet PC manufactured by Samsung.

The establishment of a smart classroom is part of Samsung’s efforts to boost the learning environment for children living on remote islands in Korea.

The digitalized classroom works by connecting students’ Galaxy Tabs and an electronic board to share content through a mobile learning system called m-LMS and a remote tunnel called CRM (classroom management), according to Samsung.

The project, which moves class study from paper-and-pencil style learning to a whole new level, targeted remote areas that may lack educational infrastructure, Samsung officials said.

“Utilizing different content and information will greatly improve the learning environment of children living on islands,” a ranking Samsung official was quoted as saying.

Students at the school are expected to increase the efficiency of school studies through downloading materials and Googling information on the tablet PC during lectures

Replacing textbooks and paper with tablet PCs such as the Apple iPad has been an on-going trend at a number of universities and high schools in the United States.

The Illinois Institute of Technology even provided free iPads to all freshmen in 2010 to gear up for an innovative educational environment.

Samsung Electronics worked on the same project with Galaxy Tabs at a number of schools in big cities. The officials noted that the system will soon be adopted to other schools in the country, including remote areas.

By Monica Suk (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)