And they came, both men and women, as
many as
were willing hearted,
[and] brought bracelets,
and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold: and every
man
that offered [offered]
an offering of
gold unto the LORD.
Exodus 35 vs 22, King James Version
It’s
Budget Debate time here in Jamaica, albeit with less pomp and more somber faces
than the last time. I won’t focus on the increasingly diminishing buying power
of the Jamaican dollar or the other antics that would require a separate
article.
Rather
I’m focusing on the announcement by Minister Phillip Paulwell of the Ministry
of Science, Technology Energy and Mining as it relates to Tablets for Primary
and Preparatory Schools and Parliamentarians, who apparently are children!
He’d
given the Parliamentarians their Tablets in Parliament on Thursday April 25th
2013 as he explained to them the Second Phase of the E-Learning Program as
stated in the article “Paulwell
gives tablets to parliamentarians”, published Friday
April 26, 2013, The
Jamaican Gleaner.
By
this act, he was keeping the promise he’d made for Parliament and the various
Ministries to go paperless and be interconnected via their own private Network
titled GovNET as explained in my blog
article entitled “GOJ
Parliamentarians upgraded to Microsoft Surface Tablets and GovNET Wide Area
Network - Minister Paulwell efforts to reduce paper may accelerate Jamaican
Tablet Adoption”.
Even
his Budget Presentation, aptly titled “Fuelling for Growth” was in paperless
form, available on the gifted Tablets for further perusal by his fellow
Parliamentarians. The funds to cover the E-Learning II and the Parliamentarians
getting Tablets and GovNET, some JA$800 million, were accessed from the JA$10
billion deep UAFCL (Universal Access Fund Company Limited). This, dear reader,
is the same Telecom-Tax (or Cess if you prefer!) that’s being used to fund the
First Phase of the E-Learning Project, E-Learning I.
E-Learning
I involved the building of a Fiber Optic Network jointly by Telecom Provider
LIME and Triple Play Provide FLOW that started back in April 2011 as noted in
my blog
article entitled “LIME,
FLOW and the $JA543-million Internet plan - Ebony and Ivory”.
As
part of his ambitions to go Paperless, Minister Phillip Paulwell also has plans
to eliminate the current Hansard Reports System, the still very human type-as-you-talk
transcription system with one that may just use Voice Recognition to take down
dictations, thereby eliminating JA$500,000 spend on making these reports.
Suddenly a few Hansard Transcriptionists may be out of work!
Two
(2) days earlier, he’s announced in his 2013/2014 Budget Presentation on
Wednesday April 24th 2013 the starting of the second phase of the
E-Learning Project, dubbed E-Learning II. E-Learning II initial program, the
Schools Tablet Computer Programme, involves some thirty (30) Schools whose
students are under-performing getting some 20,000 Tablet computers loaded with
Educational Software as stated in the article “30 schools to get 20,000 tablet
computers, Paulwell says”, published Wednesday, April 24,
2013 4:27 PM, The
Jamaican Observer.
Specifically,
the thirty (30) Schools break down as follows:
1.
Five
(5) Early Childhood Institutions
2.
Ten
(10) Primary Schools
3.
Five
(5) Junior High Schools
4.
Ten
(10) High Schools
No word on the specs of the Tablet,
save that they’re subsidized heavily by the GOJ (Government of Jamaica). But
I’m willing to bet it may be the same ones given to the Med Sci Students in the
Faculty of Medicine at the University of the West Indies as I’d reported in a my
previous blog
article entitled “UWI
Medical Sciences Students get deal on JL Mobile SmartTab Tablets and cheaper
ebook versions of Textbooks - From Gross Anatomy to Islandwide Push towards
Tablet Adoption”.
Same features too:
1.
Wi-Fi
(IEEE 802.11n) and 3G Wireless Broadband Capable
2.
Educational
Software and e-books
3.
Built
in Anti-Theft Tracking feature to allow the Tablet to be quickly recovered if
stolen
4.
Pornographic
and suspect Websites that are not for Educational purposes being blocked. Translation:
No Game Sites or Social Networking
At the Post-Cabinet Press Briefing, Minister
Phillip Paulwell
went into more details on the Tracking and Anti-Theft Features as reported in
the article “Security Features in Tablet Computers for Students”, published Friday, 26 April 2013
10:07 By Athaliah Reynolds-Baker, JIS Reporter, Jamaica
Information Service.
Tracking technology which many Technophiles know too well from the numerous stories
about Anti-theft devices enableing the user to track the devices even after
it’s stolen.
Believe it or not, Blocked websites
are not as easily circumvented on a Tablet, especially as it’s not so easy to
side-load programs onto a Tablet or visit blocked websites. The advantage of
each student having Tablets is that it not only reduces their book-load, but it
also makes IT (Information Technology) an integral part of School, not another
Course. Homework can be sent via email and take home, requiring that all
Teachers be Tech-savvy, a necessity for teacher to be in the modern Teaching
Profession and not relegate the use of the Computers to just IT Teachers only.
But best of all it results in a cost
reduction to the Ministry of Education as it relates to building more IT Labs,
as IT Classes can be done in the classroom, requiring that only Wi-Fi be
installed in the classroom and the students purchase a detachable Keyboard for
the Tablet if they’re not comfortable with touch-typing.
Thieves planning to steal the
Tablets for the Tiny Tots and High Schoolers, therefore have another thing
coming, to quote Minister Phillip Paulwell: “For those people who think that they
will be able to steal them, you will probably be able to steal one, but you
won’t be able to use it, and we will find you long before you know it”.
So no need for parents to worry
about kids becoming Targets for Tablet Theft; if stolen they’re practically useless
to anyone else with little technical know-how. By the time they’ve sat down to
root the tablet, the mere act of powering it on gives away the location of the
culprit, making it easy to arrest them.
But woe be onto the truant children
from these under-performing schools, as Minister Paulwell had a warning for
them as well, quote: “Every one of these devices will have a feature that can
track them wherever they are, anywhere in the world. So, if for example, a
child is missing from school, we can tell their parents where the child has
been”.
So these first Tranche of Tablets
(is that proper used of the word “Tranche?”) is to encourage those students in
schools that are deemed to be under-performing to improve their Test Scores. In
the process, it should foster a desire to pursue a Career in the Sciences.
It should also fuel a love for
Computer Programming and Foreign Languages, critical for Jamaica to develop a
Science and Technology Society necessary to be competitive in today’s
Globalized Workforce as argued in my blog
article entitled “LIME
and Digicel both make Donations of Tablets to Preparatory and Primary Schools -
How Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark started a Love for Computer
Programming Languages in Jamaica”.
Hopefully, Minister
Phillip Paulwell E-Learning II will get off to a rip-roaring start, with the Tiny Tots and High Schoolers being
taught the first lessons on their Tablets. More importantly, they’ll be taught
how to take care of these very delicate Computers. Also, teach the kids not to
walk with them in their hands in Public and make sure they’re properly covered
in a good Case to protect the screen as per the advice in my Geezam blog article entitled “How to make your own Cleaning Fluid and Cleaning
Tips for your Smartphone or Tablet”
Hopefully too, the Private Sector
will also come to the aid of the GOJ and assist with similar donations of
Tablets to under-performing Schools as Telecom Provider LIME
and Telecom Provider Digicel
have done as chronicled in my blog
article entitled “LIME
and Digicel both make Donations of Tablets to Preparatory and Primary Schools -
How Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark started a Love for Computer
Programming Languages in Jamaica”.
One
thing is for sure; this Proliferation of Tablets will not only result in
Dancehall Artistes having something new to sing about, but it’ll make the
Joneses in High Society clamour to get themselves a Tablet, just so they won’t
be left out. Thus this’ll boost the desire to purchase Tablet among the general
population wanting to Keeping
Up with the Kardashians (TV Series 2007–), so to speak.
This
in turn this will help the Telecom Providers who may be planning to come to
Jamaica to build out a 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) Wireless Broadband Network
using the 700MHz Spectrum over the next five (5) years my blog
article entitled “LIME
outsources Network Maintenance to Ericsson - The Lone Rangers in Telecoms may
have to Tag Team to get a 700Mhz license for 4G LTE”.
These
new competitors in Wireless Broadband as well as Telecom Provider LIME
and Telecom Provider Digicel
will in the future capitalize on the increasing number of Mobile Computing
devices over the next five (5) years of the build-out.
Meanwhile
I get to be called Dr. Indiana Jones, which I think is cool. Jamaican Children’s
Future in Science and Technology now rescued Indiana Jones and the
Palace of Doom (1984) Style.
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