Digital Textbook

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

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.

Technology

Hardware (Fujitsu Stylistic ST5030)

• Dimensions 324.4 mm x 220 mm x 22.3 mm
• Model: Fujitsu Stylistic ST5030
• CPU: Intel Pentium M Processor
• CPU clock speed 1.20 GHz (2 MB L2 cache, 400 MHz FSB)
• 1024 x 768 pixels 12.1 inch LCD display (XGA TFT)
• 512 MB SDRAM, upgradeable to 2 GB DDR2 400 MHz
• 80 GB 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 128 MB)
• 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 4 Mbit/s 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

Software

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

References

See also

• Toshiba dynabook R - another low-cost tablet pc (185$)

External links

• Korea.net: Digital textbooks to debut this year January 18, 2008
• Korea.net: Digital textbook to debut in 2008 March 08, 2007
• Digital textbook debuts, Education Ministry of South Korea
• Fujitsu.com: Fujitsu Stylistic ST5030 leaflet