Before the world was hit by the pandemic, most schools had already eyed to alter their technological needs to reform their educational systems. In Malaysia's Education Blueprint 2013-2025, part of the education reformation, schools need to provide every student in the country with access to a computing device and a web connection.
Long ago, knowledge was stored in printed books and physical access to these materials were limited to students. However today, with the right tools, teaching and learning can be much more accessible and collaborative.
At the end of 2013, more than 10 million students, teachers and parents have benefited from the Malaysian Ministry of Education’s first nationwide initiatives; 1BestariNet project which provides access to the Frog, a web-based learning platform that includes Google Apps for Education. As part of the initiative, the Ministry has also deployed Chromebooks for teaching and learning to all 10,000 schools nationwide.
Chromebooks, a new kind of computer, offers fast, simple and secure computing besides being cost effective and manageable. Running on ChromeOS, educators can leverage on the full capabilities of ChromeOS which uses the latest multi-layered security features and automatic updates, the Chromebook is easy to deploy using the Chrome partner ecosystem. School administrators can also manage the user profiles, hardware and internet connection from the central Google Admin Console which frees up the IT resources and allows educators more time to focus on learning outcomes.
In 2018, the Japanese government launched the GIGA (Global and Innovation Gateway for All) School Program as part of their initiative to create a Society 5.0, whereby it incorporated artificial intelligence (AI), big data and the Internet of Things. This program allows the local boards of education to provide a device for each student in Grades 1-9. At the end of June 2020, only 15 percent of classes were online. However, when the pandemic hit globally, the Japanese government through its Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, accelerated the program by allocating two-thirds of GIGA’s planned budget allocated for PCs.
To prepare the educators, the ministry along with the Boards of Education has cooperated with Google to provide a platform that is secured, easy to manage and great for collaboration as well as student centered learning.
In 2022, Google announced ChromeOS Flex, another version of ChromeOS that allows schools to modernise their PC and Mac devices without any additional cost. This cloud-first OS is a sustainable way to modernise your existing devices as it is easy to deploy across all your PCs and Macs as it is:
Fast, modern work experience from anywhere
Fast deployment and easy management
Proactive security
Make the most of your existing hardware
Educational Institutions who would like to empower IT by creating educational environments for teachers and students to thrive with enhanced IT capabilities could have the Chrome Education Upgrade (CEU). This ChromeOS version unlocks the capabilities of ChromeOS and ChromeOS Flex by creating freedom for educators to provide exceptional learning experiences for their students, while ensuring security and management at every level.
With Chrome Education Upgrade, educators can save more than 70% of their time from managing devices compared to previous years where educational institutions would have to double their staff for device management.
If you are an educator looking to drive change in education through technology, please contact us at inquiry@awantec.my to start the conversation today.
Source: 1.Google Global Education White Paper: Classrooms, Chromebooks, and the Web: Lessons from Miami to Malaysia (https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//intl/en/chrome/assets/education/pdf/global-edu-white-paper.pdf)
2.The Japan Times: Japan’s GIGA School Program equips students for digital society (https://www.japantimes.co.jp/2021/03/22/special-supplements/japans-giga-school-program-equips-students-digital-society/)