Last week, DepEd released a memorandum outlining the “minimum technical specifications” necessary for conducting distance education which is compiled below. It’s primary purpose is to serve as a guide for schools in the “procurement” of the computers but it also serves as a template, if these were to be built, for manufacturers to develop a bid, hence the specifications are somewhat price independent.
While the Android side of the spectrum (tablet and smartphone) is fairly standard, the Windows side has some interesting notations.
For the Laptop being considered, here they are:
The minimum RAM spec is 8GB – while this can be considered “pretty standard” these days, usually an 8GB device is already a part of mid-range devices;
The Monitor spec is a 13″ FHD anti-glare screen – the anti-glare finish is seldom found in budget commercial offerings;
The HDD Partition is split into two, one for system and one for data – this was a common practice a decade ago; it’s much harder to find pre-partitioned internal drives in more recent releases.
For the 2-in-1 Tablet PC being considered, here they are:
The 10″ HD touchscreen convertible device is no longer as prevalent nowadays;
32GB storage is practically nothing when matched with Windows 10; the system would much sooner take it all up and will not be able to update itself because of this limitation. any user would be solely reliant on the microSD card or the USB port which is usually just one and is in the microUSB interface;
There is no microSD card slot in the minimum requirements.
DepEd did stress that there was not a need for Microsoft Office to be purchased because of a pre-existing VLA. They also have an eligibility letter that manufacturers can use to develop machines with an integrated Windows 10 that can be had for cheaper.
This memorandum indicates that the primary mode of instruction would be best accessed through Microsoft Office and the Windows ecosystem including their Android counterparts. The integrated camera modules do not seem all that important as well so a VGA camera should be sufficient and virtual meetings will probably happen lesser than initially expected.
Of course, the manner of online education would vary between institutions but a general trend might be seen with these specifications they had outlined. Follow Gadgetshelf for more on the #LearnFromHome tech series as we do have a learner in our midst and it would be interesting to see how this all pans out.
First day of online schooling (Grade 11) is on July 1st.
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