Intel’s Classmate
for Portuguese Children
Intel
will join hands with the Government of Portugal for an education program
that aims to provide 500,000 educational PCs to Portuguese children. Under
a memorandum of understanding, the program was kicked off by Portuguese
Prime Minister José Sócrates and Intel chairman Craig Barrett. Termed as
the Magellan Initiative ("Iniciativa Magalhães"), it’ll provide Intel’s
classmate PCs to elementary school children.
The Magellan Initiative complements
Portugal's
successful year-old e-School ("e-Escola") project, which provides
educational notebooks and Internet access to teachers and students for the
secondary level of school education. Both programs align with the
government's far-reaching "Technology Plan – Portugal" (Plano Tecnológico
– Portugal). The umbrella plan is to increase the use of computers and the
Internet to provide Portuguese citizens with the latest technology and
support them to participate in a knowledge-based economy.
"We
enthusiastically support Portugal's commitment to a comprehensive
technological plan for education," said Barrett, who is traveling to
Portugal
on behalf of Intel and is also the chairman of United Nations Global
Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID).
Intel will provide technology advice and support to the Portuguese
government in managing, promoting, and implementing the e-Escola and
Magellan initiatives. They’re also planning to create a "Competence
Centre" in Portugal to expand the use of mobile PCs and Internet access
and use that knowledge to replicate pilot projects in other countries.
"This new collaboration with Intel underscores Portugal's commitment to
advance quickly toward a knowledge-based economy," Sócrates said. "By
equipping our schools with state-of-the-art computing technology and
Internet connectivity, we hope to hasten the transition to economic models
that benefit our citizens.
In
related educational efforts in Portugal, Intel has helped deploy the Intel
skoool Learning and Teaching Technology, an interactive Web-based
resource for learning math and science.
Photo
courtesy: Intel
