Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) will equip its students with 700,000 Intel powered classmate PCs by the year 2009, it was announced by Dr Mehmood H.Butt, Vice Chancellor of AIOU, in a MoU signing ceremony held here on Monday.
The memorandum was signed between Intel Pakistan Corporation and AIOU, under which AIOU will progressively embrace a 'one-to-one' model of technology enabled learning, whereby each student has a PC.
AIOU is entering an era of technology -enabled education, and has taken a lead in one-to-one learning in Pakistan by equipping its students with Intel -powered classmate PCs as a key learning tool. As part of the Intel World Ahead initiative, Intel along with local industry will facilitate AIOU's plans to equip all its Matric and undergraduate students with Intel Powered Classmate PCs, and to provide its faculty with Intel Centrino mobile technology based notebooks by 2009.
According to Dr Mehmood, "Our vision is to develop infrastructure for a modern technology based distance education university". Moreover, AIOU and Intel will also seek to establish competitive finance options for students purchasing the classmate PC".
He stated that AIOU's objectives are to equip its students and academia with the tools needed to acquire and impart essential 21st century digital literacy. Through these classmate PCs along with AIOU's digital transformation, students will access online lessons, interact with teachers over the internet, submit assignments online, and be informed in real time of events and announcements at the university.
On the other hand, John Davies, Vice- President of Intel World Ahead Programme, said that Intel Pakistan Corporation in co-operation with AIOU aims to extend the modern technology throughout the country especially to the youth.