A new Android tablet aimed at education

A Canadian startup called mySpark Technologies is creating an Android tablet that sports a dual-core 1Ghz processor, and it’s aimed at educational institutions.

The tablet slated to launch mid 2011, was solely designed with students and teachers in mind, and it will integrate with campus stores and libraries allowing students to download content and digital textbooks. Hopefully, at a dramatically discounted price.

mySpark’s new tablet named mySpark Education Platform, will offer a 10” touch-screen, 2 cameras (front and back facing), an SD card slot and it supports both WiFi and Bluetooth. It will also come in two flavours; 4GB and 8GB. We suppose since it’s geared at education, they figure the internal storage is enough, and we’re assuming it’s not intended for storing large media collections.

Using this system, teachers and students can collaborate on a whole new level, and it will likely come with a series of Android apps to support that. As an example, by using the MySpark Education Platform students and educators could both insert notes and media within class notes or coursework, possibly allowing for real-time changes and edits.

In a press release of the mySpark Education Platform, it stated that the tablet will also come with “ideabook”, an app that will enable students to store a wide variety of content such as class projects. And, its system is said to bring students a collaborative experience through group chats & message boards, and a way to post questions through instant messaging. This new tablet will additionally offer support for Adobe Flash, stylus pens and docking stations.

We believe students should be engaged, teachers should be empowered and administrators enlightened by how technology can transform education… We are creating a mobile platform built for learning, one that the entire educational community will embrace. -MySpark Technologies

Andrian Hartog (CEO) and Steven Turner (CTO) of mySpark Technologies have had a track record of success within the field. In fact they both created billion dollar divisions for ATI Technologies Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., both graphic chip companies.

This is a new era in education and it would be great to see schools embrace the new generation of student by encouraging teachers to use devices such as mySpark’s new tablet. We might even see schools absorb the cost of these tablets into tuition fees.