Mobile Computing

HP Rolls Out Quad-Core Tablets for Education with Windows or Android

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 01/22/15

HP is wading into the low-cost education tablet market with the introduction of several new devices specifically designed to stand up to K-12 student usage. At the same time the company has introduced new training for teachers who want to learn more about the PISA international assessment.

The new lineup of devices includes three tablets and a touchscreen laptop.

The $399 HP Pro Tablet 10 EE, available now, runs Windows 8.1 Pro for Education, has a quad-core Intel Atom processor and a 10-inch touch display and durable rubber casing. A "garaged" and "tethered" stylus and keyboard base are optional. The HP Pro Slate 10 EE is the same device, except it runs Google Android, and its pricing is slightly less.

The HP ProBook 11 EE is a touchscreen notebook whose corners and edges are built with "industrial rubber." According to at least one published source, that device is expected to ship in April.

Starting in March all three types of hardware will be preloaded with HP's new "School Pack," which includes HP Classroom Manager Student Edition, a year of Absolute Data Protect, a dictionary, a library of ebooks and audiobooks and PASCO SPARKvue. Classroom Manager allows the teacher to take control of the devices, manage them in the classroom and communicate with students privately or in groups as long as he or she has Classroom Manager for Teachers, a separate purchase. The Absolute service allows the user to locate the device if it goes missing and locks the data from unauthorized access. SPARKvue is a science application for doing data collection, visualization and analysis.

HP has teamed up with Microsoft to give Chromebooks a run for their money. Recently, the two companies introduced the HP Stream 11 Pro for Education, a sub-$200 device that features an 11.6-inch display, an Intel Celeron chip, two gigabytes of memory, Office 365 Personal and Windows 8.1 Pro.

The company also announced a free online course, "PISA: A Tool for Improving Teaching and Learning." The Programme for International Student Assessment tests students worldwide in reading, math and science. The online course, developed by Hibernia College in Dublin, helps educators understand the PISA assessment and how to interpret its data, demonstrates ways that the assessments can be used "as a tool for improving teaching and learning," and shares insights about the tests based on past test items. HP estimates that the four modules of the course will each take about an hour to complete.