Microsoft and DepEd team up to hatch the EGG

 |   Md Faijur Rahman

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PASIG CITY, PHILIPPINES, 24 JUNE 2016 –As the Philippines approaches a more competitive academic environment because of the K-12 law, education remains as a national concern. Yet with the outpour of students in schools all over the nation, accommodating all and providing each with the necessary tools for learning and productivity is a challenge especially in harder to reach areas across the provinces.

In partnership with Microsoft, the Department of Education (DepEd) answers this problem today by launching the EGG—a self-sustaining, fully functional out of the box learning facility.

“There are 6,000 locations around the country with no power and no connectivity but we do not believe that this should be a hindrance to the education of any child,” Reynaldo Antonio Laguda, DepEd Undersecretary for Finance and Administration. “So with our partners, we took an ordinary container van and transformed it into this incubator of knowledge we call the EGG.”

The self-contained classroom seats fifty students, has internet connectivity, and is equipped with IT tools that aid both students and teachers. The EGG can serve as an independent classroom or can be connected and stacked together with other EGGs to form clusters, pop-up classrooms, or a whole school. It can be dropped-off by helicopter, truck, or boat anywhere in the country—first in the provinces—and can be set up by the villagers themselves.

“We are very proud of this project,” Laguda added.  “We’ve built a sustainable and innovative classroom that doesn’t just serve its primary function—the EGG has adaptive reuse as well as it can also be used as a storm shelter for the areas in which they will be deployed.”

Designed to be fully independent, the EGG generates its own power through solar panels found on top of its unfolded roof. It collects rainwater that can be used to irrigate the land it is on or to be filtered as drinking water.

To further provide students with quality learning materials, the EGG is connected to the internet via TV White Space—the unused VHF and UHF TV channels that can be used to deliver broadband access over wider areas than possible using today’s Wi-Fi spectrum. Its excellent range and obstacle penetration characteristics makes it a better option for connectivity in the provinces where last mile schools are far away from the villages or telecommunications cell sites.

Each EGG will be connected to the DepEd’s main server via cloud for the collection of system health data and the commencement of system updates. It will be synced to the cloud through the deployment of drones that will circle above it creating a mesh network of TV White Space so that it does not have to rely on terrestrial bases. In the event of weather interruptions when no serious connection can be established, a drone with all the updates from the base will be sent to it to maintain the integrity of its systems.

“We believe now is the perfect time to embrace mobility and productivity so that we can help Filipinos get a 21st Century education through connectivity for all,” said Karrie Ilagan, General Manager for Microsoft Philippines. “This is an exciting beginning for the transformation of learning and teaching in the Philippines, and Microsoft is glad to be spearheading this initiative with DepEd.”

The first EGG will be lain in Bohol and is expected to be hatched in more provinces in the Philippines.

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