Acer TravelMate B117: Laptop designed especially for teachers and students
Interesting product by Acer for the education sector: Acer TravelMate B117 is a laptop designed for use by teachers and students thanks to the special Acer TeachSmart platform, with LED status indicators integrated into the cover to facilitate interaction in the classroom.
News for students and teachers, with the presentation of the new laptop Acer TravelMate B117; based on Microsoft Windows 10 Pro operating system, distinguishes itself from other portable PCs ” normal ” for some hardware and software solutions designed precisely for the school environment.
The Acer TeachSmart tool promises, for example, to facilitate the interaction in the classroom by providing teachers with new tools and cloud-based services to distribute materials in the classroom and collect assignments digitally.
Acer TravelMate B117 with TeachSmart has an LED integrated into the cover which can be different colors: quoting the press release, ” students can set four different colors through a software interface to indicate its status or their own choices, allowing teachers to monitor the situation at a glance. For example, teachers can submit multiple-choice questions to the whole class.
When students respond on the laptop, the LED lights of a corresponding color to indicate the chosen answer. Or, students can turn on the LEDs after they have finished a task and teachers can monitor the progress of the whole class just by looking at the laptop.
The LED light can replace the traditional show of hands, indicating the need for attention to the teacher. In addition, the teachers also interface that displays the global situation, indicating the number of students who have completed their tasks or the distribution of multiple responses “.
Acer TeachSmart also leverages the cloud to the interaction between teachers and students; through a Microsoft ID and sharing of OneNote with Microsoft’s account, teachers can distribute material in class and stay informed of the progress of each student, eliminating or at least minimizing the need for hard copies. The system maintains connected teachers and students not only in the classroom but also outside, with customizable features to suit the individual needs of different teachers.
Unfortunately, we know little about the hardware equipment in general: Acer TravelMate B117 is made with a reinforced bodyshell and rubber profiles, it weighs 1.35 Kg and is often 22.3 mm. The special hinge between the body and the screen allows opening up to 180 degrees, the keyboard is also spill-resistant thanks to a special design that allows water drainage and protects against accidental spills.
The choice of processor relies on Intel Pentium or Celeron, the display has a diagonal of 11.6 inches (unreported resolution, as any touch functionality), up to 4 GB of DDR3L memory and storage on the front is cited the availability of HDD drives or eMMC.
Do not miss two integrated microphones and a webcam Acer Crystal Eye HD with HDR support. Likely that the prices are quite low, but in this case the press release gives no indication about.
