Empowering Students and Educators To Learn and Teach From Virtually Anywhere

How Qualcomm Snapdragon compute platforms offer education solutions for today and tomorrow
Jan 26, 2021 1:35 PM ET

Originally published on Qualcomm's OnQ blog

There has been a rapid transition in education, from classroom learning for the majority of students to remote learning. This unprecedented shift has revealed many challenges that further expand the homework gap, including lack of access to the devices or connectivity needed to keep pace with today’s methods of learning and teaching. Approximately 1.3 billion of the world’s school-age children do not have internet connection in their homes1  and ~70 percent of students around the world have been impacted by school closures related to the pandemic.2 Qualcomm Technologies is helping to solve these issues faced by teachers and students alike with education systems powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon compute platforms.

Qualcomm Technologies is leading the charge with key industry leaders to solve for the needs of a rapidly accelerated digital transformation. We’ve been working with these leaders over the past year to help businesses and educators quickly adapt to the accelerated shift. The ability to work — as well as learn and teach — from anywhere is what we’ve been working toward for years with Snapdragon Always Connected PCs with Windows 10. We’ve also recently begun supporting Always Connected Chromebooks as well.

High-quality learning experiences for students

With 4G LTE and 5G connectivity built right into the laptop, students can connect to the internet when there isn’t a home internet connection, even in more remote areas lacking broadband service. Requiring online resources for research and learning, online classwork demands are increasing, punctuating the essential importance of connectivity to ensure students do not fall behind. And with more people working and learning from home, that means more demands on internet bandwidth. Having dedicated connectivity with 4G LTE or 5G helps ensure that work, learning, and play are not going to be competing for bandwidth, allowing for uninterrupted connections and experiences.

Powerful image and audio capabilities built right into the Snapdragon compute platform can help ensure that, when students are learning remotely, the experience can be as if they were in the classroom. Poor quality audio and video — garbled sound or blurry images — have proven to be an obstacle to remote learning, sometimes making it difficult to understand the ideas being conveyed by both teachers and students alike. It can be particularly frustrating for children to convey their ideas and feel as though they are being heard when faced with audio and video issues. By delivering some of the best audio and video capabilities available, Snapdragon devices remove these barriers.

It can be difficult for students to sit still in a class setting all day. That issue does not disappear when they’re in a remote learning situation. Students still want to get up, stretch their legs, or change locations. The efficiency of Snapdragon compute platforms enables laptops that can deliver multiple days of battery life on a single charge, so students can feel free to stretch or move with the changing light of the day, and to not be tied to an outlet. While battery life can vary depending on what you’re working on, you can depend on Snapdragon platforms to deliver incredible battery life that outperforms competing solutions.

Flexible deployment and robust security for teachers and administrators

Both students and teachers need reliable devices to stay productive. With Windows 10 and Chromebook options supporting modern device management and enterprise-grade security, administrators will be eased in their efforts to ensure that devices are kept functioning and that students can keep learning. Whether you’re using Google Classrooms, Microsoft 365, or another suite of applications to manage the day-to-day activities of learning — in the classroom or remotely — Snapdragon compute platforms can deliver the performance and responsiveness needed to keep students engaged and productive.

There are a wide variety of Snapdragon platforms designed to meet the diverse needs of education, from entry-level Snapdragon 7c to premium designs with the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 compute platform, Windows 10 PCs, and Chromebooks running the Chrome OS. Some great systems are available today from complete education solutions providers like JP-IK. Sharp announced the Dynabook Chromebook C1 in December 2020. At the BettFest conference, the new Acer Chromebook 511 and the JP-IK Leap Connect T304 with Windows 10 were announced, powered by the Snapdragon 7c compute platform.

Supporting modern device management solutions, administrators will enjoy the ease of deployment and management of devices based on Snapdragon compute platforms to quickly get systems where they are needed and ensure they stay secure and productive.

Snapdragon compute platforms for education

Snapdragon compute platforms are designed for how we work and learn, both today and tomorrow. To learn more about Snapdragon compute platforms for education and find the systems that are right for you.