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Dell Education Portfolio Enables Active and Collaborative Learning, Gives Students True Voice
[March 06, 2014]

Dell Education Portfolio Enables Active and Collaborative Learning, Gives Students True Voice


ROUND ROCK, Texas --(Business Wire)--

Dell (News - Alert) today announced the Latitude 13 Education Series laptop, Dell Mobile Computing Cart upgrade kit and Dell Interactive Projector S520. These new additions join the recently introduced Dell Chromebook 11 and Dell Venue tablets to enable educators to innovate, empower students to find a true voice and active role in learning, and meet the security and manageability needs of each school's IT support personnel.

"Schools need technology that empowers teachers, engages students and accommodates small equipment budgets," said Kirk Schell, vice president, commercial PC, Dell's Client Solutions Group. "The new Latitude 13 Education Series and recommended peripherals are designed for interactive learning. Students and teachers will love using it, and IT support personnel will appreciate the ease of integrating the devices into the learning environment thanks to exceptional security, manageability, and reliability."

Classroom-ready and Schoolyard-tough

Purpose-built to meet the needs of any student computing program, the Latitude 13 Education Series is well-equipped to deliver a rich learning experience, online or off. With powerful processors, a large 13.3-inch display and a full-size keyboard, it's ideal for content consumption and creation, durable enough to withstand bumps, drops and spills and:

  • allows learning to happen in a variety of settings
  • is subject to military-standard testing
  • features rubberized LCD and base trim for superior drop protection
  • boasts an exclusive fully-sealed keyboard and touchpad for the industry's best spill protection
  • has superb scratch resistance with Corning® Gorilla® Glass NBT™ on touchscreens
  • opens 180 degrees to reduce hinge stress when carried by students in unconventional ways
  • "tattles" on students with a network activity light that illuminates when students connect to the WLAN

With best-in-class endpoint security solutions that include comprehensive encryption, advanced authentication and leading-edge malware protection from a single source, Dell offers the world's most secure commercial laptops. The Latitude 13 Education Series offers Dell Data Protection solutions, as well as Dell KACE and integration with Microsoft (News - Alert) System Center.

The Dell Mobile Computing Cart - available managed or unmanaged - makes safely transporting, charging, storing and updating classroom devices easier than ever. Holding up to 30 netbooks, Ultrabooks™, laptops and/or tablets of most brands up to 14-inches, the cart also features two external outlets to support devices on top, such as a printer, teacher laptop or document camera. It's now available with an optional upgrade kit for snuggly docking laptops to Ethernet and power, which makes overnight IT updates a snap and eliminates the need to manually plug in cables.

Also a new addition, the Dell Interactive Projector-S520, features multi-touch capabilities, Intel (News - Alert)® Wireless Display (Intel® WiDi) + Mircast technology and advanced wireless functions for classrooms and conference rooms of nearly any size. The S520 combines features of interactive whiteboards and interactive LCD displays into one convenient solution. The whiteboard is no longer just for teachers; it lets students showcase their work, collaborate, too.



Tools for Collaborative Learning

The Dell Chromebook 11 is an affordable and highly portable laptop designed to facilitate integration of technology and collaboration in the classroom for teachers, students and administrators. It features exceptional manageability and security with an easy to use web-based console that enables centralized configuration and tracking. The management console allows IT administrators and teachers to quickly push or remove applications and enforce safe browsing practices across all Chromebooks in a school's network or in a specific learning environment. Automated updates and "defense in depth" security features - such as sandboxing, verified boot, data encryption and easy recovery - block or avoid malware, viruses and data loss, saving significant time on maintenance and troubleshooting so that educators can focus on driving student success.


Students will enjoy outstanding performance with the latest 4th generation Intel Core processors, up to 10 hours of battery lifei, and an 11.6-inch HD (1366x768) display to keep them engaged throughout the day. Google (News - Alert) Apps for Education allow students and teachers to access, edit, save and share their digital assets such as presentations, documents, photos and videos even if the original documents are located on separate PCs or networks.

The Dell Chromebook 11 was built to meet the needs of schools and districts around the country looking to deploy affordable and comprehensive one-to-one computing initiatives. Oakland Unified School district recently selected the Chromebook 11 to extend equitable access to technology, support personalized learning and meet online testing requirements. The Chromebook 11 is verified to meet Smarter Balanced and PARCC assessment requirements with software from AIR and Pearson Testnav8.

Versatile & Personalized Learning

The easy versatility of Dell Venue tablets facilitates an interactive and personalized learning experience. In addition to consuming information, students can create content on their own or collaborate on team projects. With the content and applications available in a Windows ecosystem, as well as easily leveraged video-chat and content sharing capabilities, Dell Venue tablets are built to facilitate a more enriched learning environment.

Dell also provides a robust technology partner program that certifies and recommends key educational applications that align to the instructional needs of students and teachers. Dell is the first to provide Doceri, by SP Controls, on a Windows 8-based tablet. This allows teachers to use their tablet as an interactive whiteboard to facilitate and foster effective lessons with students, enabling teachers to more effectively deliver and orchestrate lessons in their classrooms through the ability to move amongst their students and support flipped classrooms. Other apps include ClassPolicy by AssistX, a next-generation classroom management solution that allows teachers to maintain classroom focus, gauge student understanding and orchestrate educational content delivered to multiple devices in a classroom. Miracast enables wireless projection of tablet content to an HD-enabled larger screen for untethered learning and student presentations. Both apps provide educators and students alike greater mobility and flexibility throughout the day.

"With presence in more than 400,000 classrooms around the world, our goal and focus is to encourage the type of learning environment that allows students and teachers to tap their creativity and ultimately enrich the learning experience for students," said Jon Phillips, managing director, worldwide education, Dell. "We're excited to add this new solutions portfolio to our education ecosystem and we're very motivated to hear how our customers are using this technology to help teaching and learning evolve further."

Availability & Pricing:

The Latitude 13 Education Series starts at $539 USD. Non-touch models are available in red and blue. Touch and non-touch models are available in black. The Dell Interactive Projector - S520 starts at $4,129 USD. Both are available today.

The managed Dell Mobile Computing Cart with the upgrade kit installed starts at $3,999 USD. The standalone upgrade kit, which is compatible with select previous generation managed and unmanaged models, begins at $799 USD. The new kit will be available globally in mid-May.

About Dell

Dell Inc. listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com.

About Dell Education

Dell Inc. is committed to helping students develop the knowledge and skills they need to learn and succeed in an increasingly digital world and a globally competitive workforce. As a top provider of technology and services to schools, Dell listens to and works with students, educators, administrators, parents and community members around the world to deliver innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more in and out of the classroom. Learn more about Dell in Education at www.dell.com. Follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @DellEDU.

Dell is a trademark of Dell Inc.

Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

i Tested system equipped with 4GB memory, 16GB embedded iSSD and 50 WHr battery. Based on Google Chrome Power LoadTest, a web-browsing battery run down test conducted by Dell labs in November 2013, with 40% backlight level setting, and wireless on. For more information about Google Chrome Power LoadTest, visit www.chromium.org. Test results should be used only to compare one product with another and are not a guarantee you will experience the same battery life. Battery life may be significantly less than the test results and varies depending on your product's configuration, software, usage, operating conditions, power management settings and other factors. Maximum battery life will decrease with time and use.


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