Adequate education remains a critical issue in South Africa. With remote locations playing a largely negative role in appropriate learner schooling alternative options to traditional classrooms are required. Technology is driving the way forward for many educators and learners and will continue to play an integral part in filling the current educational gap.
Says Manoj Bhoola, business leader for Business to Business at Samsung Electronics Africa: “Samsung is committed to design education solutions that promote a student-centric learning experience. By partnering with a suitable training ecosystem, we are able to leverage our customisable portfolio to suit specific education needs.”
Any technology system needs to fulfil certain prerequisites if it is to remain sustainable. Since each environment in which solutions are deployed varies, the idiosyncrasies of countries, regions and even specific schools requirements need to be carefully considered.
Ideally, a digital educational system should be a full suite of end-to-end solutions and devices that stimulates learning, empowers educators and which provides efficient administration tools for the intuitions.
“Students are increasingly expecting an interactive learning experience, and while some educators have been slow to adopt technology-driven learning vehicles, this is set to change in the near future,” says Bhoola. “Tablets, mobile applications, social networks and digital content are becoming more popular in the classroom scenario and their accelerated incorporation into current learning modes is now more commonly accepted.”
Not only do smart devices allow students to become more engaged in the learning process and to collaborate with fellow students, but they also allow teachers to provide feedback in smarter and more interactive ways.
Bhoola adds: “The biggest challenge here is not with the students, but rather with the reluctant acceptance of new teaching methodologies by educators and administrators. However, there is a growing awareness by Governments and schools that in order to adequately prepare young people to operate effectively in a 21st century workforce, they need to make smart education a part of their national agenda.”
In order to retain student interest in education, a collaborative learning environment must be fostered. In addition, content needs to be interesting, relevant and optimised for a wide range of devices and learning environments. Flexibility is key and offerings should be customised to meet the needs of both students and educators.
“Samsung envisions a connected and interactive classroom that is not limited by the physical location or school space. Instead it should open up a new world of digital content, interaction, and individualised learning, to increase overall student engagement and performance,” adds Bhoola.
Holistic solutions
The technology implementation should deliver clear, measurable benefits such as better learning results, more efficient teaching and easier workflows for school administrators. Samsung has developed a number of products that can be combined in various groupings, together with offerings from synergistic partners, to provide an integral educational offering.
The creativity boosting S-Pen and the Samsung e-Board form a part of these solutions. The e-Board Total Solution allows students to use their own devices across the whole school network, regardless of operating system on the device.
The Magic Interactive Whiteboard with its overlay touchscreen runs on a Microsoft Windows and students can connect their devices from a number of platform including Windows, iOS, Mac and Android.
The Learning Hub is an extensive library of learning material, ranging from e-textbooks, video lectures and interactive coaching to educational multimedia content for all ages which allows students to access teaching materials on their terms, at school, at home and on the move.
To derive maximum benefit from the learning experience, Samsung has entered into exclusive partnerships with leading publishers of educational material.
“Samsung Smart School solution is a complete education package offering for an interactive and collaborative classroom. Not only will this increase student engagement but teachers can instantaneously derive feedback on the effectiveness of a lesson, either in a group manner or individually by accessing a learner’s device screen.
“They are also able to share content on the interactive whiteboard and students’ tablets. The S-Pen will allow students and teachers to take notes or make drawings,” notes Bhoola.
Samsung’s Smart School AutoGrade solution makes it possible to create answer sheets securely, and contribute to accelerate the marking process by scoring exams, quizzes and tests automatically. Likewise, the Secu-Thru Lite solution helps school administrators to increase the security of internal documents.
Sustainable learning
Samsung’s interactive teaching solutions have proved successful and results show increased student interest by 50% and engagement by 25%. Teachers benefit by being able to better plan lessons, conduct administrative tasks and share and communicate with their class in realtime.
“Providing a suitable learning experience is less about supplying individual products and more about a holistic offering. By combining Samsung’s product portfolio with the software and methodologies of educational system partners, we are able to implement a comprehensive learner-beneficial experience,” concludes Bhoola.
