Johannesburg, 29 Aug 2014
EdUCation-Wireless, a division of UC-Wireless, took part in the second annual Ed Tech Summit South Africa this August. The summit is specifically aimed at growing the confidence and skills of teachers in South Africa in the integration and implementation of creative technologies in schools.
Karen Page from K2 Productions who is one of the summit organisers says: "The summit is particularly dedicated to educators teaching in challenging, underserved and under-resourced environments where technology has been non-existent or where training opportunities are rare." The Ed Tech Summit South Africa team is the brainchild of the collaborative production of companies stretching from across the ocean, K2 Productions Global, Edunova, LEAP Science, Maths Schools, and Teach With Africa, collectively the organisers of the summit believe that teachers who are motivated and trained can cross generations of barriers to bring excitement, innovation and measurable learning acceleration into their classrooms.
This year attendees of the Ed Tech Summit ranged from teachers coming from under-resourced schools to well-funded schools in search of the latest and innovative educational techniques.
EdUCation-Wireless contributed in a vast way to the interest in innovative technology by offering their Ruckus WiFi solution to all six summit's held in five provinces and reaching a massive audience totalling over 700 teachers. The popularity of the summit was evident as it expanded drastically from the two locations and 250 teachers reached in the first year. Many teachers voiced that the summits' free offering of collaborative learning was the most intense yet immensely positive pure data they had experienced.
According to Karen Page, EdUCation-Wireless (a division of UC-Wireless) was instrumental in implementing the Summits existence by providing unrestricted WiFi access across each campus location that a Summit was held. The Summit workshops were centred in hands-on learning making 100% reliable WiFi access imperative. Sessions were taught in wired computer labs making use of laptops, tablets, and mobile phones, which required reliable and unrestricted connectivity.
Many schools are still unaware of the current state of WiFi in South Africa and the EdUCation-Wireless team not only set up and blanketed each campus who hosted a summit with their expert WiFi solution, but also addressed the attendees of the summits' with vital information regarding education and the necessity of reliable WiFi. They additionally availed their experts to assess and speak with each host school about what solution might be appropriate for their physical setup.
The collaboration between The Ed Tech Summit and EdUCation-Wireless is evidently one that can solitarily contribute to the positive future of paving the road to fast, reliable and innovative technological advances when tackling education, which both organisations are evidently so passionate about.
Both EdUCation-Wireless and the organisers of the Ed Tech Summit emphasize that Educational institutions in South Africa need to be keeping abreast and prioritize empowering the latest in innovation into the educational experiences of teachers, students and learners. The integration of technology, and specifically access to the Internet and therefore educational online content through fast and reliable WiFi is key in enabling innovation, relevance and engagement.
Karen Page communed: "If institutions prioritize putting in place the correct WiFi infrastructures and systems to enable internet connectivity, it will open doors for teachers to explore and develop their own curricular systems to support the educational goals and expectations of each school or district therefore allowing innovation and creative learning to flourish."
Michael Berger head of the UC-Wireless EdUCation-Wireless division says: "UC-Wireless is a South African Ruckus WiFi solution partner that has recently solved the challenges for, several school sites with high density WiFi application requirements due to the implementation of e-learning. Our vertical division within the company focuses specifically on WiFi deployments into schools and the education channel which has created further opportunity for EdUCation-Wireless to partner with ANY e-learning solution companies."
If this is anything to go by, next year's summit is definitely a must event to attend. With reliable WiFi solutions provided by EdUCation-Wireless the Summits not only allow for teachers to learn alongside teachers from their own schools and from neighboring schools in a fun and collaborative manner but they also benefit from guest presenters not only in Africa but who fly in from around the world including the US and Europe bringing priceless new and fresh ideas for the educational sector.
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