Technology has an important role to play in improving education in SA, says Samsung.
"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 Manoj Bhoola, business leader for business to business at Samsung Electronics Africa.
"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," adds Bhoola.
Samsung has developed a number of educational products designed to enable more efficient teaching, easier workflows for educators and administrators, and more engaging lessons. The Magic Interactive Whiteboard and e-Board Total Solution allow teachers to share whiteboard content on student devices, regardless of OS, while the S-Pen enables students and teachers to take notes and draw. The AutoGrade solution enables automatic marking of tests, and Secu-Thru Lite provides increased security on internal documents.
Also available to students is the Learning Hub, a learning material library that includes e-books, video lectures, interactive learning materials and multimedia covering a range of subject materials for different ages. The availability of these materials at all times, regardless of location, is intended to enable learners to access material on their own terms and to direct their own learning. Samsung's partnerships with leading publishers of educational material contribute to ensuring the quality and extent of learning content.
"The Samsung Smart School solution is a complete education package offering for an interactive and collaborative classroom," says Bhoola. "Not only will this increase student engagement, but teachers can also instantaneously derive feedback on the effectiveness of a lesson, either in a group manner or individually by accessing a learner's device screen."
The solutions are intended to help students become more engaged in the learning process, and to allow teachers to provide more interactive feedback. "The biggest challenge here is not with the students, but rather with the reluctant acceptance of new teaching methodologies by educators and administrators," he notes. "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 agendas."
Bhoola concludes: "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."
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