An Ericsson e-learning initiative in Africa is starting to take off, with eight schools now equipped with PC’s utilizing cloud technology.
The firm’s PC as a Service product aims to deliver laptop PCs with low maintenance requirements that are easy to use. The devices are optimized for mobile broadband networks to get round a typical lack of fixed infrastructure in the continent, and have so-far been deployed to in villages in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Students can use the PCs to access news, information, and educational content. The benefit for teachers is claimed to be less time spent on IT maintenance, and more on the students.
Elaine Weidman, Ericsson’s vice president of sustainability and corporate responsibility, says the mobile broadband connection is a key element in delivering education to remote communities. “Delivering cloud-based computers and connecting them in the eight schools is a major step in our mission to bring a quality secondary education to more students.”
Ericsson is also contributing towards a scholarship scheme that covers tuition, boarding and other school fees. The project - a partnership between the equipment firm, Sanchez-Palm Girls Scholarship Fund, SpinMaster, JM Eagle and several individual contributors – will award 500 scholarships in 2012.