Feb 14 2011
The solar-powered interactive whiteboard an initiative of CyberSmart Africa currently enables the children studying in Ecole Sinthiou Mbadane1, an elementary school away from the electric power grid to continue their studies.
The affordable solution cuts across the barriers to take the 21st century education even to the poorest schools across the globe.
Of late, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) located in Senegal has extended its grant to CyberSmart to execute its novel learning solutions by including Senegalese national set of educational courses in subjects such as social studies, science and mathematics. CyberSmart will jointly work with experts and teachers in designing the lessons and a training method to ignite an active and real-life classroom experience.
The patent-pending interactive whiteboard from CyberSmart can be easily carried between the classrooms and teach hundreds of students in a day. The board requires very less quantity of electric power and can be powered by a cheap solar power system. The board is exclusively meant for schools that want basic infrastructure. The method of teaching concentrates in training the teachers and it is achieved with minimum equipment and does not require any type of modifications in infrastructure in the school thus reducing the day-to-day costs.
As explained by Jim Teicher, CyberSmart’s Director, the learning system is integrated with the use of mobile broadband and will bring in hopes to over 1.5 billion people who are deprived of electric power and save them from the peril of further deterioration and put them back in the digital learning process.