Monthly cost of tech in education can be $1 per child: Cisco

With an attempt to bring down the cost of technology in education, Cisco has unveiled its live remote education platform for Indian classrooms - Cisco Education Enabled Development (CEED 2700). It is a collaborative, cloud-based video interaction solution that enables conferencing across the country, enabling expert teachers from various locations to connect to classrooms in rural areas. Cisco is fulfilling its vision to help transform education for the unprivileged by bringing down the cost of technology in education to about USD 1 per child per month, "which includes the cost of computer, projector, router, camera, mics, access to built in phones, power stabilization and management of network and equipment - with approximately 200 children in a school," revealed Aravind Sitaraman, president - inclusive growth, Cisco Systems.

With the enablement of remote teaching and learning, every rural school can now offer the same level of expert teaching that is available only to children in cities. Similarly, the solution brings the skills of master trainers to youth in remote areas. An expert teacher or master trainer can bring in multiple classes in remote areas and teach them complex concepts as if he or she were right before the classes. The students can also ask real-time questions as if the teacher is in the class before them. By preserving this real-time interactive user experience, ‘CEED' is an apt vehicle to bring advanced education and critical livelihood---generating job skills to populations in remote areas.

The CEED hardware is ruggedized and designed for harsh environments where temperature and dust can be high. It is energy efficient, using 40 percent less power and thus proving ideal for rural environments. With a built-in router that also acts as a Wi-Fi access point, a computer, and projection device, this solution allows multiple students using devices like the Akash tablet that the government of India (GoI) is trying to develop, to share a single Internet connection. It can also facilitate connections to well-known education portals such as the one produced by GoI's National Information Centre (NIC).
By virtualizing expert teachers and master trainers and making them available to under-served populations, Cisco believes that CEED is an ideal vehicle to achieve inclusive growth and therefore bridge the rural-urban gap.