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Huawei has deployed its latest smart board solution – which is yet to be launched – to the SABC for use by the department of basic education for digital learning.
The department has been broadcasting school lessons on the SABC since last month when the national lockdown forced schools to close.
The Huawei CloudLink Smart Board is mainly used in conference rooms to help companies ramp up their technological furnishings. But in this case the smart board has been used by teachers on the national broadcaster to help pupils keep up with their syllabus during lockdown.
“Huawei believes that digital learning is about engaging the scholar anywhere, and at any time, in meaningful and relevant ways. With the Huawei CloudLink Smart Board solution, teachers can do wireless projections and split-screen multiple tasks among other features during the live broadcast from the SABC,” said Kian Chen, Huawei SA deputy chief executive.
Said Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga: “With this smart white board solution, our teachers are able to make remote learning more interesting and engaging for our students as they continue learning at home until schools are gradually re-opened after the national lockdown.
“We welcome this partnership with Huawei as we do our best to mitigate disruptions caused to the school academic year.”
With many still unsure how or when the academic year will resume, remote learning will be major concern for parents and guardians.
Earlier this month, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize was invited to the Chinese company’s Johannesburg headquarters to personally accept the donation of four Huawei cloud, artificial intelligence diagnostic systems and four thermal scanning systems.
Mkhize said then: “Using information and communications technology (ICT) is another important weapon in our arsenal to fight this virus.
“We are grateful to Huawei for sharing this innovative system. We look forward to exploring the capabilities of these solutions as we are constantly looking to capacitate our facilities with technology that improves efficiency and accuracy in our health care delivery.”
Huawei said it also donated “four thermal scanning systems that can be used in high density pedestrian area’s to conduct body temperature monitoring”.
Last month as Covid-19 started to take hold and the national lockdown was enforced, the company donated R1 million to the health department which was again received by Mkhize.
Huawei SA’s chief executive Spawn Fan said: “We are a committed ICT and social partner to South African business, government and society. This donation is our obligation as a concerned party.”
Fan also emphasised the need for adapting to digital connectivity as this will help ease the effects of the virus.
“In China, we saw the success of remote education, remote health services and working from home during quarantine periods. Coronavirus is not just a threat to life, its knock-on effects on livelihoods and the economy must also be managed,” Fan said.
The company also noted that with the support of Huawei’s video conference system, African leaders and their Chinese counterparts were able to discuss how best to manage the pandemic.
As part of Huawei’s commitment to support government, President Cyril Ramaphosa was photographed chairing a virtual meeting of the National Command Council using Huawei’s technologies.
READ: Govt forced to go virtual
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