Vodacom, Chams, IBM, Others Sponsor Smart Campus 2013

A number of notable connectivity and telecommunications as well as e-Learning Platforms providers have lined up behind the 2013 edition of the innovative Smart Campus Project. 

Among these are Vodacom Business, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Vodacom Group, Blackboard, an industry leader in teaching and learning platforms, and IBM.

Smart Campus is a yearly program pioneered last year by 3RT Solutions to provide an opportunity for stakeholders (Policy Advisors, Regulators, Administrators, Lecturers, Students, Telecoms and Technology Services Providers, OEMs, and the General Public) to rub minds and pool ideas towards solving technological challenges encountered in the tertiary arm of the education sector.

The event is focused on Infrastructure, Enterprise, Teaching and Learning. This year’s edition of the annual conference is scheduled for the middle of November 2013 in Lagos.   
                          
Speaking on the Smart Campus 2013 edition, Ayo Olanlokun, Project Coordinator noted that the nation’s educational systems, standards and infrastructure are generally behind their counterparts globally, in terms of technology adoption and usage.

“The major drivers which can help catapult our institutions are scalable, mobile and responsive broadband networks, the bed rock of a smart campus. These broadband networks would support enterprise applications that can be sustainably deployed; in addition to giving learners and instructors opportunities to build local communities for collaboration, better user experience, improved personal productivity and economic empowerment”, he stated.  

Olanlokun also added that the 2013 edition of the Conference will afford administrators the critical opportunity of peer review as well as shared experiences on the deployment of ideas generated from the premiere edition of the Smart Campus project.

Vodacom Business, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Vodacom Group, is a leading pan-African corporate connectivity and telecommunications provider with core infrastructure that connects over 580 million people across more than 40 African countries and includes over 50 satellite transponders, 24 dedicated teleports and access to multiple sub-sea cable landing ports.

Blackboard, as an industry leader in teaching and learning platforms, is also well positioned to be the best support to any educational initiative, wherever in the world. Since 1997, Blackboard has remained at the forefront of global efforts leading to the formation of the Educause IMS standards group for online education technology.

IBM has a strong tradition of research collaboration with the academia through the IBM University Relations programs designed to help develop globally competitive knowledge backed by unmatched technology offerings that will help create talent pool of adaptive innovators to meet the challenges of New Economy.

Chams Plc is Nigeria’s leading provider of enterprise technology solutions with competences in identity management, transactional card-based services, e-commerce and mobile payment system.