Vodacom Business and Microsoft South Africa have partnered to provide the South African educational institutions, educators and learners with access to continuous, connected digital learning through their Connected Digital Education initiative
This is in response to the growing need for affordable online learning solutions that meet learners' educational needs through a secure mix of connectivity, collaboration, communication and educational tools and resources, while also considering the need to transform education over the long term.
The Connected Digital Education Platform is a trusted educational platform that enables remote learning with affordable connectivity, ultimately turning the learning environment into one simple solution for the learner and giving them access to the tools, apps and resources they need to learn.
The solution also provides access to cost-effective data and educational apps and resources through the Edu Data Bundle from Vodacom Business and Microsoft Office 365 Education, a cloud-based service that delivers major Microsoft productivity apps such as Teams, OneNote, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
With the platform, educators can continue to deliver classes to their learners who can participate through chat or voice using a SIM card that provides free access to teams, enabling them to continue learning regardless of where they are or what device they are using – whether it is an Android, iOS or Windows smartphone, tablet or laptop.
The solution addresses the short-term need for online learning, while educational institutions are partially closed by providing access to the tools and resources needed to teach and learn, respectively, for educators and learners.
Transforming African education over the long-term
The partnership addresses the need to transform education over the long term, and provides learners with the tools needed to equip them with technological fluency, high-level knowledge skills and an agile mindset that embraces innovation and creativity – the skills needed for future employability.
Lillian Barnard, managing director at Microsoft South Africa, said, “This empowers both educators and learners, and enables learning to continue in a seamless manner, which is a priority for Microsoft as we aim to ensure that South African learners are equipped with the right tools and skills needed to make them future-ready.
“The ability to bring together learning into one hub or solution is invaluable, and forms an important part of our commitment to building a complete education solution with critical partnerships with organisations like Vodacom Business.”
