Ericsson Seeks Education Driven by Technology

FOR Ericsson, one of the world’s global leaders in the forefront of driving the networked society, to unlock the full potentials of learning and education students and progressive teachers must be technologically empowered.

According to the global leader, at a video conference hosted from its headquarters in Sweden for ICT journalist from Nigeria, Kenyan and South Africa empowering individuals and communities can drive change towards completely new ways of governing, doing business, innovating, learning and educating.

The Ericsson team who addressed the journalist said that technology has had an amazing impact on learning and education considering what technology has achieved globally in the last 25 years in connecting five billion people.

For instance, Ericsson said, “85 per cent of the world’s population has access to mobile communications, and by 2020 we expect there to be 50 billion connected devices. This is what we mean when we talk about the network society, a world where everything that can benefit from a connection will have one.”

The duo observed that informal learning and access to education is giving way to changing rapidly as digital natives that is children born after 1985 have grown up in a world of computer, mobile phones and the internet even as experiences in the use of such devices have continued to shape their behaviour.

According to Ericsson, by 2020 they will total 3.5 billion, which about 50 per cent of the global population saying, “today’s young people live in an interactive culture characterised by unlimited access information and content, anytime, anywhere.”

Ericsson stated that in today’s world, a person with smartphone has instantaneous access to millions of articles, books, essays, academic research, instructions and lectures on every subject.

The implication, Ericsson noted is that barriers that used to exist between knowledge and schools and libraries has been broken down adding that with technology lifelong learning  and information education will play an increasingly important role as people strive to develop their knowledge, skills and competence throughout their lives.

Ericsson stated that with more devices in the hands of students, the tools of the trade of learning will change stressing that where students and teachers get laptops or tablets as well as interactive whiteboards learning becomes collaborative.