This Monday, Samsung gave us the latest update on its Smart School initiative which has just connected Portuguese and South Korean elementary school children. Originally started in Portugal in 2013, Samsung’s Smart School program has so far resulted in 13 smart classrooms located throughout the European country. A few days ago, a group of elementary students from the Vidigueira Elementary School in Portugal got to chat with their South Korean peers from the Daeyanam Elementary School in Gunsan using Samsung’s video conference and virtual reality (VR) technologies. As can be seen from the short video provided below, the disadvantaged elementary schoolers have not only chatted, but also discussed school topics, sang, and learned in what looks like a pretty interesting and entertaining environment, especially so if you’re 10 years old. As Eunkyung Jeong, a South Korean elementary school teacher put it, the Smart School program has not only encouraged the students to be more proactive in their learning endeavors but has also enabled teachers to provide their students with instant feedback.
The main idea of Samsung’s recently started Smart School initiative was to help in advancing the education of the most disadvantaged students. The Seoul-based company has been trying to do that by improving IT accessibility in various classrooms around the world. Among other things, Samsung’s smart classrooms are equipped with tablets, the Samsung Gear 360 VR camera, and various teleconferencing devices. With all that technology at their disposal, the young students had no issues with interacting with their peers in real time despite being half a world apart from each other. Samsung also boasts the fact that its program currently has a 100 percent success rate with translation assignments and its enrollment numbers are increasing on an annual basis. The South Korean company currently has plans to expand its program to even more countries and has promised that it’ll be announcing more related initiatives in the near future.
Apart from having a noble cause, Samsung’s Smart School program is also a great advertisement for the company’s Internet of things (IoT) business which had a major change in strategy in 2015. At the moment, Samsung is not only aiming to sell its IoT solutions to schools, but also hotels, hospitals, and various businesses from the music industry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5leDb0HSvSA