My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: Digicel partners with Cyber School Technology Solutions to provide 800 Tablets with CSEC Tutorial - Corporate Spirit spreading to help Schools get Tablets

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Digicel partners with Cyber School Technology Solutions to provide 800 Tablets with CSEC Tutorial - Corporate Spirit spreading to help Schools get Tablets



“The e-learning solutions that will be available to students and teachers will be accessible 24/7 via tablets to be provided by Digicel. This means students and teachers can work and study anytime and anywhere they want”

CEO of CSTS (Cyber School Technology Solutions) Conrod Hanson, on the deal signed with Digicel to provide subsidized Huawrei MediaPad Tablets with CSEC Course

Digicel it seems is on a Tablet giveaway spree. They gave away some fifty six (56) Huawei Media Pads 7 Lite, valued at some JA$1.1 million dollars to seven (7) East Kingston Schools back in April 2013 as chronicled in my blog article entitled “LIME and Digicel both make Donations of Tablets to Preparatory and Primary Schools - How Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark started a Love for Computer Programming Languages in Jamaica”.

More recently, they’ve repeated their charitable gift-giving again! Telecom Provider Digicel has partnered with CSTS (Cyber School Technology Solutions) in a program to package eight hundred (800) Tablets with CSEC (Common Secondary Education Curriculum) Tutorial Material as stated in the article “Tutorials on tablets”, published Monday, September 09, 2013, The Jamaica Observer and “Online tutorials to add to learning experience”, Published Monday September 9, 2013, The Jamaica Gleaner


Then they made ninety (90) of these Tablets available to Hampton High in Malvern, St. Elizabeth at a subsidized cost as stated in the article “Hampton gets tablets courtesy of Digicel”, Published Monday September 9, 2013, The Jamaica Gleaner. Clearly it seems everyone is in a giving mood with Tablets, as this represents the much-hoped for Corporate Spirit I was hoping for where companies decided to pitch in to help Schools and GOJ (Government of Jamaica) get Tablets with educational material preloaded.

This as part of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining’s push to get the e-Learning Project II moving ahead full steam ahead as stated in my blog article entitled “Minister Paulwell gives Parliamentarians and 20,000 Students in 30 Schools Tablets- Future in Science and Technology now rescued Indiana Jones and the Palace of Doom”.

Already another entity, this time the University of the West Indies, the originators of Tablets for students that first began with Medical Science Students and expanded to the rest of the University, had also made a similar gesture of donating Tablets. This time it was the JC (Jamaica College) that were the recipients of 7” SmartTab Tablets from JL Mobile costing a mere US$200 pre-loaded with sixteen (16) free CAPE (Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exam) Tutorials.

The JC Students were given the Tablets and Tutorial Material under an extension of  UWI (University of the West Indies) TEST (UWI Total eBook Solution Tablet) as reported originally in my blog article entitledJamaica College given Tablets and 16 CAPE Books under extension of UWI TEST Project - Sixth Form Students are Guinea Pigs for Tablets and e-books”.

My hope is that this won’t be the last I’ll hear of Tablet donations by Universities and Corporate entities. The GOJ needs all the help it can get to get students in gear not only for exam preparations but also used to the idea of computing as a medium for learning and as a skill as opposed to being something confined to IT (Information Technology) Students. This will put them in good stead for entering the World of Work!

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