It seems school grants have become commonplace as education budgets continue to be cut, and therefore, the fight to win a grant is increasingly becoming more difficult. I recently had an interesting conversation with Stephanie Jones, Manager of the Cisco Grant Services Team, and Hillary Janison, Regional Grant Manager for Cisco about Putnam County School System (PCSS) in Tennessee. PCSS worked with the Cisco team to implement a comprehensive grant initiative to bridge the distance gap between the state’s classrooms.

The wide physical distribution (17 campuses) of students among multiple classrooms throughout the state presented PCSS with a number of challenges, including inability to sustain IT and teaching resources, manage personnel, and provide appropriate opportunities for advanced learners. Additionally, faced with an ever-shrinking pool of personnel and classroom resources, PCSS officials knew they would need to maximize their efficiency. Read More »

Tags: @jerrysboyd, @pcsstn, edchat, edtech, ISTE12, tandberg, videoconferencing

There’s a different kind of college freshman on university campuses these days. According to EdWeek’s report on The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2011 survey, today’s freshman bears more of the cost of his or her own education than did past first-year college students, and, as a high school senior, today’s freshman paid more attention to his or her studies than those who came before.

So what does this mean for colleges?

For one, today’s students’ higher academic engagement could translate into demand for more innovative, challenging courses. But with the survey showing more students taking out large student loans as their parents’ unemployment rates remain stagnant, universities cannot raise tuition price tags to hire more faculty to develop new classes. President Obama said as much in his January 24 State of the Union address, mandating that schools use tools like “better technology” to improve their course offerings without raising costs. Read More »

Tags: Cisco, classroom technology, distance learning, edchat, edtech, education reform, Education Week, sotu, tandberg, teleconferencing, video conferencing, videoconferencing, virtual

A few months back I shared some ideas on how telepresence could help raise student satisfaction with higher education programs. It’s exciting, now, to share a success story of telepresence’s invaluable contribution to one business school program that earned rave reviews from participants.

Using Cisco TelePresence, the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business conducted its first custom executive education program. The Moore School connected leaders at textile manufacturer Fiberweb in Frankfurt, Germany, with professors in Columbia, South Carolina, allowing them to work together on marketing and strategy projects … and no one had to step foot on a plane.

Read More »

Tags: distance learning, edchat, edtech, edu2011, tandberg, video conferencing, videoconferencing

STOP PRESS:  Here’s the recording of this Webinar for those folks who couldn’t attend! Very worthwhile for Cisco Partners! Click the link: 

Cisco Manufacturing Mobile Video Collaboration Solution

The Just a quick reminder for Cisco Partners to attend the Cisco and Librestream Partner Webinar tomorrow (9th June 2011) at 8.00am Pacific. Find out about the exciting new solution that’s being adopted worldwide by customers like Boeing, GE and FIAT.

Remember how I told you I was really excited by this new Cisco and Librestream MMVC solution. Lots of information out on the web, and lots of questions so I thought I’d put a brief video together to give you an introduction and to see if we can get a discussion going and also to see if we can answer some of the questions for you. It addresses what really matters to many customers. What are the pain-points that manufacturers and industry have today? How do they get hold of the right people to fix things if something goes wrong, and how can they say ‘I see what you mean now’ — and really mean it? My original blog gave lots of information.

If you are a Cisco Partner and interested in building a manufacturing industry practice, this webinar is for you!

Register here: Cisco Manufacturing Mobile Video Collaboration Solution. Remember, it’s just one hour starting at 8.00 am Pacific, 12.00pm Eastern -- lots of opportunity to ask questions!  Read More »

Tags: Boeing, Borderless Networks, channels, Chrysler, Cisco, collaboration, Factory, FIAT, ge, general electric, globalization, Industry, innovation, Manufacturing, mobility, operations, opprtunity, partner, plant, productivity, R&D, Research and Development, security, tandberg, TelePresence, unified communications, video, wireless

In my recent blog, From Cairo to Nairobi- Eye to Eye at the Touch of a Button, I explained how we are achieving massive cost savings and efficiencies at Cisco as a global organisation and more recently across the continent of Africa, thanks to immersive TelePresence.

In fact the vast majority of our sales force in Africa, 7 out of 10 employees, now have access to this flagship communication and collaboration tool at their local Cisco office. This means they can meet face to face in a life-size virtual meeting with colleagues, customers and partners across the globe without the need to travel, as if they were sat in the same meeting room just across the table from one another.  So what are we doing for the remaining 30% of employees on the continent who do not have access to this capability?

Read More »

Tags: africa, coc-collaboration, collaboration, communication, cost saving, desktop, Emerging Markets, face to face, high definition, tandberg, video