01/10/2019
October 1, 2019, Taipei – National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), a leading higher education institution and ViewSonic, a leading global provider of visual solutions, announced to promote jointly the adoption of EdTech by developing the right environment, extensive training programs, and learning material catered for the digital classroom. The ViewSonic Advanced Learning Environment in the College of Education Building at NTNU was also officially launched as concept classroom for EdTech integration and adoption. The collaboration will leverage both parties’ expertise in education and technology to facilitate digital transformation and innovation in Taiwan’s education sector and better interconnection with the word.
“Education is evolving from one-way lecturing to two-way communication and the demand for digitalization in education has therefore increased in the past few years. NTNU’s collaboration with ViewSonic leverages both sides’ expertise in education and technology, and commitment to transforming education through technology. We wish to serve as a role model for academia,” said Cheng-Chih Wu, President of NTNU. “We are also excited to announce the opening of the ViewSonic Advanced Learning Environment. As a leading institution nurturing the teachers for tomorrow, NTNU seeks to nurture future teachers to take part in EdTech while still a student and transition their experiences into future careers.”
“ViewSonic has been devoted to the digital transformation of education in recent years. We developed an innovative total solution for EdTech that integrates hardware, software, services, and the ecosystem, and we aim to contribute to Taiwan’s education by sharing our experiences in the global educational market,” said James Chiu, Chairman and CEO of ViewSonic. “Compared to current EdTech efforts that focus on building only hardware, which may limit its true technological potential and thus hamper the user experience, this collaboration with NTNU has the goal of promoting integration and adoption of EdTech. On top of creating an environment conducive to learning, we provide digital training for teachers and support on digital courses design. By doing so, we hope to make a contribution to Taiwan and help unlock its potential through education and improved competitiveness.”
Promoting a digital transformation in education in Taiwan with the integration of EdTech
The digital education environment in Taiwan at present is focused on the use of hardware equipment, and teachers with digital capabilities are under-supplied. Even with new equipment, the lack of educational training and a friendly environment will reduce the willingness of teachers to adapt. Also, the shortage in digital teaching materials limits the development of digital education. To break through the barriers, the integration of EdTech not only includes an "environmental setup", but also combines "instructional training" and "course design" to create a complete EdTech ecosystem.
Regarding environment, two ViewSonic Advanced Learning Environments have been setup in the College of Education building of NTNU and have begun operation. With ViewSonic ViewBoard interactive displays, the core communication hardware between teachers and students, and the myViewBoard software platform, it is easier than ever for teachers to prepare their courses. Teachers can even add remarks on their digital materials, gather information from the web at any time, and access to all cloud services for instant references. In group discussions, teachers can easily integrate the discussions from different groups and share course content, to other students and teachers. The ViewSonic Advanced Learning Environment allows creative classroom-seating arrangements and barrier-free ramps, promoting open and effective discussions.
Through the ViewSonic Advanced Learning Environment, NTNU students will familiarize with EdTech from students’ perspective, providing a transition to utilize the technologies when making future lesson plans. In order to nurture technology literate teachers, ViewSonic is committed on working with NTNU to train NTNU and those who participate in NTNU’s professional development programs during school semesters. In addition, ViewSonic also launched several training camps across Taiwan to drive experiential awareness for middle and elementary school teachers to on the benefits of educational technologies.
The ”Urban and Rural Cloud Collaborative Education” project was initiated to create courses that integrated digital content. The project involved Taoyuan Da-Yeh Elementary School, which has over a thousand students and Yunlin Shui-Dui Elementary School, which has 60 students, the collaboration was instrumental in developing courses related to air pollution. The two schools adopted the ViewBoard interactive displays and myViewBoard software to allow teachers to jointly design and prepare the courses. Also, students at two schools can interact with each other during class sessions. In order to make courses more engaging and interactive, students are required to use air boxes to monitor air quality and present their results. This experimental class design allows students to pay attention to environmental issues and also showcases the infinite possibilities of EdTech: facilitating interactions across classes and schools, sharing resources between urban and rural areas, and closing the gap between urban and rural schools.