Cisco: How World Possible Is Using Technology To Inclusively Bridge the Digital Divide To Help Teachers and Students

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2023 / Cisco Systems Inc.

Foto: Accesswire

The Transformational Tech series highlights Cisco's grant recipients that use technology to help transform the lives of individuals and communities.

An estimated 37% of the world's population - or 2.9 billion people - have still never used the internet and are missing out on the wealth of learning opportunities available online.

In addition, when reflecting on the past three years, the effects from pandemic school closures remain and have had a lasting impact on teacher wellbeing, and student learning proficiency levels globally. This situation was particularly true in communities without reliable access to the internet or technologies to aid teachers and families with remote instruction. More is needed to help this population of learners accelerate learning to meet minimum learning proficiency levels country by country. And more needs to be done to inclusively connect these communities and their students to trained teachers and quality classroom resources.

World Possible is a Cisco nonprofit partner who bridges these gaps and connects offline learners to the world's knowledge with an educational server called RACHEL (Remote Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning). RACHEL is an innovative learning tool for teachers to engage their students and bridge the digital divide and help scale teacher productivity while working with diverse classrooms.

In appreciation of educators everywhere, we want to shine a light on World Possible technology being used by teachers and students in Oceania, Asia and Latin America. In these examples, RACHEL is used to build teacher capacity, increase student engagement, and improve overall classroom performance while helping students living in remote and disconnected communities build digital skills.

Oceania - Kiribati:

Kiribati is an island country composed of over 30 atolls with over 17,500 students attending 110 schools. These students and their teachers are spread over 3.5 million square kilometers in the central Pacific Ocean. With such a dispersed and distributed population, education officials address the challenge of providing access to trained teachers with current curriculum in programs like the Kiribati Education Improvement Program.