IBM and Cisco have provided the Region of Madrid with the access, management and support of the Cisco Webex teleworking and collaboration tool, which offers simple and intuitive functionalities for e- education.
The solution – already working since yesterday – connects teachers and students in real time. More than 100,000 teachers from the Madrid already have a personal account in the service to start virtual classes. All those teachers registered in EducaMadrid (in the 2019-2020 academic year) will be able to use the platform.
“At Cisco, all workers are committed to positively impacting the country with our collaboration and our technology. We want to help everyone benefit from digitization, especially in critical situations such as the current one”, highlights Andreu Vilamitjana, CEO of Cisco Spain. “Through the Digitaliza program, we collaborate with the Administrations to guarantee the activity of companies, health centers and schools and help people preserve their health.”
From IBM we want to contribute with our professionals, technology and knowledge in the collective effort to alleviate this health and social crisis. Our goal as a company is to create innovations that help society progress and improve, with technology always aimed at the common good. On this occasion, we are especially proud to be able to contribute, combining technology and professional volunteering, to reducing the impact of the COVID 19 crisis in our country”, says Marta Martínez, IBM Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel General Manager.
The Ministry of Education and Youth has thanked the collaboration of Cisco and IBM Spain and all its volunteers who have shared the concern of that Ministry to maintain a public service as important as education. “At a time as critical as this, the collaboration of companies like these and of all of society is essential for us to come out of this crisis together,” says Enrique Ossorio.
The collaboration of Cisco with IBM is also open to all regions of Spain and possible uses in other areas of the administration that may benefit at this time from this remote collaboration platform.
Complete virtual classroom
Cisco Webex is a complete collaboration solution. Its Meetings version not only includes video conferencing, but also the possibility to share the desktop and applications, multimedia resources and surveys. Everything in real time.
These functionalities provide a complete virtual classroom, where students participate in classes in guest mode, without the need for a user account.
Everything is managed from the personal room of the teacher, who “invites” the students, controls the audio -silencing the micro of the students when he needs it- and can record the session to share it or review it later.
Cisco Webex Teams version facilitates collaboration between teachers and school staff, with advanced chat, videoconferencing, and document and screen sharing capabilities in a more structured environment.
Support to the teaching community
In addition, IBM offers the teaching community support for the adoption and use of the platform. About 400 company professionals signed up as volunteers on Friday, when the company opened the request, making itself available to teachers in record time.
Volunteers from IBM Spain – who also telework from their homes using Cisco Webex – will provide tutoring for teachers so they can make the most of the platform. Likewise, they will be able to provide them with telematic help in real time in order to resolve any doubt or technical problem. Cisco has also created support video guides.