Colombia. For three days, representatives of 21 universities from seven Latin American countries met at the Attic Center of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá at the Education Technology Summit 2018.
This event held by Sony to publicize convergent technology aimed at the education sector, had in its inaugural session Javier Prieto, Vice Rector of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; Katsunari Matsuoka, President of Sony PSLA; and Bruce Tanaka, general manager education business at Sony, among other executives of the company for the region.
The day served to reflect on the changes that the classroom has had in the last 10 years with technological appropriation and new educational models focused on competences, which require the use of AV technology. Gonzalo Gamio of Sony stressed that today classrooms are collaborative rooms, which include solutions such as interactive projectors, videoconferencing, robotic cameras, surround audio, collaboration systems, LED lighting, tablets, laptos, touch monitors, IT infrastructure and Learning Management System.
But one of the concerns that was the subject of discussion is how to appropriate this technology by teachers and students. Therefore, the participants pointed out, it is essential to have a clear project of how technology will be used before acquiring it, train teachers in its use to avoid gaps with digital native students and, as Germán Franco, director of the Centro Ático, pointed out, people must be at the center of technology.
The Education Technology Summit 2018 featured four partner companies that provide complementary technology to Sony's classroom solutions, such as Extron, Avid, Fluotec and Ameg. In the case of Extron, Néstor Zarazúa stressed that the education sector is one of the segments in which they have concentrated efforts in recent years. Only in the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana has 280 rooms with their technologies, both automation and transport of audio or video signal and are working with several Colombian universities.
For its part, Avid presented a special program aimed at universities so that they can certify their students locally, with a low cost and the possibility of having licenses of their systems. And José María Noriega, CMO of Fluotec, stressed that the educational segment is growing in the use of professional solutions and that is why it is very important to create synergies between manufacturers to serve this market with complete solutions.
At the end of the day, Sony gave awards to:
- Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá for its collaboration as host university of the Event
- Germán Franco, Director of the Centro Ático, for his support and collaboration in the coordination of the Event
- Samar Atta, Operations Coordinator of the Attic Center, for her support and collaboration in the coordination of the Event
- Fernando Cruz, Sales Manager of Sony, for his development of agreements in the education sector.
Claudius Bezerra, Product Marketing Manager Latin America of Sony, stressed that "A very important point of the event was the commitment to the creation of an Educational Committee between Sony, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, Universidad San Francisco de Quito and ITESM to coordinate the next Education Summits and regional activities of the education sector in Latin America".
