Speaker
Description
Smart technologies for them to retain their meaning, ought to be enablers in given spaces of application. In the same vain, adopting and implementing smart technologies should balance the tradeoff between usefulness and cost effectiveness. With emerging and disruptive trends in technology use, the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm can be harnessed for the effective implementation and functionality of smart learning environments. Given the cost effectiveness of the sensors and holistic architecture that IoT utilises to bring functionality to life, we envisage cost effective and relevant solutions that can help in creating an equal access platform to educational technologies irregardless of physical location, that is either rural or urban, remote or local to key access points. Guided by a qualitative research approach, this paper outlines different paradigms towards smart technology adoption towards digital and smart universities of the 21st Century. The different paradigms are selected based on their relevance to different envisaged rich African contextual settings. It will be clearly outlined in this paper, the key role IoT technologies can play in enabling connectivity, data sharing and a whole lot of other application solution demands any typical university setup would thrive on to meet the smart status. Among the key contributons of this paper, we can single out the diverse alternatives presented for different disciplines in a university functional environment and the interdisciplinary approach to weave smart technologies to enhance learning, teaching and assessment thereof.
Summary
A focus on disruptive technologies and how universities in Africa can embrace such paradigms to remain relevant and competitive at a Global scale.
| Sub-Theme | SMART Universities: Concepts, Characteristics and Technologies |
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