Cisco joins Victoria ideas lab project

The lab, to be built over the next three years at Broadmeadows, just outside Melbourne, aims to encourage new thinking about the design and delivery of education for 21st century learning.

The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) Victoria announced Cisco as a technology Foundation Partner. The vendor will work with other partners including Microsoft and Intel.

The Ideas Lab is part of a $2 billion Victorian education system upgrade.

“Educators and education systems face the challenge of catering to an ever-evolving technology landscape,” said Wayne Craig, regional director Northern Metropolitan Region from DEECD.

“They must adapt to provide the necessary skills and education to students to enable them to successfully compete in the future economy.”

The Ideas Lab will provide teachers with the tools needed to better engage and prepare students’ for the future, according to Craig.

Cisco is said to bring unified communications, video and mobility technologies to Ideas Lab.

Mobility technologies such as advanced wireless solutions will help eliminate physical barriers and provide students, teachers and administrators with access to computing resources anytime, anywhere from any device, Cisco said in a statement.

Unified Communications and video technologies will also help to drive collaboration across the network, the company said.

DEECD will also work with Cisco to explore the possibility of deploying Cisco TelePresence and WebEx on the network, according to the statement.

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