STI, Huawei Bring Smart Classroom Technology in PH

July 22, 2022

STI College and electronics company Huawei bring their partnership into play after a successful turnover of the Huawei Smart Classroom, a digital innovation aiming to transform educational models to new heights. 

Graced by Huawei Asia Pacific Vice President Jun Zhang and Huawei Philippines Enterprise Business President Alex Luan Mingming altogether with the executives of STI College, the electronics giant introduced the IdeaHub board, an interactive whiteboard created to revolutionize both online and face-to-face education.  

“Well, actually this is great for us,” Peter K. Fernandez, STI’s President and Chief Operating Officer (COO), said about the digital board, five of which were donated by Huawei and are confined at STI Academic Center Ortigas-Cainta. “We can actually start using this to be able to build the future hybrid classroom.”  

 

Defining the future of education 

Now that face-to-face classes are becoming more and more feasible, the arrival of the IdeaHub comes at a very fitting time. The board offers a wide array of technological advancements that make life easy for both students and teachers.  

With the Broadcast function, teachers will be able to share their screens instantaneously with their students with a single tap. That way, it’ll be easier for students to take notes and listen closely to their lessons.  

For the Demo function, on the other hand, students will be able to share their screen with their teacher; providing a faster and easier way of submitting outputs. A similar function, Compare, allows the teacher to check all students’ screens at the same time.  

 

The IdeaHub has 4k Ultra High-Definition projection complete with Optical Anti-Blue light to guarantee the safety of the students’ eyesight.  

It is also equipped with a smart pen, enabling a creative and engaging way of teaching all throughout the day. It functions faster than a regular whiteboard with its 35 millisecond-ultra low writing latency, on top of its intelligent writing recognition which automatically identifies words, figures, and flowcharts even when written in a rush. 

“This is the future of education,” Huawei Technologies Philippines Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and IT Director Arnie Alvarez said during the demonstration. “You can actually use it for a lot of different things, it’s very powerful.”  

As much as it offers convenience on the traditional way of education, the IdeaHub is especially handy on remote set-ups as well. With just a single tap of the teacher, content and lessons written on the main board can be transferred remotely to the students in real-time.  

Audio will also never be a problem, especially for those who have established a set-up in an open environment where vehicles, passers-by, or stray animals can be heard.  

Thanks to its 12 microphones induced with beamforming technology and Huawei’s unique artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, it ensures high-fidelity and crystal-clear sound that projects an invisible sector in front of the board. The sector is an invisible wall that picks up sounds inside and blocks sounds heard outside for a focused and peaceful setting.  

“We can get the best teacher, in fact, and deliver nationwide. You can just do it (classes) in batches without the teacher actually traveling,” Fernandez added, highlighting the convenience the classroom offers to students and teachers who have established a remote set-up. “So, this is actually very timely considering what we went through for the last two years.” 

 

Aesthetically engaging 

The board, which has a 65 and 86-inch option, comes in a gleaming and contemporary design. It straddles on a minimalist stand for easier relocation and its combination of jade white and cadet gray color flashes the simple yet elegant vibe.  

In fact, it captivated the German international design awarding body Red Dot after being named as one of the Red Dot Design awardees in 2020. 

 

Partners for the future 

With Huawei’s generous donation, STI hits two birds with one stone – providing students with high-quality education along with preparing them for what education will look like in the years to come. 

With the help of this advancement, teachers and students can interact more efficiently and have easy access to high-quality educational resources anywhere, anytime. As one of the first institutions in the country to offer such technology, STI is able to create more mediums in producing responsible and competent members of society that are job-ready and future-ready.  

“We utilize the talent of our people and here in the Philippines, we see a lot of potential in the country,” Zhang said. “I understand that in the Philippines, we have so many young people, and the young people are the future of the nation so we would like, together with STI, to develop their talents.”