Cisco's Reels In 35+ Education Customers for Telepresence

Cisco Systems announced at the Educause Conference in Denver that they have signed on more than 35 higher-ed institutions as customers for its Telepresence 3D virtual world solution.

Utilizing Telepresence will, according to the company, allow schools "to scale expertise, foster more open innovation between academic and private industry researchers and develop innovative distance learning programs that benefit from in-person collaboration."

Another advantage to the solution is being able to bring in outside academic expertise without having to incur travel costs. As well, research can be done collaboratively and globally, and global classrooms and executive education programs can be developed. Currently, research centers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University, Purdue University and Stanford University use Telepresence. Cisco also works with National Lambda Rail, a national research network whose aim is to connect higher education institutions.

"Our collaboration with Cisco allows us to take executive learning to a whole new level," said Raymond Smith, Associate Dean of Executive Education at the Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina. "The use of Cisco TelePresence and other technologies will fundamentally change how we think about global learning and teaching in a way that is more visually stimulating and interactive than any vehicle ever used in educating executives."

"Education is fundamentally a collaborative, interactive endeavor, crucial to the success of future generations, communities and countries," said Charles Stucki, vice president and general manager, Cisco TelePresence Systems business unit. "With new interactive collaboration tools, such as the virtual learning environments created by Cisco TelePresence systems, educational institutions are able to extend their academic expertise, share resources and equip students with 21st century job skills."

Comments

[Brian Bauer]

"Telepresence 3D Virtual World Solution" ? I read the article a couple of times, but I seen no explanation of "3D Virtual World". is this just a mis-application of the term "3D Virtual World"? Telepresence has always been limited to fancy webcams. has that been changed?