Cisco today announced that 50 schools involved in Azerbaijan’s e-School project have deployed a unified distance learning system based on Cisco Enterprise Networks.
The solution provides the schools with secure and reliable access to data at any time, in any place, and through any device. According to Cisco, the deployments open equal education opportunities to students, and gives the teachers resources for embracing best methodologies and practices, as well as for extending education programs beyond school campuses.
The project was implemented by AZEDUNET, a Cisco premier-certified partner in Azerbaijan, in the framework of the State Program of Informatization of the Education System in 2008-2012.
The announcement was made in parallel to Cisco’s flagship event, Cisco Live!, in Florida this week, which has attracted a record 20,000 visitors, as well as 250,000 online.
Azerbaijan’s purpose is to build a unified education network, connect the country’s schools to that network, and introduce ICT to the education system. With support from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AZEDUNET rolled out the Azerbaijani Education Network (AzEduNet) and in five years connected about 1,700 educational establishments to AzEduNet via FiberOptic, xDSL, VSAT and 3G technologies.
Cisco Enterprise Networks includes solutions for routing, switching, mobility, IT security and application optimisation in global networks. The unified network infrastructure in Azerbaijan provided enough bandwidth for the channel linking schools and the data centre.
The schools’ routing and switching is supported by Cisco 2800 and 2900 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) and Cisco Catalyst 2960, 3560 and 3750 Series Switches. Data security is protected by Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewalls. The wireless network segment is based on Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controllers, Cisco Aironet LAP 1040 and 1140 Access Points, and Linksys Wireless Controllers.
In addition, the schools obtained IP telephony based on the Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express and Cisco Unified IP Phone 7900 Series, and video conferencing based on Cisco TelePresence (MCU, TMS, TCS, VCS) solutions and Cisco TelePresence Quick Set Series Codecs.
The unified network platform installed in Azerbaijani schools provides broad opportunities for collaboration to teachers, students and parents, Cisco said. The teachers are now using virtual classes, electronic books and electronic management tools. Parents can follow their children’s academic progress via the Education Portal of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
According to Cisco, in the near future all schools in Azerbaijan are to be connected to the Azerbaijani Education Network and the e-School project.
CNME Editor Ben Rossi is reporting live from Cisco Live! 2013 in Florida this week. Follow Twitter updates at #CLUS and @ComputerNewsME.
