Next generation education

Edunex, the new educational platform by T-Systems, aims to educate people from grade school all the way through high school and professional schools in the firm belief that ICT solutions can provide the answers to many of the challenges schools today face.

Launched in 2006, the Edunex project (Education Next Generation) now reaches approximately 120,000 school children across 700 schools in Germany. The platform was first introduced to the general public at the T-City in Friedrichshafen, and presented shortly thereafter at CeBIT. It can be used to teach any subject at any educational level. Jörg Uterhardt, who has been committed to the project since the beginning, shares some of his insights into the platform’s benefits.

Mr. Uterhardt, what makes the Edunex platform so exceptional?

The Edunex platform not only contains the actual content for class lessons, but can also serve as an invaluable tool to help teachers create their lesson plans. We are also the only company that works with all three leading educational publishers in Germany; namely Cornelsen, Westermann and Klett, as well as with other audio-visual media providers from across Europe.

Seems like a lot of work – what is the market potential for Edunex?

It is a growing market. Consider that the countries that scored top in the last PISA scholastic assessments – namely the Scandinavian countries and the UK – happen to be the most advanced countries in terms of integrated information and communications technology (ICT) in schools. In the UK, for example, every school child will have access to an e-learning platform this year. With this in mind, we are also working on expanding beyond the roughly 700 schools we are already working with. We are also in talks with a number of federal states in Germany.

Do schools need to install their own Edunex servers to be able to use it?

No. All a student needs to be able to use Edunex is a normal desktop computer with an Internet browser. Because it is Internet-based, the platform can be accessed from anywhere on any computer – so even if the kids are sick, they can keep up with what’s going on at school. The entire solution is saved on a virtualized network platform, including all operational and support aspects. Most schools today already have computer rooms, but the next generation of school children may even all have their own computers, and with them, access to state-of-the-art educational materials.

So, an equal level of education for everyone?

Edunex makes equal opportunity in schools possible. What sets Edunex apart from other educational materials is that it can be tailored to challenge and nurture each individual pupil according to their respective learning needs. It can even be used as a helpful tool for integrating children whose parents immigrated to Germany. Some of the publishers offer integrated translation tools to make the learning experience easier and more productive. This also helps to overcome any language barriers that some pupils may have.

How else does Edunex help eliminate learning barriers?

The platform even lets pupils get foreign language instructions from abroad, for instance, which isn’t always possible when sitting in a classroom. If students are learning French, for instance, the platform’s video function allows them to take lessons from a French teacher in France and even interact with a class of school kids there that may happen to be learning German, for instance. The platform also puts the unlimited resources of the Internet – like wikis and blogs, for instance – at the students’ fingertips.