The 3rd African ICT Best Practices Forum recently welcomed educators, ministerial representatives and technology providers from across the African continent and beyond to the International Conference Centre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

The event, organised by the Government of Burkina Faso in partnership with Microsoft and the European Union, once again demonstrated the high level of interest in using technology solutions to address the critical development challenges in Africa.

The Best Practices Forum provides the ideal environment for government and advisory institutions to share ideas and experiences in order to create a roadmap for the future.

During the event a number of ‘real-life’ case studies were presented to delegates and these provided the ideal opportunity to see the various ways ICT is being implemented across different parts of the continent.

One such case study that proved to be of great interest involved a live video link to the Tamaghza school in Tunisia who have been piloting Microsoft’s shared resource computing model, Windows® MultiPoint™ Server 2010 (WMS). WMS installations use a single host computer to power multiple simultaneous and independent user stations. It has a low total cost of ownership, is easy to set up and use, and gives educators the tools and technology they need to prepare their students for success.

Supporting the project and ensuring teachers have the necessary software at their disposal to ensure the technology is being used appropriately, NetSupport have developed a specially optimised version of their market-leading Classroom Management solution NetSupport School, NetSupport School Centralized Computing Edition (CCE).

Both WMS and NetSupport School CCE reflect the same philosophy, namely to offer best of breed yet affordable technology, to enhance the accessibility of ICT within education.

During the session, moderated by the Director of the News Box Network Khalil Gueye, Microsoft’s Ian Puttergill firstly explained how the WMS project had evolved and how specialist partners such as NetSupport had been chosen to provide a range of supporting software solutions.

As Mr Puttergill explains, the use of a live video link was the ideal way to put into context how WMS can help educators implement a robust and cost effective ICT solution; “Hooking up with the Tamaghza school gave delegates an excellent insight into just how beneficial WMS can be both in terms of ease of use and cost effectiveness. I’ve got to thank the school for helping us out with this, we had a full class of students ready and waiting along with their teacher who was interviewed by the moderator. The teacher gave an excellent overview of WMS and demonstrated some of the key monitoring and collaboration features of NetSupport School CCE. He was certainly impressed with how focused the students have become during computer led lessons since CCE has been in operation.”

You can find out more about WMS and NetSupport School CCE and download a free trial copy of CCE by visiting: www.netsupportschool.com/wms.asp.

Windows^® MultiPoint^™ Server and NetSupport School CCE are used in the new ICT lab at Tamaghza school, Tunisia