Fusion Universal

The SOMA Portal will provide affordable access to world-class learning tools to improve ICT skills across Tanzania.

Fusion Universal recently visited Botswana to work with participating schools and the Ministry of Education and continue to evolve and improve on the use of our ICT tools within the education sector. Feedback from students at Sir Seretse Khama school in Gabarone was incredibly positive with students embracing the self-paced and interactive learning materials. Fusion will continue to work with our local partners, Modern Solutions, to build a comprehensive training and sensitisation programme for the Ministry and teachers across Botswana to continue to embrace ICT as a core learning tool. We believe that by continuing to improve access to ICT skills, we can help prepare the 150M young people across Africa for the 21st Century work force.

UhuruOne, in partnership with Fusion Universal, today launch an e-learning portal to provide access to the world’s best ICT learning tools online. The ‘Soma’ Portal will be hosted by UhuruOne and provide access to advanced digital learning resources form a leading UK learning solutions provider. By providing incredibly low-cost access to cutting edge learning tools designed to prepare young Tanzanians for the 21st Century workforce UhuruOne is striving to achieve its core mission of providing low-cost access to a world of information through affordable access to internet and training on its effective use for Education.

By partnering with UK’s leading e-learning organization, UhuruOne aims to expand the work it is currently doing with schools across Tanzania. UhuruOne CEO Mihayo Wilmore says, “A key challenge we faced when UhuruOne started was a lack of technical capacity amongst ICT graduates. Tanzania lags behind other countries in ICT skills, especially at younger ages. By introducing ICT at an early age through access to engaging and interactive e-learning content, we hope to help fill this gap. This will have enormous benefits not only for technology companies in Tanzania, but will also create wider opportunities for economic growth in the ‘innovation’ sector.”

Fusion Universal Director Bronwen McConkey said, “Fusion Universal aims to provide the best learning tools in the world at an affordable cost. Although we will be expanding beyond just ICT skills in the coming months, we felt it was incredibly important to first develop a baseline of ICT skills. ICT competency truly is the enabler to knowledge access across any subject area or topic. Effective education can change lives and through access to the internet, knowledge can cross geographic, economic and cultural barriers.

We are very excited about working with UhuruOne to expand ICT access and skills across Tanzania and the entire region.” UhuruOne is a communication technology company focused on bringing affordable and accessible high-speed internet connectivity to the fast-growing East African market. UhuruOne is the only ISP in Tanzania using Wi-Fi mesh technology, allowing fast internet speeds, rapid network deployment, and low infrastructure fixed-cost. The business’ combination of competitive pricing, choice technology, professional management, together with its stable financial structure, put UhuruOne on a solid footing for aggressive growth over the next years. UhuruOne has partnered with KAI Mobile to offer competitive pricing in termination of bandwidth on the SEACOM cable within the East African Region. This unique supplier provider model makes it ideal for end users as they get to pay competitive prices for Pay as you Go internet with wireless roaming capabilities within cities, villages, towns and large metropolitan areas.

The Fusion team comprises of thought leaders in the use of technology for education and as early as 1998 have been pioneering digital learning projects across both private and public sector organisations. The aim of Fusion Universal’s social enterprise is to bring the world’s best digital learning tools to developing countries through affordable access to the best of breed digital learning curricula and social learning tools. Our 2020 Vision is to improve the lives of 1 billion people in developing countries through access to the world’s best digital education.

Fusion Universal is proud to announce the launch of its “Virtual School” programme. The Virtual School is set to transform education by providing access to the best digital learning resources to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Education systems around the world are stretched to their breaking point. More and more students are on the fringes of education provision: left behind by a lack of infrastructure, a dearth of qualified teachers or the inability to attend a traditional school during ‘office hours’. Fusion recognises the need to ‘think outside the classroom’ and to harness advances in technology, multimedia and learning theory to transform the way that knowledge is delivered and processed.

Fusion Universal is already delivering its ICT curriculum to over 60,000 children and teachers across 13 countries in Africa with an expected reach of 2 million over the coming year. The launch of Fusion’s Virtual School programme is the next logical step for Fusion Universal to achieve its 2020 vision of educating 1 billion people. .

The inaugural meeting of the Virtual School steering committee, on Thursday January 20^th at the Sanderson Hotel in London, will assemble corporate, government and university leaders and learning experts from around the world to try and solve the long standing problem of how to improve education in a sustainable and equitable manner.

Within the scope of the ‘Virtual School’ programme, Fusion is proposing the development of an exploratory and engaging user centric self-study academic curriculum that enables primary and secondary school students to receive a high standard of education regardless of their ability to attend school or the standards of teaching in their area. We will develop a platform that puts the student at the heart of the learning experience and will cover all their basic education needs. We intend to ensure that the curricula are appropriate to the academic demands of their local school system and prepare them for the requisite examinations.

The student will receive the majority of teaching through a bite-sized format of video lessons, supported by interactive games-based exercises and assessments and access to e-tutors. The student will have a personal learning pathway which assesses their abilities and defines their education journey. Access to e-tutors and visibility of progress along their learning journey will provide ongoing support and motivation. All resources will be available through a collaborative learning environment where the student can interact with their peers and e-tutors.

The video lessons will be created by a team of local teachers who are recognized as being top of their field; they will be trained to use the latest learning technologies to capture and therefore disseminate their best explanations.

Fusion Universal has been harnessing all the expertise and experience developed from its award winning corporate solutions to change and improve the way children receive and access education across the world.

If you wish to understand more or join Fusion’s 2020 vision for educating the world or gain some understanding about our corporate expertise then please email bronwen.mcconkey@fusion-universal.com

On January 26 and 27, founder of FUEL ltd. and current CEO of Fusion Universal, Steve Dineen, will be giving a number engaging and innovative workshops on social learning.

11.30 and 13:00 on Days 1 and 2

“How social learning integrates into your current learning strategy” (Stand C5)

14:30 on Days 1 and 2

“How social learning can transform training businesses, create new customers and generate additional revenue” (Stand C5)

15:30 on Day 2

“How to implement social and informal learning in your organisation” (Theatre 1)

Social learning is set to be the next major step and improvement in learning, changing the way the business world goes about training.

The ability to quickly capture and share knowledge within an organisation is set to take over from more formal learning methods and dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to get to ‘job competency’.

A year ago the technology required to perform this quickly and easily did not exist. With the advancement in technology and new ways of thinking, Fusion Universal now has the answer using its award winning social learning platform.

To discover how social learning fits into your organisation, please come and join Fusion Universal at Learning Technologies for one of Steve Dineen’s seminars, a product demonstration as well as a free massage from the Fusion Angels.

To sum up, social learning offers a competitive advantage because:

• It closes the gap between starters and experts: Experts model best behaviour, capture it and then make it available for instant access.
• It allows for multi-skilling of staff: Staff in one department can access the “know-how” of staff in another department.
• It increases operational efficiency: The time taken to distribute correct knowledge is reduced and therefore errors are too. Employees complete tasks which are ‘right first time’.
• It allows staff to refresh their knowledge at the moment of need or to increase their product knowledge through access to bite-size information.

On the 11^th of November, Fusion Universal won the coveted “2010 E-learning industry award for outstanding achievement – Corporate” at the prestigious E-Learning Awards held in the London Marriot Hotel, Grosvenor Square.

Fusion Universal won the E-Learning Industry Award for outstanding achievement for its leading and innovative approach to “improving customer efficiency, closing skills gaps and getting the best from staff” judges of the 2010 E-Learning explained.

Steve Dineen, Fusion Universal’s CEO comments, “This award really endorses our unique approach of combining E-learning, social learning technologies and process guidance technologies tailored to each of our clients. It justifies the hard work of the team at Fusion Universal and our partners, who have been designing and delivering solutions that have brought measurable business results”.

The Knowledge Solution, a tailor made solution proposed by Fusion Universal to one of its main clients, British Telecom (BT), allowed them to benefit from substantial financial savings. In fact, thanks to the procedural support tool designed for BT, customer service errors were reduced by 80% and “Right First Time” improved by 60%, ensuring that the company retains a leading position in delivery.

In the last couple years, Fusion Universal has shown success in helping its clients with that much needed competitive advantage that sets them apart from the rest.

Not to be forgotten, the judges also applauded the company’s driven contribution to bridge the digital learning divide in developing nations. Fusion Universal believes that lives in the developing world can be dramatically improved through the use of modern online education. “We are impressed with Fusion Universal’s social mission of making quality education universally accessible and striving to provide outstanding ICT education to developing countries”, stated the jury.

However, thinking already of the future, Steve Dineen concludes, “Our challenge now is to continue to push the boundaries of how technology enabled learning can provide benefit to our clients and to the children within our social programs around the world”.