Extraordinary Endeavors in Turbulent Times: Asian Innovation, Inclusion, and Impact during COVID-19

ASIA BUSINESS COUNCIL HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 5 1 Lenovo (Mainland China) Extraordinary Endeavors in Turbulent Times Having started his career as a classroom teacher working with autistic and special needs students, Henderson is passionate about the difference Lenovo can make in the education sector. The priority during the pandemic was to re-create the classroom experience in a virtual setting. In October 2020, Lenovo launched its Hybrid Classroom solution to cater for distance learning and hybrid learning scenarios. Importantly, hybrid learning allows students in remote locations to join classes from “master teachers” at top educational institutions and get access to professors they otherwise would not have been able to meet, albeit virtually. As Henderson explained, “In some scenarios, especially in higher education, there is a model called Hyflex. There is a physical instructor and some students in the room, but other students are connecting remotely.” For this solution, Lenovo worked with its alliance partners Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams to provide a collaborative offering – while there is a videoconferencing component there are also tools to share content and work. Lenovo leverages its global footprint to roll out new resolutions, like its Smart Classroom solution in the Philippines, after a successful rollout in the China market. Students connect to the Smart Classroom through tablets, and the teacher provides content to the students through Lenovo Cloud. They can also use smart features like a digital whiteboard and interactive quizzes. 12 As this solution is an end-to-end teaching and learning offering, Henderson sees the potential to introduce it in other emerging markets like the Middle East and Latin America, where there are currently large tablet rollouts that could benefit from being paired with this device management and teaching offering. Enhancing Virtual Reality Offerings One educational technology solution that Lenovo has been focused on during the pandemic is virtual reality, which it has been developing since 2018. In May 2020, Lenovo introduced its VR Classroom 2, an updated version of its previous solution. While he acknowledges that the adoption rate of VR remains low relative to other technologies, Henderson believes that the pandemic has brought out several key benefits of VR. Since the pandemic limits face-to-face interactions in daily lives, people have come to appreciate the importance of presence that VR can bring. The ability to chat with people in a more immersive way, where avatars express the movement of someone’s head and hands, can bring people closer together than interacting on flat screens. Importantly, hybrid learning allows students in remote locations to join classes from “master teachers” at top educational institutions and get access to professors they otherwise would not have been able to meet, albeit virtually.