A timely and important step in CPUT’s journey to becoming a truly multilingual institution.
This is how Prof Anthony Staak, DVC:Teaching and Learning, described the recent launch of the first multilingual touchscreen directory situated in the New Electrical Engineering Building on the Bellville Campus.
The directory is the result of a collaboration between CPUT’s Language Working Group and its Institutional Language Unit. Funding was provided by the National Heritage Council (NHC), while the directory was designed and developed by iPoint.
“The touchscreen is of particular significance for the university’s multilingual signage project and recognises the full diversity of our staff and student body,” Staak added.
Colonel Sipho Majombozi, chairperson of the NHC’s funding committee, applauded the university’s effort to promote multilingualism on its campuses. “I’m particularly pleased that this launch should take place in heritage month. I want to commend CPUT for instituting initiatives like these to affirm the diversity in heritage of its staff and students,” Majombozi stated.
This device promotes multilingualism by allowing users to engage with it in their home language. Users decide on a preferred language and are enabled to continue their search in the language of their choice. This intelligent device currently provides services in Afrikaans, English, isiXhosa, isiZulu and Sesotho.
