Businesses aren’t the only ones reevaluating their tech needs this year. Ask any teacher you know, and they’ll tell you that education technology is more important now than ever before.
In response to Covid-19, school districts of all shapes and sizes have had to reevaluate how technology solutions are used to educate effectively, efficiently, and safely within their communities. It’s an incredible undertaking; One that many teachers and administrators have added to an already substantial (and ever-growing) pile of responsibilities on their plates.
At EMPIST, we know that there’s a better way.
When applied correctly, education technology can and should be used to improve both the quality of education children receive as well as the day-to-day work of the educational professionals who administer it. All you need is the right ecosystem and support team to back you up.
From the experts, here are five considerations for improving your education technology in 2022.
1. Include Process Automation
We ask a lot of our educators. From lesson planning to metric tracking, community care to sourcing supplies, there are high expectations for what teachers are asked to handle on a day-to-day basis. The right technology, however, can help lessen the load.
Process automations like triggered email responses, grade notifications, and more can help eliminate redundant or administrative tasks from an educator’s already busy schedule. Other examples of automation in education technology include digital attendance for remote learning, managed enrollment and paperwork, scheduling meetings with parents and staff members, as well as maintenance and IT requests. By implementing process automations in your administration’s software, you can free up time to be spent with students and other core aspects of an educator’s role.
2. Involve Gamification & Interactivity
As we continue to move away from classic in-person classes to a more tech-enabled structure, keeping students engaged has become increasingly more difficult. However, today’s education technology provides educators with the tools they need to create fun, interesting, and informative lessons that hold the attention of their class no matter the current configuration.
Taking advantage of the gamification and interactive capabilities of education technology will make remote or hybrid schooling more compelling and – hopefully – less of a chore for educators and students alike. Developed with teachers’ interests in mind, this software allows for more creativity than a standard video-conference type classroom.
3. Embrace Individuality
Speaking of creativity, education technology has placed an increased focus on teaching the individual in the past few years. The scalable capabilities of cloud computing allow administrations to gather and store a higher volume of more specific data about each student and then use that data to tailor plans unique to each child.
No two students learn the same way. Having as much information as possible about the specific learning process of each one is crucial to ensuring that they succeed in class. Taking full advantage of education technology includes regularly logging information, analyzing patterns, and creating well-informed plans of action.
4. Ask for Feedback
The only way to make real, meaningful improvements to your education technology ecosystem is to know where exactly your current environment lacks. The best source of information on what changes, edits, and additions your administration needs to make will always be the students, teachers, and parents who interact with it every day.
Use the process automations available in your software to send out regular surveys and feedback forms to get a comprehensive look at what your systems do well – and where they could stand to do better. This kind of data informs which solutions you need and which you could likely do without next term.
5. Focus on Security
Of course, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the risk of cybercrime that comes with implementing education technology tools. As it turns out, as the number of endpoints in your district increases, the chances of an attack also go up.
In fact, a recent study suggests a 75% increase in cyberattacks within the education sector year-over-year in 2021.
It is imperative that administrators, teachers, and students understand common cybersecurity threats and how to combat them; Otherwise, your sensitive information – and that of the families within your school – will be vulnerable. A comprehensive cybersecurity protocol for education technology includes proper password management, security awareness training, proactive threat hunting, spam & virus filtering, EDR, regular reporting, and more. It may be tempting to prioritize operational success over security but trust us – keeping your data safe needs to be a top priority.
EMPIST for Educators
How we teach has changed dramatically in just a few short years. How your district manages your technology should change alongside it.
At EMPIST, we know the benefits of creating a strong and safe technology ecosystem no matter your industry. Taking these actions to improve your use of education technology is a good first step to guaranteeing your ecosystem is that.
But you cannot stop there.
Maintaining effective and efficient use of your technology includes establishing ties with a long-term partner to help guide, resolve issues, and protect your environment. To learn more about EMPIST’s IT Managed Services, visit us online, right here.