With the pandemic suddenly changing the world, every one of us had to change their way of living. The way you work changed and the way students are being taught has changed too.
We all had to figure out how we were going to continue to make a living and how we were going to resume school life. Evidently, we all knew school life was never going to be the same.
The pandemic has forced us into using remote learning as a way to continue education for students and has come a long way. Eventually, college students were learning their course through Zoom and younger children had to adapt to a world that we never thought they would have to experience. As remote learning and information technology for schools continue to advance, here are some key information technology aspects to meet.
Privacy
Schools collect personal information of students and staff. All this personal information should remain private. This personal information of students could be home addresses of students, medical history, information about learning disabilities, grades, and disciplinary histories. Personal information and data collected when it comes to faculty and staff, can be home addresses, phone numbers,banking, and tax information. You can imagine how important keeping all this data would be crucial and important for schools.
You want to make sure that when sharing educational resources students’ and staff privacy are not violated. Assess data security when sharing or uploading educational resources to other web spaces or to other organizations and individuals.
Having a well-managed IT infrastructure will make sure that there are no data vulnerabilities. If not, prepare yourself for the legal challenges. IT services can monitor students’ online activities and can block access to non-educational websites. Monitoring and blocking access protects online students’ privacy and stops malicious people from collecting their personal data.
Safety
When it comes to schools, protecting data and its users should be one of the most important factors. This is crucial when users are underaged and may be more an easy target for malicious software, malicious individuals, phishing scams, and social engineering methods.
Traditional security tools should be used such as VPNs, encryption, user training, and identity management. Additionally, emphasize the need to select a more secure communication platform that would ensure that online classrooms can’t be taken over by uninvited guests.
Availability
The first kind of availability school’s should be aware of is the school’s software. This can be achieved through the use of clouds. Clouds can be redundant to reduce the risks of backups. The second kind of availability concerns the availability to students who do not have reliable WiFi, computers, or cellphones to access their resources and coursework.
To meet these concerns, school’s may have to move their applications to the cloud. They may also have to use virtual desktop infrastructure. Education systems or schools that give out new devices to students who need them should think about building new processes to track these resources. Schools should also ensure that help desk services are provided at all times. Help desk services will help students access their online learning resources whether they’re using their own devices or devices provided by their schools.
Ensure inclusion
It is important to remember and consider that not every student comes from middle to high-income families. Students that come from low-income backgrounds will not have access to the same things that students with better advantages do. Carry out measures to ensure that students including those with disabilities or from low-income backgrounds have access to remote learning programmes.
Bandwidth
With remote learning becoming a daily routine as part of education, it places a higher demand on the network than classroom-based learning. All your resources should be scalable to support this increase in demand. Your network may have to be extended with extra capacity so students are able to have an acceptable experience.
We know your end goal, as a school, as educators, is to provide your students with educational experiences that are fun and exciting. Once you are able to meet basic requirements, this will allow schools to be more innovative in developing more exciting educational experiences for your students.
Limit the number of applications and platforms
Blend tools and media that are available to the majority of students. This should be for both synchronous communication and lessons, and asynchronous learning. You want to avoid overloading students and parents by having them download and test too many applications and platforms.
Conclusion
IT Services Group (ITSG) focuses on helping you run your business. If IT is not your area of expertise, by hiring the ITSG team, we provide you with skilled network professionals who can help you with any IT questions and concerns. Contact us for all your IT questions.
