With schools starting to return, what does the new normal in education look like?
Some children returned to school this week ten weeks after education institutions closed its doors amid the coronavirus pandemic.
With selective year groups returning to school, some children remain home and may not return until the beginning of the next school year in September.
However, after schools and teachers have been forced to host virtual lessons and work remotely how can telecommunications transform education?
Mobility
While some schools won’t be comfortable sharing textbooks, stationary, desks and chairs, mobile devices could be the solution.
Educational applications and informative resources could be installed on tablets, which would then be assigned to individual pupils – eradicating the need to share the devices.
SIM-only deals can be a cost-effective solution and could pave the way for a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy within schools. Implementing a BYOD policy could save schools vast amounts of money as some students will happily bring their own tablets while the costs saved on textbooks, materials and resources could be drastic across the school year.
Mobile apps can also be useful in secondary education as homework applications can be rolled out, providing older pupils with an online homework planner and access to the resources they need from their mobile phones.
Connectivity
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, teachers have held online lessons and parents have turned their homes into homeschools.
However, the need for a good connection has never been more apparent. Some students won’t be returning for some time yet, driving the need for a connectivity solution within schools that is not only capable of running classes within the school but that also provides bandwidth for teachers to host virtual lessons with students at home.
As well as being a useful solution while pupils are separated, a good quality connection can increase the use of online digital resources and media to support teaching – complementing or replacing existing resources. It can make resources available from lessons for pupils to use outside class without effort or delay and it ensures that internet use is monitored, access controlled, and that appropriate staff are properly alerted of any at-risk behaviour
Phone Systems
Investing in a VoIP phone system could be a key takeaway from the COVID-19 pandemic. Aside from offering high call quality, hosted VoIP solutions can offer voicemail, call divert and video conferencing giving school staff and parents the opportunity to communicate in new ways.
With a traditional phone system, the receiver has to be situated in one place to take an incoming call whereas a VoIP system allows a teacher working remotely to connect virtually and receive the same service. This is ideal while teachers are situated in a number of different places and, going forward, it’s a useful solution to have in place when away on school trips as teachers don’t have to use their mobile phones to be contacted by parents.
During the current pandemic, a VoIP system allows users to create groups so that, in an emergency, teaching staff can be alerted instantly via VoIP.
However education institutions emerge from this situation, they can emerge stronger with Daisy Communications. To discover your new normal, contact us today.
