Just as we’ve seen in the workplace, the classroom has experienced a shift toward hybrid, digital-first and online practices over the past few years, fuelled by Covid-19 and the changes it’s brought.
Even before the pandemic, adoption of education technology was accelerating with global edtech investments reaching $18.66bn in 2019, according to research from Metaari.
“Over the last few years, the needs of the education sector [have] changed drastically,” said Shaun Sen, head of education UK at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. “Education in the post-pandemic era is about researching new digital tools to minimise disruptions in the learning process when conducted remotely.
“A key priority is to be prepared to respond to future challenges, making remote education consistently accessible and safe for all.
“Accessibility requires ensuring that each school can deliver a high-quality remote education, while security measures are in place to protect the privacy and personal data of students and faculty members.
“We need to build reliable smart campus’ able to foresee and address promptly the needs of educational staff, while also allowing for curiosity and innovation to foster within the academic community.”
Rachel Rothwell, UK & Western European senior regional director at Zyxel said that technology has revolutionised the education sector over the past two decades, with integration of hardware such as interactive whiteboards and iPads and software such as Google Classrooms making student learning dependent on technology.
“However, whilst the adoption of technology has advanced, schools have been slow to update the infrastructure that supports technology in the classroom,” she told Comms Business.
She added, “This has meant that many teachers have disregarded the technology available to them and reverted to traditional teaching methods, which are slower and less accssible for students. Now, infrastructure must be considered as every piece of tech is introduced or upgraded in the classroom.”
Where previously, these interactive classroom technologies were heavily in demand, the pandemic has certainly seen a shift toward a remote learning format whereby video conferencing tools have become a necessity. Ed House, sales director UK at Nuvias UC said that these tools help to provide a near-to-class experience and keep students engaged.
“We’ve seen vendors introduce new features to assist with this such as breakout rooms which make it easy for users to ‘step out’ between lessons, the ‘raise hands’ feature which keep lessons running smoothly without sudden interruption and transcript which can assist with note taking,” he said.
The sector has demanded affordable video conferencing devices which provide an in-classroom presence, said House, whilst also offering intuitive whiteboard capabilities to enhance virtual collaboration such as an all-in-one interactive screen.
Where remote learning is concerned, cloud technology is key and the Channel will likely continue to see demand for this rise as more educational organisations like schools and universities continue to embrace a range of learning tools, with online cloud-based tools part of the mix.
“The government is continuing to collaborate with businesses to roll out more technology in education as it looks to increase the adoption of artificial intelligence and augmented reality along with the shift to the greater use of online tools,” said Mara Pereira, director for peripherals in Europe at Tech Data.
“Most schools by now will have implemented a cloud-based platform. Schools have to offer remote learning to supplement classroom sessions, hence the need for a cloud-based platform for remote participants and device support. This poses the question, which devices are students using?”
Preparing for the future
Matt Waring, education channel manager at Logitech said that students need tools to allow them to learn in an engaging, interactive way that supports collaboration with classmates and teachers — whilst also preparing for the workplace of the future, where technology will play a central role.
“Technology is being applied for the long-term, with the goal of boosting student engagement, enhancing digital skills and empowering every student to work in a way that suits them best,” Waring said.
“All students learn in different ways, so tech that is easy to use, durable and works in a similar way to the tools they are familiar with is key. For example, a tablet and stylus that is as easy to use as a pen and paper, but also unlocks additional collaboration and digital tools, can help students to adopt new technology and maximise their full creative potential.”
Tools like AI-powered whiteboard cameras are growing in popularity, he noted, due to the ability to empower remote learners with a clear, real-time view of the whiteboard and give those at home the same equitable, quality experience as those in the classroom.
He added that we’re also likely to see increasing investment in new innovations like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), as the sector looks to keep pace with digital transformation.
“Virtual reality can provide students with interactive content and experiences to really bring their lessons to life, with educators looking to provide immersive experiences that inspire and engage,” he said.
“In addition to this, innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) can provide a personalised learning experience for each student, keeping students on track and guiding them to their goals. With AI, patterns in the ways students learn and interact with materials will be monitored and understood, giving teachers the ability to deliver content in ways that best suit each students’ needs.”
Jason Tomlinson, managing director at RM agreed that where digital transformation is already present in much of our professional and personal lives, schools recognise the need to commit more to their investment and approach to technology.
“What we’re increasingly seeing is this concept of implementing a digital maturity journey – an all-encompassing approach which includes connectivity, sustainability, cyber security, online safety, and much more,” he commented.
“In the short term, this helps secure continuity, whether that’s due to a school closure because of a heatwave, floods, snow days … or gives teachers back more time by reducing administrative duties.
“In the long term, it means pupils will enhance their digital literacy skills at school that will be essential in later life, schools are more likely to be more cyber resilient, and pupils and teachers become much more educated about online safety.”
Robust protection
Safety and cybersecurity is likely to bring up challenges for the education sector with the advancement of technology for student learning and administration purposes.
The UK government Cyber Security Breaches 2022 report showed a significant increase in breaches or attacks identified within secondary schools and higher education colleges this year — 70 per cent of secondary schools identified a breach or attack in the past 12 months compared with 58 per cent for 2021, and a staggering 92 per cent for higher education colleges. 62 per cent of higher education institutions reported experiencing breaches or attacks at least weekly.
“Migrating systems to the cloud has been a significant first step in improving network infrastructure in this vertical, but implementing advanced cybersecurity practices is necessary,” warned Andy Horn, CEO of IntraLAN.
“Take the private school sector as an example; they carry significant personal data on high-net-worth parents and carers. This volume of data makes private schools prime data pirate targets.
“Zero trust models are a great way to protect data within a school’s IT infrastructure, easily managed through a credible SaaS partner. Managing the influx of devices found in a school can be tricky to manage, even for a competent internal IT team.”
Check Point Research’s 2022 Security Report found that of the industries surveyed, education and research was the number one target sector for cyber attacks with a 75 per cent increase from 2021.
“Going forward, even technology partners not within the cyber security realm should be ensuring that educators are seeking out the right tools and advice to ensure they have their best foot forward when it comes to minimising the risks of these attacks and what to do to prevent them altogether,” said RM’s Jason Tomlinson.
Zyxel’s Rachel Rothwell said that as schools shift to a cloud-based infrastructure, MSPs must ensure that the institution’s network security is up to scratch.
“Unified Threat Management (UTM) provides intelligent monitoring of traffic flowing across the entry point to a network and evaluates the incoming data,” she said. “Schools are reliant on VARs and MSPs to provide support if anything goes wrong, meaning that everything is entrusted to external partners.
“While it is the responsibility of MSPs to ensure schools have the adequate infrastructure available, it is also an MSP’s responsibility to educate the school staff on how to manage and monitor the infrastructure onsite. This will minimise time lost in lessons.”
Expert guidance
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s Shaun Sen added that Channel reseller partners have the benefit of being able to offer an experienced outlook on the newest tech trends which can provide solutions to educational challenges.
“Resellers know of the dos and don’ts and can recognise common pitfalls; they are therefore well-placed to advise schools on what solutions will best serve their needs,” he said. “Resellers and MSPs can take on a much more advisory role by asking the right questions around what exact outcome the customer is trying to achieve.
“From here, they can help educational faculties map out their strategy and goals and support the digital transformation required to deliver high-quality teaching which meets the needs of digital age students.”
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, for example, has a partnership with Loughborough University in which ALE representatives conduct regular meetings to connect with students to ensure digital solutions are constantly evaluated in line with their needs and activities.
Loughborough University has implemented smart solutions such as collaborative platforms and CPaaS into its daily projects through the partnership, and students have used Alcatel-Lucent Rainbow Unified Communications to collaborate with academic institutions and professionals.
Another challenge for the education sector is financial restraints when looking to onboard new technologies, pointed out Nuvias UC’s Ed House.
“Flexible payment services such as DaaS (Device-as-a-Service) eliminate the requirement for large upfront payments by allowing end-users to pay for their technology on a monthly basis. This — alongside introducing cloud vendors which offer licencing on a per month/per user agreement — will help regulate the cash flow,” he said.
RM’s Jason Tomlinson added that schools are often held back in edtech adoption by fears that software will crash, or aged hardware devices will take too long to load.
“This is why it’s not always the best option to take the cheapest route – sometimes it pays to invest in modern technology,” said Tomlinson. “But simply having the right equipment is only half the story.
“Schools need training and confidence on how to get the most from this technology – and that is often where a third-party partner – like RM – can help. In our research, we found that barely a quarter (27 per cent) of teachers admit they’re confident in using the existing technology provided by their school.
“That means resellers and MSPs need to ensure training is a key component in any digital transformation so that teachers are fully adept at using the technology provided, especially as almost two thirds (61 per cent) of teachers believe it has the potential to improve the state of education in the future.”
Sustainability is also a consideration — he added that the sector is also showing a desire to pursue technology that can help educational organisations to achieve their sustainability goals faster.
“Cloud-networks versus hot server rooms; online resources rather than printing worksheets; and online collaboration/digital assessment to save the paper are all ways to achieve this,” Tomlinson said.
He added, “And since the UK government has introduced a new sustainability and climate change strategy for schools, we’ll likely see this be an increasing imperative for headteachers and Trust leaders.”