The changing face of technology
Technology can put the students in control of their own learning and help them find ways of learning that work best for them. It also means they don't have to request help in every class, which can reduce the stigma.
Matt Setchell, IT Services Lead, Lourdes IT
School-age children today have never known a world without screens. They have had access to high-speed wireless internet and smartphones their entire lives and have come to expect a certain level of digital adoption in every facet of their lives.
For educators, this means having the necessary tools to communicate with these increasingly tech-savvy individuals. Because the old ways of doing things are simply not going to hold their interest or attention anymore.
Schools might be returning to something resembling normality post-pandemic, but many teachers found themselves returning to a workplace they barely recognised.
Teachers were forced to upskill their digital acumen almost overnight and while many schools had strong digital strategies in place, many more were left scratching their heads.
But there's no need to worry. Technology is not here to take your job, it's here to make it that much easier.
Flexible learning
While what's being taught has remained largely unchanged, the delivery methods of those teachings have been opened up significantly by recent events and advancements. What technology has given the sector, above all else, is flexibility in how learning is delivered.
It would have seemed impractical, even a few years ago, to suggest a class of children could be taught online via video conferencing but technologies such as Google Classroom and Zoom have completely changed the game.
Students who are unable to physically attend a class can now comfortably do so from home alongside those in the classroom and vice versa.
If these kids are going to be able to not only use technology but push it forward and innovate, they need to be exposed to the full potential of IT as early as possible.
Matt Setchell, IT Services Lead, Lourdes IT
Core life skills
IT is no longer a subject - it's a core life skill woven through all subjects. As such, any student that doesn't benefit from early exposure to IT will be severely disadvantaged in later life.
Greater investment in IT will also allow students greater opportunities to foster a positive relationship with technology that could encourage them to explore further and learn more themselves.
Ultimately, the children of today are being trained for jobs that don't even exist yet. Nobody can say for sure what the job market of the future will look like, but technology will certainly play a big part.
Infrastructure
Of course, with such grand upheavals behind us and on the horizon, the big trend we see in the immediate future is schools investing more on servers and key infrastructure.
General infrastructure is key, with the replacement of existing machines in schools the first obvious port of call for most IT managers. Loans of low-cost laptops such as Chromebooks to students will also help bridge the gap between remote and traditional learning.
Schools might also want to start re-thinking how they utilise their servers, with cloud computing now a viable alternative. Cloud computing essentially means utilising off-site servers to store information and provide computing power, allowing schools to use more storage and processing power without storing expensive and unsightly server equipment on-site.
While it wasn't always the case, cloud servers are now a viable alternative, however, for larger schools, tower and rackmount servers are always going to be a more secure and practical solution.
