Back to school technology challenges for 2021-2022
2nd Sep 2021
The return of students and teachers to the classroom brings significant educational technology challenges to school districts. Video conferencing and cloud technology for e-learning will continue to play a critical role in students’ education. For teachers and administrators, Big Data will enable better assessments and overall management at the school and district levels. These trends will add to IT leaders’ burdens and concerns, specifically around network and data center management and security. Velocity Tech Solutions provides a range of technology capabilities to help administrators, IT managers, teachers and students make the most of the new school year.
E-learning
Before the outbreak of COVID-19, about half of districts provided some off-campus broadband services to their students, helping connect them to the internet from their homes—most often through the use of mobile hotspots. This year, that number has soared to 95 percent of districts. That put immediate pressure on school IT staff to ensure the reliability of their network and data center infrastructure. It also required them to manage a dramatic increase in data traffic and storage. Compounding that challenge, the pandemic created significant shortages for memory and other components, forcing IT teams to rely on outdated technology to support these increases in usage.
Big data
When a teacher conducts a remote course for large numbers of students, ensuring the learners receive personalized support is a daunting hurdle. Many districts have turned to big data. The more students in a given class, the more information will be available for analysis. No teacher, no matter how dedicated, can manage that much information by hand. Big data enables teachers and administrators to analyze large amounts of data to provide personalized student insights and improve learning. Of course, adding large data flows or expanding the use of data analysis tools increases the demands on a school district’s data center.
Added pressure on school IT managers
These new trends have wide-ranging impacts on a school district’s IT infrastructure, policies and procedures. As students return to the classroom, many of these challenges will remain as teachers and administrators continue to use the e-learning and big data resources they relied on during the pandemic. Network monitoring and management activities and resources will need to keep pace with the expanded data flow and device counts in schools. The increased use of cloud technologies is a two-edged sword. On one hand, it can relieve the burden on data center hardware by shifting computing to off-site resources. On the other hand, it can create security challenges if not managed carefully.
Infrastructure management and monitoring
K–12 schools have become increasingly dependent on robust IT infrastructure. The pandemic and technology evolution have accelerated demands on the data center and network. Course materials and books are online, classes meet through web portals, and even systems like HVAC and lab instruments are under the control of the IT department. That demand on IT attention means that system failures can have major ramifications. When students can’t access class sessions or course materials or administrators can’t manage their facilities, the learning environment suffers. Effective network monitoring and data center management are essential to ensure that students have the tools they need for a good education.
Cloud Migration
A recent study showed that 57 percent of school IT managers believe their school needs updated software and hardware. At the same time, 55 percent say their current budget isn’t adequate. That gap is compounded by the lack of staff to support the hardware and software. Cloud solutions can be helpful in relieving these burdens, but they can create a significant learning curve for students and teachers.
Product availability
The pandemic, material shortages and extended delivery times have made IT hardware difficult to come by. Lead times and costs have escalated. It used to be ok to place orders for the fall in May or June. Now January ordering has become the norm. This trend doesn’t show any signs of letting up, at least through the 2021-2022 school year. It’s not too early to star planning for the next school year!
Preventing ransomware
According to “The State of K-12 Cybersecurity: 2020 Year in Review” from the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center and the K12 Security Information Exchange, the 2020 calendar year saw a record-setting 408 publicly disclosed cybersecurity incidents. These attacks, which affected 377 school districts across 40 states, resulted in temporary school closures, millions of stolen taxpayer dollars and student data breaches linked to identity theft and credit card fraud. With schools moving to online learning putting more devices into students’ and teachers’ hands, cybersecurity became a significantly larger issue for school districts.
Technology solutions
While daunting, these technology challenges are not insurmountable. Velocity Tech Solutions has a wide range of options for educators, administrators and school district IT leaders to tackle these educational technology challenges. We offer a complete suite of new and refurbished Dell and HP servers to support on-site computing and communication needs. Through our partner, Zadara, we offer a complete suite of cloud computing and data center security services. Just as importantly, we provide remote and on-site maintenance for the widest assortment of IT hardware in the US.
Contact us today to learn how Velocity Tech Solutions can help you navigate the technology challenges of the 2021-2022 school year.