Parents and communities place the highest degree of trust in local educational agency (LEA) schools to not only educate their children, but also to keep their children safe. LEA instructional and technology leaders are innovative and tireless in managing this enormous responsibility—and at ConvergeOne, so are we. Inspired by the mission of educators, we develop solutions for academic equity, student access, ransomware readiness, and other matters of concern to school leaders, including:
- Supporting new pedagogy in the classroom
- Strengthening security measures on campus and online, and
- Sustaining what ultimately becomes an enterprise-grade environment of tens of thousands of connected users—all without enterprise budgets and headcount.
Here’s a look at two of the most common areas of engagement for LEAs.
Modern Classrooms
There is an art to successfully “digitizing” the classroom, and it starts at the intersection of technology and pedagogy.
It’s imperative that applications feel like a natural part of the environment, sensitive to the way teachers and students interact. The learning objectives, the differences between access and opportunity across the district, the level of internal IT support available: we carefully consider all of these things as we design the “modern classroom.”
Each engagement calls for its own unique mix of connected, secure, and compliant tools drawn from best-practice architectures we’ve validated across hundreds of districts. These typically include student devices, ubiquitous access, interactive displays, remote learning, and immersive classrooms.
For example, ConvergeOne’s IT Lifecycle Services (ITLS) team assisted a large school district in the Midwest with rolling out 12,000 devices to students in four high schools. ITLS took complete ownership of the process by systematically delivering learning devices using a proven, best-practices approach ⏤ including imaging, laser-engraving, and asset-tagging all of the devices for optimized management. ConvergeOne then assisted with the physical deployment onsite.
Education in a Post-Pandemic World
It’s a sobering fact: 14% of children between the ages of 3-18 don’t have internet access at home, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The pandemic has caused immense challenges for these students in the digital divide, as learning transitions from the classroom to online learning environments.
As educators prepare for a “new normal” ⏤ where social distancing or hybrid campus models will likely be warranted for the foreseeable future ⏤ they’re confronted with the fact that many students won’t be able to “log-on” to lessons.
ConvergeOne is helping rewrite the headlines with a new approach to remote learning. We extend wireless campuses to bring the classroom beyond school walls. Students can access “drive-in” connectivity in the campus parking lot, or use “curbside” connections in key community locations via vehicles outfitted with wireless. For districts where the “connectivity chasm” impacts a smaller number of students, we provide LTE connectivity and support for device-based connections that students can use at home.
Whatever the scale or format, we will likely see remote education becoming more mainstream. In fact, a USA Today poll suggests that 6 in 10 parents are likely to insist on at-home education in the fall of 2020, meaning that school districts will need to keep access considerations top-of-mind for remote learners ⏤ especially those lacking reliable connectivity.
Simplify your transition to the modern classroom
ConvergeOne identifies the right solutions and applications to seamlessly fit within your environment and budget. Technology is only one part of a much more complex equation: We bring in the right data, people, processes, and policies to translate technology into outcomes.
Topics: COVID-19, Modern Classroom, K-12 Education
