However with children being introduced to a wide range of gadgets from a young age, are they hindered by not being able to make use of these within the school environment?
Whilst many schools will be concerned that the latest technology may be an expensive thing for them to invest in, making sensible decisions about just what they purchase could enable schools to offer future proofed technology to all pupils and mean that they do not need to continually finance the latest equipment.
Cloud Technology
With servers and desktop machines there is a limit to the amount of storage available and with schools often having hundreds of pupils, this just isn’t always suitable. Whilst there are of course options to expand the storage and memory within these machines it is often expensive and a laborious task. However with Cloud technology storage limits can quickly and easily be increased when necessary, meaning you can continue running at full capacity and increase your storage as and when required.
Cloud technology within a school environment is also a huge benefit, with services such as DaaS (Desktop-as-a-Service) available pupils will be able to access their files from home and continue working as if they were still in the school environment. Currently they may have to remove files on USB sticks or CD-ROMs which could cause a security risk when they are transferring the files back on to the network. For pupils who may not be able to attend school due to medical issues they would not necessarily suffer a loss of education as they could continue to access and work on anything essential.
BYOD Policy
A way to avoid a large expenditure in terms of equipment for pupils is to instigate a BYOD (Bring your own Device) policy. Allowing pupils to use technology that they are already adept at using would enable them to work at their full capacity, unhindered by the need to understand an entirely new OS (operating system) or layout.
Whilst the allowance of using personal property such as this would have to be well thought through, for example you would need to hinder access to shadow IT applications on the devices, it could enable schools to keep at the forefront of the technological world without having to be concerned with budget constraints.
Come back next week for the second edition of From Chalkboard to Interactive Whiteboard, entitled “Technology in Education”