For numerous students and their parents, back to school means buying new garments, school supplies, and backpacks. For a few lucky ones, it means new EdTech also – laptop, tablet, phone, headset, etc. Of course, when convincing mom and dad “It’s for a school assignment, honest!”
But for faculty directors, assistant superintendents, Chief academic Officers, and school boards, it’s also about the way to transition to digital learning to impart 21st century skills, or ‘4 C’s’ of creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration in addition to the ‘3 R’s’ of reading, writing and arithmetic!
Migrating to a more digital syllabus creates many challenges to be navigated. Among them, how much network will our school need to connect everything, since our lecturers will now rely on the network to finish their lessons? How can we address digital equity ESP? For our more deprived students who lack reliable net access at home? Or defend our students from cybersecurity risks, as the online activity could lead them to inappropriate content, or inadvertent behavior as digital natives who can follow them to school or work?
Is there a method to do all this, or at least some of it, while making our students safer at school? From campus-wide threats like storms, fires, to easily wellness threats like smoking and vaping. Vaping is spreading to high schools like an endemic.
The benefits of Digital Learning
At Ruckus, we’ve monitored, researched and spoken out regarding the challenges of the ‘5 Phases of Digital Learning Transition’ – with digital tools enabling pedagogy to evolve from Lab-centric, to Teacher-centric, to Student-centric, to Community-centric to Global-centric. Every phase has its infrastructure requirements to get a correct foundation – like multigigabit networks, Wi-Fi 6, Cat 6A cabling, cloud-managed networks and ultimately IoT and LTE to drive efficiency and improve equity.
In a recent survey conducted by CDE, analysis shows faculties have transitioned from phase 2 to phase 3 these past few years and want to transition to phase 4 over the next number of years. which phase is your faculty at, and where would you prefer to be? look at this colorful infographic to find out more!
Meanwhile, some faculties are implementing eSports programs, powered by networks with high bandwidth and low latency, to teach cooperation, competitive spirit, coding, and STEM. Best of all, most any student can play, therefore making a more comprehensive environment than traditional athletic programs.
So, faculties, these days are far from the grid-arrayed desks and overhead projectors of their parent’s day. And who knows what the long run holds in store? Stay tuned… class is in session!
