Have your school’s EdTech solutions held up to the remote learning challenges of 2020?

Subject:
ICT

Is it time for an EdTech audit in your school?

You’ve spent the last few months putting all forms of EdTech fully to the test, whether this might be your parent communication provider, your live lesson platform or the online learning resources your teachers will have been relying on daily.

With the prospect of future disruption still to come, now really is the ideal time to complete an EdTech audit and review whether you have the best in class providers on board.

Educational technology is on the rise, and with this resurgence comes a plethora of products to choose from.

Within any school environment, the systems you have in place should be there to make automation of the most mundane tasks quick and easy, so that your teachers can focus their time and effort where it’s needed most.

But the question is – how do you know whether you have the right products in place, and have they held up to the test of remote learning, as well as blended learning?

As a starting point, ask yourself these top 10 questions:

Do all teaching staff use your EdTech products regularly? And if not, why not?
What problem do they solve for you – and are they capable of solving more than one problem, to save you money on multiple apps?
How good is your parent communication app – are parents more engaged with the learning progress of their children than previously? Can you quickly and easily communicate live? If your school community needs translation capability, then you need to consider providers that can offer this as one of their features
How do parents communicate with your school? Some apps offer two-way communication, as well as translation into a parent’s preferred language, to make sure everyone’s included
Can you get product support quickly? Either in the form of tutorials, for the less tech-savvy amongst us, or live chat functionality for parents and carers to save your office team fielding calls they may struggle to answer
Does the technology you use for teaching and learning prepare your students for the future? Technology-led learning increases digital knowledge amongst young people to prepare them to blend in with the tech-savvy world we live in and the most responsive platforms use a social learning interface that’s familiar and easy to use
Does your EdTech automate mundane tasks, leaving more time for teachers to focus their efforts where they’re needed most?
Can they link and integrate with other teaching and learning platforms for seamless reporting and ease of use? Consolidating from multiple apps to one can reduce costs and ensure you only have to log in once, giving all your reporting in one place
Is your approach personalised? Using the right EdTech can help facilitate a more personalised approach to learning, where teachers can create learning methods to suit the different needs of learners. Consequently, students can learn at their own pace and use their preferred methods
Can your functionality encourage collaboration in learning? The right EdTech can also facilitate and encourage collaboration in learning, with specific functionality to make the selection of groups and the co-ordination of their learning easier than ever before.

When the focus is on the effective use of educational technology, you really can experience great benefits and enhance traditional teaching and learning processes.

As you review what’s on offer, you should also consider that, in an increasingly connected world, the familiarity of the social learning environments that are increasingly popular are well suited to engage the learners of today in ways traditional learning delivery may struggle.

Yes, you’re overloaded, trying to balance a phased return to school, with the prospect of further changes to teaching delivery for months ahead, but making the commitment to review your choices now, could pay dividends both in the short and long term for your entire school community.

Are you looking for cost savings in your school budget?

Carrying out your own EdTech audit will give you the clarity you need to make the right choices and be confident you’re investing in the right EdTech solutions for your school.

This will help you assess whether you’re getting value for money from the tools you use and also whether they’re aligned with your own goals in your school improvement plan.

So how can we help?

Unlike other EdTech providers, we replace the need for multiple apps, both saving your teachers time and schools money.

We’re a social learning platform, making use of the familiarity of a social media platform, coupled with the insight of AI, to deliver unrivalled choices for schools, all in one easy-to-use app.