Teachers and students are headed back to the classroom, but what that looks like varies from school to school. Schools have undergone significant shifts in the delivery of instruction to include virtual, digital and blended learning. What was achieved under extraordinary circumstances last Spring has been refined and reimagined for the start of the school year.
When the pandemic started last March, most schools were forced into a rapid deployment of cobbled-together solutions to meet the needs of the students. Gaps were quickly discovered:
- Inequity among students with regard to access to Wi-Fi and devices necessary for distance learning
- Lack of security and consistency with regard to which apps, software, and programs were being used by the school and by individual teachers
- Significant communication challenges
As we return to school – in many forms – this fall, digital transformation is taking on an entirely new sense of urgency.
District IT Leaders Step Up
What schools across the country were able to accomplish was nothing short of remarkable: District IT leaders worked around the clock to ensure devices were delivered to students. They helped teachers troubleshoot solutions and systems, then did the same for parents and students. At each turn, as teachers and districts faced new challenges, IT leaders were there to creatively solve the problem. No matter how instruction is being delivered to students to start this school year, last Spring’s rapidly implemented digital transformation has had a lasting impact on learning. As students head back to school this fall, the knowledge gained from last spring’s rapid response to crisis has only improved each district’s ability to meet student needs.
Teachers Play a Crucial Role in the Digital Transformation of Education
Digital transformation was already occurring at schools nationwide; the pandemic accelerated that effort to a significant degree. As districts wrestle with the challenges of privacy and security and employ new education tools, the feedback and buy-in from teachers will be essential. The goal of digital transformation in education should not be about leveraging technology for technology’s sake but with the specific goal of implementing technology that empowers teachers by providing them with the resources to meet the diverse and challenging needs of their community’s students.
District and School Leaders Must Drive Digital Transformation
When schools struggle with digital transformation, it is usually due to one of the following:
- Lack of clarity among district leaders about how to execute a strategy
- Failure to gain input from key stakeholders such as IT directors and teachers
- Lack of community support
- Budget constraints
- Lack of focus on data security, student data privacy, and compliance
- Failure to consider the evolution in expectations and demand brought about by the pandemic
How GG4L Can Help
At Global Grid for Learning (GG4L), we offer several solutions to help you transform your district digitally. Our School Passport™, Standard Edition, is a free single sign-on platform that makes it easy and safe for students, teachers, and administrators to access their school’s online learning and administrative applications. Students can access all of their EdTech solutions with a single password. Teachers can manage multiple classrooms in a school or remotely for distance learning. Administrators have an easy way to securely deploy all of the online digital curriculum resources while tracking student access and engagement.
