A few years ago, the school’s technical support could still cope with its tasks. Help with technology in the classroom, maintenance of educational platforms, statistics, accounting – all these were difficult, but it was still possible to handle a few people and the IT department of the school. But the pandemic has shown how educational institutions, from elementary schools to universities and academies, need more time to be ready for large-scale work in the digital space.
Problems of technical support in educational institutions
Schools frantically searched for a way out of the situation and recruited remote employees who did not have enough experience and skills to provide such global support. Without qualified assistance, even the highly professional staff of an average institution cannot cope with such a volume of work. Therefore, applying for IT remote support has become not just a way out of a difficult situation, but a real salvation for schools.
In addition, it turned out that students also urgently need support not so much technical as educational. Especially for those who have chosen a distance or hybrid form of education, it is very difficult without the prompts of mentors and experts. But even here, the remote support of schools came to the rescue. Now each student can ask a question or seek clarification from the best teachers using different education platforms.
Here are specific reasons for using IT remote support for schools:
Growing classroom technology
The technical equipment of the classes has been constantly developing and increasing, and schools have allocated a certain part of the budget for this in past years. But the pandemic has accelerated the process dozens of times. In addition, the devices needed for study became necessary for all children without exception. Even those who used a smartphone for everyday life and did not consider it necessary to buy additional equipment for children were forced to purchase it for study. Educational technology is providing new and innovative ways to learn and to teach.
The explosive growth in the number of classroom equipment and devices for students have increased the load on the school’s IT support service. Previously, specialists worked mainly with teachers and some schoolchildren. Now, not only all the students but also their parents have joined the user base.
Even with the easing of the pandemic, the number of users continued to grow. Now, even for first-graders, parents immediately buy a tablet or laptop for study purposes, and this is the most difficult group of users to manage. As a result, the full-time IT support of the school is unable to cope with such a quantity of equipment. Therefore, connecting specialists remotely is the only way out of the situation.
Remote support for administration
The transition to a hybrid learning format is difficult not only for teachers who have to restructure programs, look for convenient platforms, create virtual classrooms, etc., but also for school administration. There are many educational institutions, and not only in small towns, where almost all administration was done on paper. The transition to a digital format has become a huge problem, which is fraught not only with errors in forms but also with the loss of entire arrays of data. In this case, remote support is the “guardian angel” of the administration. Specialists not only create backup copies of all data but also protect them from unauthorized access.
In addition, every year the administration of the school becomes more and more complex and large-scale. Infrastructure and configuration are becoming more complex, requiring more advanced technical solutions. Specialists in a full-time IT department simply may not be able to cope with such a task, since their qualifications are not enough for such work, and this is normal. The task of the school IT department is to ensure daily work, to solve current problems on a minimal scale. The field of activity of the remote support service is to ensure the expansion of the infrastructure, and its uninterrupted operation, and guarantee the compatibility and security of databases.
Remote support and security
The issue of network security is always very acute in educational institutions of various levels. But if we talk about distance learning or a hybrid form, then this is the most important and even the primary task – ensuring security. The fact is that many lessons, lectures, and seminars take place in an uncontrolled network using standard and public conference services. Very often, the functionality of these resources is not enough to fully protect the information, since the participants themselves are too frivolous and negligent in protecting their data and security on the network.
Remote support can enhance security, process data, and work in the background with multiple participants at once. With up to 10 simultaneous sessions, the specialist can control that the data used by the conference participants remain protected.
Understanding the security and access of remote support itself is critical. Professionals working remotely deal with the limited access they need to perform duties and tasks.
Those educational institutions that have already understood that remote IT support is a necessity for the functioning of the school in modern realities, were able to build a new model of the educational process. This is a huge advantage that is becoming more and more attractive for parents when choosing an educational institution for their children.
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