As the Australian education system monitors the impact of technology in the classroom, schools are increasingly anxious to know that their digital resources are working for them rather than against them.
Examples can be seen in various reports which have shown the potentially damaging impact of smartphones and laptops on students’ concentration and engagement with their learning.
However, schools, such as St Stephens College, Ormiston College and Melbourne Girls Grammar School have demonstrated that when implemented well, technology can have a profoundly positive impact on teaching and learning.
The ed-tech challenge for school leaders heading into 2019, according to one technology expert, is to ensure they equip their ICT departments with “transformative and effective” cloud technology, print and document management solutions.
“In doing this, school leaders can bring major teaching improvements and student performance benefits in 2019 and beyond,” Adam O'Neill, managing director, Australia, Y Soft told The Educator.
“Quality cloud storage technologies can enhance IT teams and resources, as school leaders look for new and improved ways to provide for staff and students in the new year.”
O’Neill said that as schools increasingly focus on technology and processes that let them become more efficient, productive, and secure, failing to implement cloud printing as part of this philosophy puts schools at risk in using IT resources for more productive projects.
“Printing, scanning and document workflows make up a crucial part of IT processes for school primary and high school administrative teams and leaders,” O’Neill said.
“Managing print services in the cloud is essential if administrators and principals want to take advantage of cloud services to run their school efficiently. We expect to see this in schools across Australia and New Zealand in the coming year,” he said.
O’Neill said school leaders should jump on board the movement across the education sector towards cloud technology, improving internal processes, teaching strengths and student learning alike.
“Further, we expect to see 3D printing expand and develop in the education sector over the next 12 months,” he said.