As you enter at the moment’s school rooms, it is clear: Expertise is not only a software, it is the driving pressure behind vibrant communities, shaping how college students be taught and lecturers join. Many college students have entry to know-how of their school rooms, however the true problem lies in harnessing sources successfully to reinforce studying and construct stronger, extra resilient communities. As colleges attempt to adapt to the calls for of the fashionable digital world, the main target has shifted past merely offering entry to gadgets towards leveraging know-how to reinforce tutorial strategies and foster significant engagement and connection to one another and their lecturers. Many colleges prioritize stakeholder collaboration within the strategy of assessing technological wants. By embracing a collaborative method, colleges and districts can be sure that the adoption of recent applied sciences aligns with the varied wants and aspirations of scholars, lecturers and the broader group and that the imaginative and prescient is really shared, leading to a extra dynamic, interactive expertise.
Lately, EdSurge spoke with Daniel Gauna, the chief director of knowledge know-how at El Segundo Unified Faculty District, California. Gauna has 16 years of expertise inside the district. Earlier than assuming his present function, Gauna labored as a guide for native faculty districts within the South Bay space, specializing in elements of know-how infrastructure akin to firewalls, routing and switching. Though his background is in know-how, his present function requires him to work intently with the Instructional Companies group to assist tutorial functions and different associated facets. Gauna strongly believes within the significance of engagement and collaboration in defining know-how wants and targets.
EdSurge: What’s your faculty district’s imaginative and prescient for know-how integration?
Gauna: Being a part of a small faculty district permits us to work extra instantly with the group, notably regarding our route with know-how and tutorial strategies. We concentrate on how we are able to assist each our college students and workers in our imaginative and prescient.
The district aim entails supporting each the know-how and tutorial sides. The secret’s to leverage our know-how in order that our college students see it as greater than only a system of their arms; it is about realizing tips on how to use these instruments successfully. This implies shifting from tech-dependent to tech-enabled.
We wish to see know-how leveraged past the normal classroom method. We wish to be sure that college students are engaged with our lecturers and vice versa, that lecturers can interact with college students.
How did the district decide which applied sciences to undertake in alignment with its imaginative and prescient?
We concerned stakeholders. I all the time consider in doing a proof of idea to make sure one thing suits into our infrastructure. Regardless of my community and safety background, I additionally view issues from a instructor’s perspective. I do know the significance of method, particularly for our lecturers. We sought change and enchancment in our classroom setup.
So, we examined a casting resolution final 12 months. We concerned three lecturers from every faculty grade to evaluate its ease of use and tutorial advantages. The Vivi resolution proved a lot simpler for us to roll out from a tech perspective, and on the educational aspect, it had extra instruments for our lecturers to make use of. Gathering suggestions beforehand made a easy transition to after we absolutely applied it in the summertime.
As soon as adopted, how has know-how helped you to reinforce studying experiences and foster engagement and connection?
At El Segundo Unified Faculty District, as I discussed earlier, our focus and imaginative and prescient are that our school rooms are tech-enabled and never tech-dependent — leveraging know-how impactfully to reinforce our college students’ studying experiences general and construct further bridges between college students, lecturers, leaders and even content material.
Since we launched Vivi this fall, our elementary principal has began making morning bulletins utilizing its video streaming characteristic throughout the entire faculty, generally studying books. This has change into a spotlight for our lecturers, college students and even our central workplace workers, who tune in to start out their day with a smile.
Expertise can generally get a nasty rap as a result of folks suppose college students are simply sitting on gadgets, however at El Segundo, college students use their gadgets to create, collaborate and share their work in participating methods. Considered one of our lecturers shared how one among her non-verbal college students has taken a 180 [turn] due to having the ability to share his work wirelessly with Vivi. Earlier than this software got here into our school rooms, he actually was unable to share his voice. Now he can, and that’s the energy of know-how when it’s successfully paired with instruction.
See for your self how Vivi transforms communication, boosts classroom engagement and simplifies IT administration. Request a demo.
Over 2,000 colleges, 100,000 school rooms, and 500,000 college students and lecturers depend on Vivi for classroom engagement and campus-wide communication. Vivi’s wi-fi display screen sharing, digital signage, emergency alerts, and video and textual content announcement capabilities preserve college students and workers knowledgeable and engaged all through the varsity day. Be taught extra at Vivi.io.
