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For nearly a decade, government spending on education has been falling.

Schools that have succeeded over the years despite budget challenges and cutbacks have a commitment to a singular vision—giving students the best education. All education spending should be tracked back to this vision, especially classroom technology funding. With school budgets an ongoing issue, it’s critical to ensure that students benefit from every edtech investment. Follow these tips to determine if your school is making the best use of its technology funds.

Seek to Simplify

Teacher’s need tools that help streamline communication, make data collection quicker and increase their capacity to focus on individual students — all without additional effort. One significant benefit that technology gives teachers is the ability to personalise their lessons more easily. “Instead of carrying a group of students through the curriculum at the same speed, regardless of each individual student’s capacity, background, and engagement with each topic, new tools allow teachers to follow each student individually, and to approach lessons in a way that lets them help each one learn every topic in a comprehensive way,” writes Tomas Franceschein in Edu4.me.[1]

Invest in Sustainable, Scalable and Durable Technology

Avoid additional expenses by choosing solutions that can grow and adapt along with technological innovation. For example, while charging solutions may account for a significant portion of a school’s mobile device budget, your school will save time and costs if you don’t need to replace your charging solutions every time you roll out new mobile devices. We call this concept, “future-proof charging.” Future-proof charging solutions combine universal charging, open-concept designs and durable products to save schools money.

Calculate the Hidden Time Savings

How much is your staff’s time worth? By eliminating repetitive or mundane day-to-day duties, your teachers will get more control over how they use their class time and the knowledge that their time is valued. Research by Scholastic, Inc. shows that teachers spend up to 95 minutes per week grading papers and preparing classes. Apps and assessment software can reduce that time by automating the process of grading assignments.  Another time-saving tool is related to a solution for mobile device distribution. Baskets by PC Locs allow teachers and students to quickly and safely distribute tablets or iPads, putting up to two weeks of class time back into the hands of teachers every year.

Don’t Neglect Your Infrastructure

To make the most out of your IT spend, work with technology service providers that will help guide the infrastructure needed to ensure a smooth technology deployment. Often infrastructure plays second fiddle to curriculum and budget, but in our experience, it plays a critical role in enabling a successful technology rollout.

Teach the Teachers

Studies reveal that teachers feel unprepared and want more training. An alarming 78% of US teachers surveyed by SAM Labs reported that they hadn’t received the training they need to teach with technology in the classroom.2 If we are going to give teachers extra responsibility for incorporating new technologies into their curriculum, we need to provide them with additional support. [2] Check out these three real-world ideas for effective practices to teach the teachers.

• EdTech recommends, “Rather than demonstrating technology at offsite training sessions, let teachers try it themselves in their own classrooms, with appropriate support where needed.”[3]
• Superintendent Darryl Adams of California championed a first-of-its-kind technology bond to fund iPads for each of the district’s students. Not only was a portion of the budget set aside for teacher training, but Adams claims the key was training teachers before the students received their devices.[4]
• “Show, don’t tell,” recommends instructional tech director Monique Flickinger. “Our technology tech trainers create three-minute video podcasts that show teachers in action using the new technology at the front of their classrooms. We also include pictures of the lesson plan, rubrics and students’ work at the end and link it to the state standards so that new teachers can easily steal ideas.”[5]

Whether your school or business is deploying five mobile devices or 50,000 mobile devices, PC Locs can help guide your investment to make sure you’re making the best use of your technology funds. Get in touch today!

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Sources:

[1] How Can Technology Help Empower Teachers – edu4me

[2] “Still? Most teachers feel unprepared to use technology in the classroom” – SAM Labs

[3] How stronger professional development can boost ed-tech success – EdTech

[4] Darryl Adams Got iPads, Wi-Fi for Every Student in High-Needs Calif. District –THE 74

[5] Ten Ideas for Teaching Teachers Technology – edutopia

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Handheld technology in classrooms has come a long way since the introduction of calculators nearly fifty years ago. The number of smartphones used by Aussie teenagers has grown to over 90% as of 2016.[1]

This rise of technology has profoundly impacted the daily lives of all education professionals, but perhaps none more than teachers and IT staff. From CIOs to education technology (edtech) specialists, school technology staff is facing growing cybersecurity threats and increased student data privacy concerns along with the digitisation of curriculum. Add to that the fact that many IT workers are taking on more responsibilities than ever before with fewer resources and you have a recipe for more stress and employee dissatisfaction across a variety of industries:

• 46% of IT workers consider their job stressful, 18% report their job was more stressful this year than the previous year.[2]
• 65% of IT and security professionals consider quitting due to burnout.[3]
• 36% of CIOs interviewed said bigger workloads are the greatest source of stress for their teams, 22% cited the pace of new technology as the most significant stressor.[4]

Finding a way to juggle increased workloads while reducing frustration may be challenging, but it’s not impossible. Let’s explore three key ways IT staff can decrease stress levels by guarding the privacy of student and personal data, making daily workflows and processes more efficient, and increasing awareness and recognition.

Stay Ahead of Cybersecurity Threats and Data Privacy Protection

41% of cyber security incidents in education are due to lost and stolen mobile devices. As the use of technology in schools increases, the critical oversight of not protecting your devices when not in use can create painful hassles for IT staff. It’s essential to protect your students and your school by securing devices with both digital security and physical security when not in use.

PC Locs Solution: Implementing durable, secure charging stations will protect devices and increase student data privacy. Not to mention decrease costs. As careful as educators try to be with their hardware, 10% of mobile devices break or go missing in the first year of a smart classroom deployment. A centralised point of secure charging helps schools provide a repository for tablets and laptops, reducing breakage and loss as well as provide protection for data, so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

Help Manage a Bigger Workload with Fewer Employees

In a time of budget challenges and cutbacks, increasing staff is a costly way to manage the extra workload of your school’s IT department. Also, simply asking your team to work faster and harder won’t solve your problems, and will lead to more stress and dissatisfaction.

PC Locs Solution: Many school-owned smartphones and tablets will inevitably need repair or maintenance during the school year. Get devices back in the hands of the student faster—and save your tech teams serious time with PC Locs carts and stations, which can be set up in one-third of the time of traditional systems. Also, by designating a smart charging locker as a device repair drop point, you’ll eliminate slow, manual processes by streamlining maintenance and your loaner device program. As a bonus, admins can monitor and record the activity of the lockers, which reduces the need for extra human capital to manage this workflow. These scenarios lighten IT staff workload and keep the day on track.

Show Your Support and Appreciation

In its research, Jobsite found that 67% of IT professionals felt that colleagues did not appreciate the complexity of their work.[5]

PC Locs Solution: If technical support team members are only brought in when something goes wrong, that means their best work is likely going unnoticed by teachers and the administration. It’s essential to raise awareness about the evolving role of the technology department as technology enablers. One way to increase recognition is to bring IT staff and teachers together to collaborate on tech initiatives.

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Sources:

[1] 9 in 10 Aussie teens now have a mobile – Roy Morgan

[2] IT Salary Survey 2017: Highlights – Computerworld

[3]  Improving the Effectiveness of the SOC – Ponemon Institute 

[4] Workplace Stress Increases Tension for IT Workers – Government Technology

[5] Office workers don’t appreciate the complexities facing IT staff – ComputerWeekly.com

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Many schools and districts around the world struggle with retaining qualified teachers. Check out these concerning findings:

• In Australia, one in three teachers leaves in the first five years, fueling a teacher shortage throughout Australia.[3]
• Almost half of the teachers in the U.S. are actively looking for a different job or watching for opportunities.[1]
• In Germany and France, less than 5% of teachers leave schools within the first five years. However, in Sweden, national statistics show that 32% of recently graduated teachers are no longer active in Swedish schools after five years. This percentage jumps to between 30% and 50% in the U.S. and U.K.[2]
• On average, districts in the U.S. spend more than $20,000 on each new hire. This revolving door costs public schools up to $2.2 billion annually.[4]

Addressing teacher turnover matters because it is not only is costly; it has serious consequences for student achievement. Retaining high-performing teachers is critical to a productive classroom. Research published in the American Education Research Journal found that “students in grade levels with higher turnover score lower in both English language arts (ELA) and math.”[5] This negative impact doesn’t just affect the students in the new teachers’ classrooms, but all students in a school with high teacher turnover rates.[6]

While some countries are focused on increasing recruitment into the teaching profession, others believe a more efficient strategy is to instead concentrate on retaining and supporting active teachers. According to the leading expert Dr. Richard Ingersoll, “Putting it metaphorically, it is better to patch the holes in the bucket before trying to fill it up.”[7]

Solutions to Reduce Teacher Burnout

While many factors can cause teacher burnout, the number one reason teachers leave the profession is due to dissatisfaction. Research recommends that supporting and valuing teachers is just as vital as tackling workload and long working hours to keep job fulfillment high and improve teacher retention.[8] Let’s review two common causes of dissatisfaction and how PC Locs provides solutions to help patch your bucket before your school loses more water:

Teachers are Working Harder than Ever Before

Educators in the U.S. reported spending more time teaching than those in other countries. U.S. teachers work longer than the contracted workday, spending more than 50 hours per week on instructional duties.[9] In England, teachers are working 46 hours per week. Both are well above the international average of 38 hours each week, with 20 hours spent teaching.[10]

PC Locs Solution: When compared to a PC Locs top-loading Cart with Baskets, one cabinet-style cart can gobble up an additional 70+ hours of class time per year, simply in passing out and collecting devices. PC Locs baskets have a profound impact on class time. Our unique and innovative basket designs not only keep tablets safe, but they also reduce the time spent by teachers in distributing devices, as well as the time spent by children queuing up to put them away. This means teaching can happen faster — saving over two weeks of instructional time per cart each year! Calculate the time savings of leveraging a durable, top-loading basket-based cart from PC Locs.

Teachers Feel Unsupported and Undervalued

Even though they’re working harder, nearly two-thirds of teachers in developed countries still feel undervalued.[11] That number jumps to over 90% of teachers in France, Spain and Sweden who think their profession is not respected.

PC Locs Solution: If teachers feel unsupported as new technology is introduced, their attitudes can quickly go from excitement to frustration. However, when educators feel supported by their district, they know that their personal well being is important.

1. Include teachers in decision making. When teachers are included in big initiatives, they feel valued. This encourages ideas from all angles to be considered in a constructive manner.
2. Support teachers when new technology is introduced by deploying an efficient mobile device workflow in the classroom to mitigate that frustration and improve teacher satisfaction. Innovative features in a charging solution like charging status indicator lights and mobile device baskets can simplify daily device distribution — giving teachers more control over how they use their class time.
3. Provide training for new technology. Study after study shows that teachers do not feel secure in their ability to incorporate high-level technology in teaching and learning. By creating a roadmap and a training program for new tech, teachers are much more likely to adopt new ways of teaching through tech.
4. Give teachers the opportunity to shine. For more reasons than we could ever count, teachers are incredible. They not only have high expectations for their students, but also for themselves. When teachers are given the time and space to use their talents, the sky is the limit for their curriculum and their students. What could your teachers accomplish if they were able to get back two weeks of class time per year?

Over the past 20 years, the needs of teachers and students have guided the designs of our mobile device charging carts and stations to relieve pain points that are specific to challenges in education.

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Sources:

[1] Why Teachers Quit – WeAreTeachers

[2] Teacher attrition the first five years – A multifaceted image – ScienceDirect

[3] One in three Australian teachers leaves within the first five years, inquiry hears – Brisbane Times

[4] Teacher Attrition Costs United States Up to $2.2 Billion Annually – Alliance for Excellent Education

[5] How Teacher Turnover Harms Student Achievement – American Education Research Journal

[6] Why Addressing Teacher Turnover Matters – Learning Policy Institute

[7] Teacher attrition the first five years – A multifaceted image – ScienceDirect

[8] Improve job satisfaction to stop teachers quitting the classroom – Nuffield Foundation

[9] New Data Shows Educators Work 11 Hours Overtime per Week – Tsheets

[10] New teacher survey – LA School Report

[11] Two-thirds of teachers feel undervalued, says OECD study – BBC News

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