Future-Proof Education Today Through Digital Transformation

Updating systems and infrastructure to utilize emergent technologies

Educators and administrators struggle every day to effectively incorporate emergent technologies within their buildings and classrooms. Outdated systems and legacy network infrastructure impede the ability of modernization and digital transformation initiatives to improve the level of safety, collaboration and efficiency within our schools.

In this webinar, a CompuCom Education presenter outlined how to build a foundation for scalable, emergent technology to foster greater collaboration in schools, and how intelligent automation can ensure a more safe and secure environment.

Speaker

Trent Tursi

Director, Digital Transformation

CompuCom

Trent Tursi: We’re seeing that a lot of school buildings are, on average, 44 years old. That insinuates that there might be older technology in the schools. So we want to modernize the technology infrastructure, integrate the newer technologies, and drive collaboration, safety and security.

We talk about the three pillars:

1. Infrastructure—upgrading our connectivity to the outside world.

2. Collaboration—creating the platform for all communications, whether it’s in the classroom from teacher to student, faculty to staff, or with parents and community members.

3. Safety and security.

Focusing on these three pillars should impact everything we do within the school—not just at the classroom level, but how we interact across the district. Whether you start with a small project, such as wireless or camera upgrades, or helping students get the right Chromebook, CompuCom provides the thought strategy up front with our consulting services, and ensures that whatever vision you have for your school or university in the next five years, we are taking a deliberate approach to making sure that each piece plays into your overall vision.

Let’s look at the building as a whole. Teachers and students use technology every day in the classroom. Shouldn’t this technology be just as easy to use as your cell phone? You have cameras on the building, card readers for facility access, audiovisual systems, Chromebooks, wireless devices, cabling, phones, lighting, vending machines and, perhaps, thermostats.

Can some of these systems have common platforms, eliminating the need for disparate systems, so we can better leverage intelligence and become informed of abnormal behavior?

Maybe there’s a way to lock all classrooms with the touch of a button. Maybe there’s a way to light each hallway to signify green if it’s safe or red if it’s not. We’re trying to become the catalyst to spark these discussions.

We facilitate forward-thinking ideas, share solutions and look at things more deliberately. With our diverse offerings of furniture, technology and facilities systems, our approach is all-encompassing and takes into account the entire end-user experience all while ensuring high end-user adoption rates. If it takes longer than two minutes to use a feature on a board, you’re taking up too much class time.

We also offer best-in-class cybersecurity solutions. We have to be mindful of hackers and the ways they can get into systems. So our solutions always ensure a safe approach from an implementation and operations perspective.

Additionally, CompuCom is leading the entire IT/facilities industry as it relates to our Self Healing Technology. We are actually disrupting our own revenue streams to ensure you have a better end-user experience versus always having to call someone when there is a problem with fixing a device. We have developed an offering in which we automate devices to fix themselves quicker, better and more efficiently—versus having to wait either for IT or facilities to fix the problem or more importantly, having to call someone in to help. These are the types of intelligent things that we’re building into our solution offerings.

Our desire is to become a partner. We want to become an extension of your team. We want to make a difference in the community, and we are passionate about making a change in today’s education environments.

There needs to be some level of digital transformation to improve how today’s students are learning and collaborating. What if you could personalize the learning and content, and encourage students to learn at their own pace? What if you had access to online educational resources and tools? And what if it were all powered by a high-performance wireless network? What if you could increase student engagement, and equip students with tools that not only allow them access to content, but to work anywhere, seamlessly with their classmates and teachers? That would be powerful.

This digital learning concept lets students meet, message, use whiteboards, share resources—in and out of classrooms, on any device. The sky is the limit. We’re not talking about spending tons of money. We’re mindful that every district is not a Google. But these are forward-thinking ideas that are exciting to think about.

To watch this webinar in its entirety, please visit districtadministration.com/ws091918

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