If the cloud known as COVID-19 has a silver lining, it’s the fact that remote interaction technology proved a worthy contingency. This is especially true of distance learning devices, which have quickly graduated from novelty to necessity for institutions of all learning levels.
Now that we know EduTech will work in emergency situations like global pandemics, it’s time to put it up against two much more common problems that schools deal with on a regular basis—snow days and flu season.
Snow Days
While most students probably don’t see snow days as an issue, their teachers and administrators often do. One example is education expert Paul Bennett, who said in an interview on Canada’s CTV News that “once it gets to be five days cancelled, there’s a crisis in education, because it starts to have an effect on the learning and the capacity of students to perform on tests and evaluations.”
That’s a major problem, but technology is a ready-made solution. Distance learning innovations have made it easy to take the classroom to students when snow keeps students from going to the classroom. Using a visualizer or wide-angle USB cam with a laptop, teachers can proceed with their lessons as planned from home, working with a whiteboard, doing demonstrations, and fielding student questions.
This means that schools can be even more risk averse when it comes to transporting students in sketchy conditions. It’s actually already happening in several areas of the US.
Flu Season
Another common problem each school year is flu season. When seasonal sickness runs through a community, it not only disrupts learning for students but also hits schools where it really hurts—in their pocket books. A blog post by the Children’s Hospital of Orange County explains how schools in the US lose money when students miss class because of the flu:
“With absenteeism, the Average Daily Attendance rate (money schools receive from the government) for students during the flu season can decrease by as much as 2 percent, costing the school much-needed dollars.”
While there’s no way to entirely eliminate the flu, distance learning technology can certainly help slow the spread. If a school is technologically prepared, it can shift classes online as soon as students start calling in sick, without losing engagement and interactivity—and without losing as much valuable funding as usual.
Finding everything you need to overcome snow days and flu season is simple. Pro AV solutions with auto tracking AI features that follow teachers around the classroom deliver fully produced online classes. Simpler setups of USB visualizers and laptops will easily do the trick as well. Customize a solution for your institution today!