The pandemic created waves across the workforce as people were forced to work from home or otherwise away from the office. K-12 schools were no exception. Although it was a tough transition for teachers, parents, students, and staff alike, it unmistakably changed how educators approach technology.
One method of communication that quickly swept across the education industry was video conferencing. Virtual classrooms became the norm, and like with any technology, teachers quickly learned to leverage this technology to its fullest potential. Here are the ways video conferencing technology has created lasting changes in education.
1. Distance Learning Can Help Students When Being in School Isn’t an Option
Before virtual classrooms were a mainstream concept, students would need to make up work by asking their teacher for materials if they were out sick or otherwise missed school. This created headaches for teachers, parents, and students as kids struggled to catch up.
Through video conferencing platforms and the use of the cloud, students can now access recorded lessons and documents all stored in one platform.
2. Students Can Make Up Work After Sick Days
The last thing a student needs after being out sick is a hard time catching up on work they missed. Especially for students with chronic medical conditions or prolonged illnesses, cloud communications make learning more accessible.
3. Catching Up After Family Events & Emergencies
Any parent or educator could tell you about the communication issues that arise when families take their kids out of school for events or vacations. Families can’t always time these according to school breaks, and when family emergencies come into play, things are even less predictable.
To mitigate this, teachers can post assignments on cloud file management platforms for students and parents to access. This allows kids to get their work done and keep up with coursework from anywhere without needing to pick up worksheets or assignments. Syllabi can also live within these file systems, allowing parents and students to follow along with coursework while kids are out.
4. Keeping On-Track Despite Snow Days
Similarly to family events, winter weather can lead to students collectively falling behind on material due to snow days. Snow can lead to unpredictable delays or closings, so the cloud is a great tool to make sure students have access to materials no matter if they are in school or not.
5. Interactive Learning for Better Material Retention
Most teachers have already been using the internet to enhance learning for decades. However, through the use of interactive virtual classroom platforms, you can enhance learning with:
- Trivia or quiz games
- Learning tools for literacy, math, or reading comprehension
- Advanced presentation tools
- Guest speakers and presentations from anywhere
Many students are primarily visual learners, making the screen sharing and other visual features an effective avenue for material retention.
6. Virtual Activities to Foster Participation
Fostering participation puts your classes on a fast track to more enjoyable and meaningful lessons. Instead of forcing students to participate, games and activities encourage positive learning experiences through exploration.
With many tools offered by the cloud, students can use their tech-savviness to their advantage to get the most out of online activities.
7. Simplified Parent-Teacher Communication
Parent-teacher conferencing can get tricky with busy work schedules and changing student needs. This is another need that video conferencing simplifies. Most virtual meeting platforms offer mobile and desktop apps, which allow teachers and parents to reach each other from anywhere.
Any teacher could probably tell you how frustrating and hectic it can be to have multiple parents reaching out to them at once. This is especially if they provide their phone numbers to parents.
The cloud simplifies this by offering one centralized platform that parents can text or call teachers through. Even calls from analog phones can reach cloud phone numbers and come through like normal voice calls, and the same goes for texts going through as instant messages.
8. Lesson Storage & Cloud File Management
Cloud video conferencing often comes with the ability to record virtual lessons and save them within the platform. This can be extremely useful for students as they review for tests or try to catch up after missing school.
This can also foster more accessibility, as many video teleconferencing systems have transcription tools and captioning in different languages.
9. Face-to-Face Tutoring
Most communication is non-verbal. This means that the ability of students and teachers to interact effectively relies on visual cues. Meeting face-to-face is crucial for learning, especially if students are learning phonetics, spelling, or other skills requiring both visual and audio cues.
10. Team Project Collaboration
Whether you want to create groups during a lesson or for group projects, there are many ways to use virtual classroom apps for group work. Students can meet virtually on the weekends or in the evenings, allowing for easier collaboration for team projects.
Breakout rooms are also popular features, so participants can meet in small groups for subject matter discussions, group presentations and more during class.
How to Optimize Your School for the Digital Age
If you're wondering how to find the best virtual classroom software, there are many resources to help in your search. Speaking to a managed communications provider with experience in the education industry is a good place to start.
A good communications provider should be familiar with what goes into creating effective learning environments with cost-effective teaching tools. Learn more about how K-12 schools can leverage the cloud in our blog: How Would K-12 Schools Benefit from Cloud Communications?
If you're ready to explore your options to bring video conferencing solutions and effective online teaching to your school, click the button below to speak to a managed communications expert.
