COVID-19: Technology to Support Home Working & Home Schooling

The #COVID-19 outbreak has forced many educators and businesses to introduce home working and schooling practices. For some this is going to be a big change and will require the introduction of new technologies and tools to support this new way of working. 

At GreatFind Recruitment we have been working remotely for some time now, so we thought we would share with you some useful tools, to assist you in setting up virtual learning spaces that facilitate interactive education during these challenging times.  

1.      Microsoft Teams A customized hub which enables educators to create virtual classrooms in Office 365 (part of an education volume licensing agreement). Microsoft Teams allows educators to continue creating assignments, grading work and providing personalised feedback. Students can also collaborate in teams of any size, all in one place, no matter where they are. Students can interact and ask their teachers questions regarding their virtual recorded lessons through the chat functionality, as well as during audio and video meetings.

2.      Microsoft SharePoint A great tool for sharing project files in a secure way. With generous storage, students can access all their lesson resources, shared and personal drives from their mobile and tablet devices at home. Impressively, SharePoint has full assignment functionality and the ability for students to work on the same document at the same time.

3.      Google Shared drives An excellent way to store, search, collaborate and access files as a team, from teaching resources to students work. Google Drive is a secure and easy to manage shared space that is collectively owned by the team to facilitate virtual team working and learning. 

4.      GoToMeeting An online meeting and web conferencing tool that enables you to collaborate in real time. GoToMeeting is a secure way to share your screen and work on a project together. It allows you to connect with anyone, anywhere, on any device.

5.      Skype, WhatsApp, WeChat, Zoom These are all familiar and reliable free apps for text, audio, video and conferencing to help keep staff and students connected whilst working and learning from home.

6.      Cisco Jabber Cisco Jabber delivers instant messaging, voice and video calls, voice messaging, desktop sharing, conferencing, and online presence. You can locate people, see whether and how they’re available, and collaborate more effectively.

7.        VPN A VPN securely enables teachers, staff and students to remotely connect from home to the on-premises school network. There are many providers out there, here is a review of the best for 2020 to get you started.

The choice of collaboration and virtual working tools out there can be a little daunting, especially for those of you where remote working is completely new. As a specialist IT and EdTech recruitment agency, at GreatFind we will help you in any way that we can, and we have access to a vast pool of technical expertise to help you to set up safe, efficient and engaging virtual learning practices.