4 ways IT departments can help teachers

IT teams need to make a teacher’s job as easy as possible.

With all of the exciting edtech developments out there, schools are rushing to take advantage of the newest releases. In 2013 alone, K-12 schools are expected to spend $9.7 billion on IT products and services. Higher ed will account for another $10.3 billion. Classroom tech can certainly be a major asset for teachers and students alike, but only if those improvements are easy to use. Even the most advanced piece of technology will be useless if students and teachers can’t get them to work.

When IT teams implement new tech into the classroom, they should take the following steps to ensure success:

1. Easy integration: Teachers and students shouldn’t have to struggle to use new tech. For instance, classroom software should always allow users to hop on and get going easily without any complex hurdles to clear. Security measures, although extremely important in their own right, should never prevent classes from accessing software.
2. Listen to your teachers: The goal of a school’s IT team should be to provide teachers with all the tools they’ll need to reach each and every student. This is no small task, but IT departments need to rise to the occasion and meet any request that could improve the learning process.
3. Learn firsthand: The modern classroom has become an interesting mix of overlapping technologies. To ensure that these different features are all working in harmony, IT personnel need to actually sit down in a classroom and see how the technology is being used and how it responds.
4. Tackle problems: It would be wonderful if technology never failed us, but everyone knows this is just not the case. Software will crash and computers will malfunction. When the inevitable happens, IT members need to be ready to spring into action and fix an issue as quickly as possible. This means being attentive to teacher complaints and always being on the lookout for solutions.

A teacher’s job is never easy. Educating classes filled with dozens of kids is a lot to ask of anyone. Classroom software and technology should always aim to help teachers rather than become another hurdle to learning.  IT teams need to be there every step of the way to make the process as easy as possible, lending support to teachers and helping to improve the learning experience.

Do you think IT departments are doing enough to support classroom tech integration? Please share your thoughts in the comments below and be sure to visit us on our Facebook page!