Education faces challenges in virtually every country. A shortage of teachers, budgets that don't meet needs and an ever-shifting curriculum are among the most common. That said, technology is rising to meet these challenges, and today, there are processes and technologies that can be implemented within the education space that can help to ease the strain being felt.
Schools can indeed keep up with the fast-paced digital revolution if they simply apply themselves to discovering and implementing appropriate solutions where they're needed most, says JP Lourens, Software and Solutions Product Manager at KYOCERA Document Solutions South Africa.
KYOCERA Document Solutions has been helping schools across the globe with their day-to-day operations, providing innovative and reliable solutions that score top marks for print quality, value for money, and efficiency for the past 25 years.
Survey insights
In a recently conducted survey of people actively involved in the education space, KYOCERA Document Solutions discovered that 62% of teachers and students felt the technology offered by their schools helps to elevate them above others. This is important, because that differentiation gives schools a significant edge when it comes to attracting new pupils.
That said, with budgets under significant pressure, it's just as important to keep things like the total cost of ownership (TCO) of any technology solution in mind without compromising on quality. By striking the right balance between the right technologies and TCO, that all-important differentiation can be maintained without overspending.
Balancing act
Of course, the challenge is achieving that balance, and again, this is where technology can pitch in, not only from the perspective of buying cost-effective solutions, but also by encouraging different usage patterns. Printing is one area where significant cost savings can be achieved by modifying user behaviour slightly; for instance, by printing on both sides of each individual piece of paper, paper costs can be halved; by scanning documents to digital files instead of copying them, paper usage can be cut even further; by purchasing power-efficient hardware, electricity costs can be lowered.
With the fast-changing pace of technology, more schools start to focus on implementing smart document management and data capture solutions that make their day-to-day admin just that much easier. Schools can digitise pupil records with functions like automated document scanning, manage the resulting data stores through centralised information management systems, and leverage off systems that ensure scanned documents end up in the correct location.
With the proper care and attention, and the application of the appropriate technology, any school's daily admin tasks can be greatly sped up and simplified.
Additional value
KYOCERA's survey also discovered that 52% of teachers and 45% of students would like to work on computers that are more up-to-date than what their school offers. This reflects how schools aren't able to spend what they'd like to on their technology, preferring to receive a bit more value out of existing equipment than replacing it as often as teachers and students would like.
The hunger for better technology is there, however: a full third of respondents indicated they would like better-quality printing in the next year, and just over that number (34%) said they'd also like to have access to technology that's easier to use.
Keeping heads in the cloud
It's not just teachers, but also administration staff that can benefit from using a managed print service. Cloud-based, predefined processes can benefit in all areas, from automated confirmation e-mails through to approval processes for incoming invoices, minimising the element of human error, and ensuring optimised and efficient business processes resulting in time saving and cost reduction. Reducing costs is key for teachers, and tracking volumes and related costs allows schools to understand if charging for print is feasible, or simply making sure that departments are not losing money on student printing.
Remote monitoring of printing also improves services to schools, especially when it comes to identifying paper or ink jams, or even replenishment needs.
Digital learning for the win
Thirty-four percent of the teachers in the survey said their school or college was actively engaged in implementing new approaches to assessment. Using features such as automatic marking (using KYOCERA'S Teaching Assistant App) not only allows teachers to save time and provide feedback faster than they would do if marking by hand, but it has the potential to store the results of each student, and each test, allowing teachers to easily view progress and test results with analytic feedback, allowing for problem areas to be addressed.
In conclusion
Technology is an effective way of saving time, cutting costs and increasing general satisfaction in education. Educational trends such as digital convergence, learning analytics and new approaches to assessment encompass these, and the sooner they are implemented, the sooner the benefits will be reaped.
Having said that, balancing the budgetary needs of schools with the technological needs of teachers and students can be achieved by getting the right solutions, of which there are many. Efficient printing and document management solutions are both big parts of any school's daily activities, and are a good place to start.
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