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Empower your staff

Earlier this year, the Department for Education published eye-opening statistics from their ‘Teacher Workload Survey’, showing that teachers are spending over 54 hours working both in and out of the classroom per week.

With class sizes set to continue increasing, the workload for teaching staff is expected to follow suit, and this has subsequently led to the education sector within the UK taking a huge hit over the past few years. Furthermore research from The Guardian reveals that a whopping 79% of schools are struggling to recruit or retain teachers.

With central government continuing to make funding cuts, schools need to start seeking alternative methods to empower their staff.

Edtech in the classroom

Technology is increasingly playing more and more of a pivotal role within the classroom. In fact, a recent report conducted by The British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) has predicted that by 2018, 58% of teaching time in UK State schools will be supported with ICT equipment.

But, although research has shown the monopoly of technology within the classroom, 80% of our teachers have said that they need better access to IT in order to improve the quality of learning.

What role does technology play in saving our teachers?

There are a number of ways technology can help keep our teachers happy and reduce the amount of time they’re having to spend on simple tasks that quickly become arduous when not equipped sufficiently.

As an overview, in and out of the classroom, well-suited classroom tech can help teachers with:

• Lesson planning – reducing time through the use of collaboration tools and faster technology
• Working from home – new and more portable devices allow teachers to easily transition from the classroom to the comfort of their own homes
• In-class teaching – Slow and malfunctioning computers can drastically eat into lesson time. With the introduction of faster devices you can say goodbye to slow start-up speeds, and welcome the onset of more productive lessons.

Discover the smart way to invest in IT and empower your teaching staff

Schools, colleges and universities need to become smarter with the technology they’re investing in, not only due to budget cuts but to also maximise productivity and therefore job satisfaction amongst their teaching staff.

Did you know there are over 11 million people with a limiting long-term illness, impairment or disability in the UK? The Office for Disability Issues, state that someone with a disability is half as likely as someone without to hold a degree qualification. It is the duty of universities to ensure that students have access to the right learning tools for successful education.

But can technology be the answer?

There are an array of assistive technologies to aid students with special-needs, in offering them support, independence and confidence in the learning environment. Universities must now outline how they can support special needs students in a Disability Statement, offering all students an equal opportunity to learn and accomplish qualifications. Universities can make some simple changes to existing campus devices and discover an array of accessibility tools that will help aid learning for students with limitations.

E-textbooks

Following a study by the Higher Education Academy in the UK, it was indicated that resources are a common issue affecting the happiness of disabled students. E-textbooks offer the ability to scale text to your needs or to make use of text-to-speech software. It also allows you to hold an unlimited number of textbooks all on one device – so no more struggling to juggle lots of heavy books that also cost a fortune to buy!

Online resources

Similar to E-books, students can now access all types of digital learning materials online, including whitepapers, journals, blogs and more. Content sharing has become increasingly popular with the development of the cloud, using solutions such as Google Drive and Microsoft SharePoint. Students and teachers can share notes, presentations and other documents in one central place for anyone to access (anywhere and at any time), offering a totally accessible world of knowledge to all students.

Keyboards

University IT departments can now arrange to have their devices and desktops set up with Keyboard shortcuts for easy access to apps. This saves time and offers ease to students with disabilities.

A standard keyboard has over 100 keys, which can appear confusing and intimidating to some students. Universities can purchase special built keyboards for assistive learning, with features that include larger keys with audible click, bigger gaps between keys or coloured keys to distinguish between vowels, consonants and numbers.

Touchscreens

Some students with learning difficulties may find it hard to relate the movement of their hand on the mouse to the movement of the cursor on the screen. Therefore, it is advisable that educational institutions keep stock of touchscreen devices for students who may struggle using the standard mouse. Other mouse alternatives are also available if touchscreens are not an option.

Accessibility features

Different features are available for different types of disabilities. For example, those with a vision impairment can benefit from increasing the colour contrast of text and images or braille narration. Alternatively, those with a hearing loss can take advantage of visual alternatives to sounds such as Skype translator, visual notifications and for longer or mono audio for those with partial deafness. Setting up in-house devices with these features or offering training to students to set features up on their personal devices will hugely benefit in aiding their learning.

We are thrilled to have achieved HP Premier MPS Partner Status. This is an industry wide trading status, and a symbol that we are recognised as an established print IT reseller and a key partner of HP.

Achieving this status is testament to our ability to provide strategic guidance in managing print environments and providing services and software solutions that can help reduce costs, improve security and free up your time.

We operate a technology-based, results oriented approach to managing your print environment, built on the premise that printing and document management are essential parts of your IT architecture.

What could you achieve with MPS?

• Lower printing costs by implementing a targeted print strategy for improving processes and increasing efficiencies.
• Reduced need for IT support for your printing environment, so your IT staff can spend more time on strategic projects.
• Manage and deploy devices and supplies from multiple vendors in a more convenient and effective manner.
• Ensure that your imaging and printing devices are being used in the best ways for your employees and your organisation.
• Increase employee productivity by reducing device downtime.

Because we recognise the importance of incremental and continuous improvement, you will be better able to respond to changes in your business as they arise.

Ready to talk MPS?

Go to our Managed Document Service page or contact us below.