AV technology in schools after the Covid-19 pandemic

“The relationship between schools and technology providers is like the hare and the tortoise,” says Ben Whitaker, education technology consultant at BenQ and presenter of the Edufuturists podcast, when asked whether it is schools or education solution designers that must adapt to ensure advances in technology are used to their full potential. “Technology needs to teach educators to keep up with technology.”

Whitaker warns that there is not always a good match between the problems that technology offers to solve for teachers and the ones they experience as most important.

“Technologists have not really asked schools what the problem is, and have left teachers saying ‘I’ve not got a problem with this, but I have with this’. Yes, teachers have to keep up with changes in tech, but technology sometimes needs to look back and bring them back up to speed,” he says.

This is the usual picture in which technology uptake normally take some time, often a considerable amount of time. But the Covid-19 pandemic made a difference. It accelerated the speed of adoption of new technology in schools, as educators rushed to introduce remote and blended learning that would allow students to continue their education.

A roll-out of tablets, laptops and other learning platforms gave teachers and students the opportunity to utilise cloud-based videoconferencing applications such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Additionally, it gave education technology providers a greater opportunity to support a move away from front-of-the-class lecturing using projectors and whiteboards towards more immersive forms of teaching, especially the use of software to enhance the learning of students.

But while some teachers altered their working style as a result of the pandemic, with a full-time return to the classroom, the use of technology may not continue as many predicted that it would 18 months ago.

Greg Mack, UK, Ireland and Middle East sales manager at Vivitek, has noticed that teachers in schools have begun to revert to their original methods of teaching, rather than adopting the technology available.

“During lockdown in the primary and secondary school markets, a lot of people were looking for a solution that would just cover distance learning,” he says. “Now that it has come to an end, it’s mostly gone back to normal, and this is somewhat down to budget constraints. This has led to investment in more temporary solutions.”

Even without a reversion to the norm, the extent to which teachers are able to adopt new ways of learning that are technology-dependent does vary according to the level of funding for educational technology available in the country they teach in.

“There are limitations when it comes to funding,” says Shaun Marklew, chief technical officer at Boxlight, the parent company for the Clevertouch brand, who has worked with customers around the world and observed how trends differ between countries. “There are different teaching styles around the world and you’re not going to get away from the basics and the fundamentals in terms of front of class teaching. There is a huge take up and desire for technology within education but unfortunately, in some countries this is slower than in others, due to funding, and there are different priorities.”

Take audio, for instance. “There was a huge uptake in the US in classroom audio, as well as supported microphones and technology, as well as huge adoption of personal devices,” says Marklew. “We’ve also seen an increase in sales across Europe, although there was less focus on one-on-one devices.”

Despite these constraints, new forms of educational technology have a value that is not always acknowledged. Industry sources say there are genuine benefits when technology uptake catches up with advances in technology, particularly in the use of educational software.

“It is very important to create more interactivity within schools,” says Rob Wijnen, international channel manager at Prowise. “Software allows you to really start interacting with your students in a more immersive environment. So for example, quizzes allow for people to give answers to in-class questions, opening up more opportunities for engagement between the teacher and the students.”

“Our tools allow for teachers to give instant feedback on students’ screens, giving them a very quick and easy way to deliver a good lesson, whether at home or in the classroom,” says Marlou van Winkel, marketing specialist at Prowise. “Students should feel connected with the classroom or with the teacher in the classroom. This falls in line with our mission to make education more fun.”

Teaching can not just be more interactive and effective. It can, and should, address the changing skills that employers are looking for on CVs.

“Education is moving to a place where it will be less about how good are you at math, and universities and workplaces aren’t going to be looking at what are the letters beside your name, but will focus on the skills that can be developed in collaboration and communication,” says Katie Novak, SMART Tech’s global brand manager.

“Technology must really support that skill development. That will help students switch careers 17 times and keep pace with this world that’s changing incredibly quickly. So the idea that technology will provide this flexible experience, that can really help personalise the learning pathway for students, is going to be increasingly important as we move forward.”

While pandemic-driven requirements for distance learning or long-term trends towards greater interactivity and the development of communication skills are important, so too are changes that are afoot in the hardware that will meet school’s requirements.

“The current trend is to bring all the abilities of other products into one total solution, which combines whiteboarding, managing your students, sharing content in real-time, sharing pictures, and also giving the student the opportunity to work on it in real-time,” says Frank Trossen, international key account director at Philips Professional Display Solutions.

“Philips is not the first brand in the education space, but we’ve entered the process to have a very high impact. We’ve had to examine what is changing, and what was the demand during the pandemic. As well as this, we also have to look at the demand in the next 10 to 20 years, as there’s a difference between the last 20 years and what will happen in the next couple of years.”

Brian Ebury, UK country manager at Newline, adds: “The interactive panels that we had in the past and the projector base technology now look tired, and these solutions don’t have the ability to keep up with the requirements of the new norm in the classroom. As a global manufacturer, we’re already releasing panels with better sound quality mics that can pick up the voice from anywhere in the classroom. We’ve got 4K built-in and 1080p cameras built in to ensure everyone in the room is seen and heard perfectly.”

Ebury says that the industry needs to be prepared for the educational needs of the future as well as the present. “We have to be ready now. We have to be ready for anything. If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that we can’t predict what’s going to happen next,” he says.