VIEWS & OPINION


How computing technology is powering the future of remote


learning models Comment by NEVILLE LOUZADO, Head of Sales at Hyve Managed Hosting


Nobody could have predicted the sheer scale of the disruption caused by the pandemic in 2020, let alone that we’d still be living with that disruption more than a year later despite a relatively successful vaccine rollout. Businesses throughout the UK were able to weather the worst of the storm thanks to government support, but while a worker’s salary can be furloughed and compensated, a child’s education cannot. Even as schools closed their doors and exams were postponed, the


education sector had to forge ahead with teaching by whatever means possible. Despite the country’s GDP contracting by roughly 11% by the end of last year, spending on technology from the UK’s education sector surged by almost 72%. This acceleration of digital adoption has already completely transformed countless classrooms, but far from making education more difficult, it has instead made it more accessible, inclusive and agile. Where geographical distance was once seen as an obstacle to


overcome, hundreds of schools are now beginning to see ‘e-learning’ as an asset rather than a hindrance, and that’s largely thanks to innovations in cloud computing. Technology has always been a great facilitator, and the education


sector is no different in that regard. While the journey here may have been less than ideal, many schools will no doubt be pleased to now have tools like cloud-based resources and apps for remote collaborative learning in their teaching toolkit. It’s not a zero-sum game either. While cloud-based technology can replace on-premises teaching and learning as needed, its primary function has always been to supplement, support and improve it. It simply presents teachers and schools with options, and as many other sectors have discovered, options during a pandemic are invaluable. A recent Gallup poll revealed that 81% of teachers saw great value in using digital learning tools, and more than 90% of children were already using digital tools to aid their learning prior to the pandemic. The sector has been ready for a while, now it’s just a case of employing the right cloud infrastructure to make it happen. By upgrading their cloud infrastructure in the same way, a business


might do, schools are able to harness new learning models such as live video lessons, online testing and performance tracking, as well as live chat and social tools. Such cloud-based applications can add value to the learning experience, allowing for cross-border collaborative learning, improved accessibility of resources, and much greater resilience in the event of another pandemic or similar crisis. That’s not to mention the huge potential for cost-saving as the need for physical space and assets diminishes, allowing schools to channel more funds into educational resources and teaching staff. The value in adopting a strategic approach to cloud computing for


schools knows no bounds, but only if the sector is willing to invest in its cloud infrastructure in a way that prioritises security, agility and scalability in the same way it prioritises education.


The purpose of education and progressive learning


Comment by FELICIA JACKSON, Chair of the Learn2Think Foundation


The eternal question in education is what is it for? Is it to ready children for a lifetime of work, or to open their minds to possibilities, or even to help them develop flexibility of mind so that they can adapt to whatever life throws at them? Whatever it may be, it is always within the strictures and structure of the curriculum. 2019’s new Ofsted inspection


framework brought in a focus on the overall quality of education. In many ways this can only be defined in terms of the goal of education. What it seems to be suggesting is that the important thing is how effective schools are at providing a broad but nuanced curriculum, with an understanding of what children’s gains are in terms of knowledge and understanding at every stage of the curriculum. In addition, it addresses questions about social justice and children’s place in the world. This new approach is about understanding learning progression with


the idea that each element of learning should build on another, supporting many of the ideals close to the heart of the Learn2think team. These range from the importance of questioning - because answers are


July/August 2021


easily available but no good if you don’t know what questions to ask - to learning about what it means to be a part of society and to help build empathy and life skills as well as knowledge. What’s exciting about the idea of learning progression is that it returns


to the very root of education. The root word ‘educare’ means to draw out or draw through – the role of educators is to teach children how to think. It means moving them away from a fixed mind-set and the need to be right, the need to believe that there is one answer and one answer only. This has been a huge contributor to the misinformation that surrounds complex issues from climate change to the coronavirus. If we can focus on learning progression, on building and evolving learning through different stages of complexity, we can help to teach children to be comfortable with complexity and uncertainty, rather than uncomfortable. The scientific process is a system of checks and balance of facts, theories


and experiments. We don’t always have enough information to draw the right conclusions, but we can learn. With the changes in the social contract driven by COVID, BLM, Me Too and the like, the more we acknowledge the need to teach our children that the things we’ve learned over history are not always the full story and don’t always include more than one perspective. What is important here is understanding the messages that children


take from the environment of being at school, the way they are taught as well as what they are taught. Education today is the primary way in which people are encouraged and socialised, and often the only social environment in which everyone shares. Education is about developing a process of learning which highlights new skills and new approaches in thinking, enabling people to move beyond the boundaries of traditional ‘isms’ into new paradigms of how the world should really work. Changes to the curriculum are about system design, and a focus on learning progression can be a useful tool for understanding how best to redesign that system.


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