In a classroom, unified collaboration can be anything that helps teachers communicate with their students with the goal of enhancing the learning experience; tools like email, instant messaging, video conferencing, online message boards and more.
At an Alaska Society for Technology in Education panel earlier this year, educators and technology leaders in Alaska (and beyond) discussed the advancements and challenges of unified collaboration.
But with advancements in unified collaboration, or UC, also comes concerns about how teachers choose what is right for their classroom.
GCI Education Director Jason Tomberlin moderated the panel with panelists Nathan Clark of Northpoint, Sean Lessman of Cisco and Shawn Fernandez from Solutionz.
The panelists discussed how just a few years ago, it may have seemed like unified collaboration was clunky and took up too much of a teacher’s time struggling with unreliable technology. Now, that’s no longer the case. Nathan Clark says there have been a lot of changes in UC. Educators can pretty much join a video conference with the click of a button.
“It’s much, much easier to join a meeting and collaborate with voice and video,” he said. “With just a couple clicks, you can participate. We’ve come a long way.”
But Alaska is not without its challenges when it comes to utilizing UC technology. Educators in attendance asked the panelists what they think about cloud technology and how to trust it with a concern about bandwidth and how to choose what product to use with so many options.
Shawn Fernandez with Solutionz says to not rush into a decision.
“All these cloud solutions, they offer a demo period where you can try it out,” he said. “I would take at least three and try them out, each of the services, to really evaluate it.”
Sean Lessman of Cisco echoed not rushing a decision later on in the discussion when it comes to finding the right type of UC to implement.
“Take a step back and say, here are my requirements,” said Lessman. “Let’s leave brand names out of it for a second. Be careful that you don’t force yourself into a solution, and trust your consultant that they can help you with your problem.”
That’s exactly what Clark does for Northpoint as a technology consultant. Northpoint consultants can evaluate factors, like how many teachers will be utilizing the technology, where the technology is housed and whether several teachers need to have access or if there is one main contact.
“Those are areas where I think we can help. We can come in and look at the different solutions that are out there and make a recommendation and then help with professional services to make sure that it works and that it is set up to work the next time too,” Clark said.
Tomberlin expanded on that thought by saying educators need to holistically look at their requirements and get help from the experts. He says that choice is “not just playing with a bunch of apps to figure it out.” Instead, get an expert who understands the features and limitations of the UC and the network where it will be used.
“Nathan’s team, that’s what they do. Sometimes those engagements can be long and extensive, other times they can be short consultations that will help point you in a direction to get you where you want to go,” said Tomberlin.
The introduction of technology also means the need for ongoing learning, even for teachers. That’s an area where the panelists say the industry has listened.
“We used to sell the equipment, drop it off and say ‘have a nice day.’ And now it is all about the services that come after that sale,” said Fernandez.
That training after the sale becomes especially important for educators who use the technology to teach their students.
“Doing professional services to make sure that it is tailored to the education market and then also just training and user adoption, helping people understand how to use it, what some of those features are, you might be using a solution and not even know that those features are available,” said Clark. “Those are the types of things that we often see and are important in the education space and that we can help out with.”
Whether utilizing UC for the first time in a classroom or discovering new services already available, teachers have resources available to help them learn; they just have to know when to turn to the experts.