Technology solution for school snow closures
With hundreds of schools being closed due to heavy snow, Andrew Graley, Education Director at Polycom EMEA, believes that faster adoption of technology such as video conferencing would help schools minimize disruption to the educational process and improve educational standards.
According to Graley this would not necessarily mean a huge investment in expensive hardware, as anyone with internet access can join a video conference from any device, wherever they are. This would allow teachers to give their lessons remotely, and children to participate from home.
Remote primary schools in Dumfries and Galloway regularly use video conferencing already, and Graley predicts that within ten years remote learning will become the norm, making school snow closures a thing of the past.
Graley said: "We live in a time of impressive technological advancements, yet we still allow such a trivial thing as the weather to cause disruption to our everyday lives. Today thousands of pupils throughout the country have missed out on their lessons, whilst we have technology, ready and waiting, which could prevent this from happening."