Making the smart classroom a reality
As digital transformation inevitably continues across the public and private sector, and technology advances continue to impact the way we interact with the world around us, the skills that students and workers need to be successful are changing.
In the future, many jobs will require people to have highly developed digital capabilities, and with increased use of technologies like artificial intelligence, future economic success will demand that digital skills are improved.
From an early age, schools will need to deliver a different kind of curriculum to students, such as teaching programming skills, or how to write an algorithm (a process or set of rules for a computer to follow).
Some councils have made changes to incorporate these skills into the curriculum, for example, primary schools within the South Lanarkshire Council area already teach coding. However, overall, the research found that there is work to do in this area; most Scottish residents (80 per cent) today believe there is a digital skills gap in Scotland, and 32 per cent believe Scotland is behind other countries when it comes to the development of digital skills.
Do you think there is a digital skills gap in Scotland?
Where do you think Scotland is when it comes to the development of digital skills?
Ultimately, this research underlines that technology and digital transformation have a key role to play in the future of education in Scotland.
It also shows that overall, people living in Scotland are open to innovation and willing to embrace the great potential of technology in this area – from interactive learning to distance education. But it also shows that to realise this potential and deliver on the vision of the smart classroom, Scotland’s digital infrastructure will need to continue developing.
The key takeaway is that while technology to better connect education services is emerging all the time, the infrastructure to support its roll out also needs to be in place.
The IoT and digital technologies require secure, fast and reliable connectivity to operate; and the infrastructure must make it easy for new services in schools, education institutions and workplaces to be provisioned – so non-tech experts can get up and running with projects immediately.
Importantly, it needs to be country-wide so that all of Scotland can benefit. This will also help to improve attainment for all, close the perceived digital skills gap, and develop Scotland’s population into one that leads other nations on digital issues.
The good news for those in the public sector, as well as technology developers and vendors with solutions for the education, is this infrastructure already exists. SWAN was created to establish a single shared network and common ICT infrastructure across Scotland’s entire public sector.
Connectivity is already provided to approximately 6,000 sites across Scotland through 250 unbundled exchanges and over 7,000km of fibre network – there are 22 SWAN members covering more than 90 organisations including 50 per cent of local authorities, 3,000 NHS sites and 22 NHS Health Boards.
SWAN can help education providers to build an IoT network at rapid pace, and ultimately help to deliver the digital experience that citizens will expect in the future.
Ajenta is a globally focused business, headquartered in Edinburgh; it works with clients to create simple, cost effective communication tools that are changing the way that people collaborate. Ajenta became a SWAN value added partner in 2018, to offer easier access to the Vscene video collaboration platform – connecting a host of local authorities, as well as the Scottish Government.
Through this partnership, Ajenta will be able to offer a secure, private connection for public services to communicate without having to use the public internet, via SWAN. In addition to the data security benefits, using SWAN will allow Ajenta partners to benefit from the highest quality connection to ensure a consistently immersive, human experience – which is particularly important in a classroom setting.
“Scotland is a nation of innovators, but we can only unleash that potential if we have the means to communicate and share ideas effectively. This begins in the classroom, where access and equity in education resources, and efficient knowledge sharing, is the key ingredient for a nation to gain global economic and human advantage.
There is a global shortage of teachers, and this is a genuine challenge in Scotland. Our aim is to overcome this issue by connecting as many classrooms as possible with digital and smart tech, to help to schools and universities share learning resources and collaborate easily – SWAN offers a comprehensive level of connectivity that makes this possible.”
John Wilson, CEO and Co-Founder of Ajenta