Education Trends That Affect IT Spend

By Bernadette Wilson

Education is undergoing a time of change —with drivers including government mandates and the characteristics of new generations of students. The challenges created by this evolution can be opportunities to provide new IT solutions.

Adam Petrovsky, senior sales director of Nexus IS (a Dimension Data Company), explains “Federal and state initiatives like Common Core, personalized learning, ConnectEd, and Race to the Top require that schools look to technology to solve real challenges like student engagement issues, falling test scores, stagnant teacher retention/professional development, and aging facilities.”

Personalized learning includes new methods such as flipped classrooms. Ari Bixhorm, VP of marketing of Panopto, explains, “With the flipped classroom, students watch recorded lecture videos prior to class, and then use in-class time for teacher-guided activities.” Technologies that support the flipped classroom include video- and screen-recording software, video content management systems, and video search engines. Bixhorm says the channel also can capitalize on this trend through technology resale, configuration, and training.

Petrovsky says other methods that require new solutions include blended learning, one-to-one learning, and technology-driven media systems. He says, “To achieve this dramatic shift in how children are taught, schools are finding a significant gap in their existing technology infrastructure, wireless, and security systems. This is driving a large trend toward network refresh and expansion.”

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