Remote Learning Challenges Lead To Improvements

The unique challenges raised by remote learning were quite invigorating!”

- Mr Micah Pearce, Information and Communications Technology Manager

In 2021, Kinross Wolaroi School’s Information and Communications Technology staff moved quickly to prepare students, staff, and families for a second period of remote learning.

Heading into another lockdown in 2021 was challenging for most, but for Information and Communications Technology Manager, Micah Pearce and his team, it was a chance to improve the systems put in place the first time around.

“We focused on improving and expanding access to learning resources that were traditionally only accessed while at school,” said Mr Pearce. “This built upon the foundations laid in lockdown V1 (2020). A good example of this was the library system, ‘Oliver’, being upgraded to allow staff and students to securely access resources while in remote learning conditions.”

ICT staff relied heavily on feedback from other staff, students and parents during the lockdown period, and knew it was critical to increase the support and training for ICT services for staff and students to efficiently participate in a remote learning environment.

“We went back to the fundamentals and in collaboration with leading teaching staff, focused on improving skills and understanding of our internal systems to deliver remote learning while improving the support we offer to all staff and students,” said Mr Pearce.

“The students displayed incredible resilience to the challenges created by remote learning. They embraced the technology required for remote learning, and I noted from students new and creative ways to utilise that.”

Creating an online environment for an entire school community is an immense challenge, but one that Mr Pearce and his staff found immensely rewarding.

“The unique challenges raised by remote learning were quite invigorating!” said Mr Pearce. “The ICT infrastructure that was designed before remote learning needed to be considered/planned. Making improvements for the remote learning environment was immensely satisfying.”

Lockdown V2 also gave ICT staff the opportunity to improve ICT technology and support for when learning returned to the classroom.

“Personally, I’ve learned to listen and understand for longer before implementing any changes. Technology relies on humans, and the best solutions can still fail without proper planning, training and support,” said Mr Pearce.

“We were also able to accelerate some improvement projects to the School’s ICT infrastructure, which will better support the school community into the future, regardless of the remote or oncampus delivery of learning.”

The School’s ICT Department exists to support a modern, challenging, and rapidly-evolving educational environment. Despite the lockdown in 2020-2021, ICT staff were able to lay key technological foundations that will allow for several exciting improvements that staff, students, and parents will benefit from in the very near future.

“I’m excited for what’s in store for 2022 and the initiatives coming to improve communications for parents and students across the school community,” said Mr Pearce.