Coronavirus: remote working and learning
Introduction
We are aware our customers are putting together plans to enable remote working for staff and remote learning to allow pupils to continue their studies.
IBS Schools have compiled a quick list of tools that would be useful to help schools. Below, we have included as many free or existing subscriptions schools have so that you do not need to invest in new solutions.
In most cases our friendly staff can help you to get set up and running on these or point you to the right place to find further details.
Cloud Services - Office 365 and G Suite
Most schools and academies will already have Microsoft's Office 365 or Google's G Suite set up as part of their email and school communication systems. Both Office 365 and G Suite offer a lot of tools that you will already have access to but have never used that can help you deliver teaching and learning. Both Office 365 and G Suite are accessible from almost any device to give them the widest reach and work anywhere in the world.
Office 365
Office 365
- Microsoft Teams - this is Microsoft’s Communication and Collaboration platform that allows you to put all your resources into once place and communicate with staff via audio, video, or text based chats and meetings. You can create environment to share within Peer Learning Teams or distribute resources and allow pupils to work together. More about Remote Learning with Microsoft Teams.
- Microsoft Stream - you can upload videos and create playlists of how certain videos fit together to make part of a lesson. This is only accessible to someone with a school login to make things extra secure.
- OneNote & Classroom Notebook - think of these as online workbooks and your own online digital worksheets you can distribute to pupils. OneNote allows pupils to have their own workbook and create as many as they like with different sections, so they can have a single notebook but with a different section per subject to help keep things organised. Classroom Notebook allows you to create worksheets that pupils can make a copy of and work on digitally. As this is all digital you can embed picture, videos and web links to help explain topics better than the written word.
- Online Office & Student Advantage - not every pupil is going to have their own IT Equipment or their own copy of things like Word or Excel. Instead Pupils and Staff have access to cut down versions of Office through the web and depending on your licensing may also have the ability to download a full version of Office right from their Office 365 login.
- OneDrive & SharePoint - both OneDrive and SharePoint are storage areas in Office 365. OneDrive is like a much securer USB Stick in the Cloud that you can share files and folders to other people with. Whereas SharePoint is a bit like have a school Shared Drive online, however you will need to set it up first.
Remote Access Solutions
There are a lot of risks around allowing remote access to data and computers on your school's network. Where possible you should use as few tools as possible for remote access to reduce the risks associated with opening remote access.
Foldr
Foldr is a service your school can buy to have remote access to your files from outside of your school's network. There is a cost for the software depending on the amount of users you require to have access as well as set up and configuration costs. If you have one of our Peritechs then they will be able to do the set up and configuration for you during their visits. More about Foldr.
Software for remoting into your computer
These three options are designed to allow you to remote into a computer in your school. There is a free "personal" use variant for TeamViewer and AnyDesk, and there are licenses available for Education at a price per user. The software is designed primarily for business use.
Online Subscription Services
There are a variety of Online Services, some of which your school may already subscribe to that can help you set games or task to help keep your pupils engaged in topics. You likely already use these in your lessons and as they are online can be accessed from home.
Education City
Online English, Maths, and Science resources that cover EYFS, KS1, and KS2 level learning. There are games and quizzes that use a lot of interactive graphics to help keep pupils engaged and understand the curriculum.
Find about more about Education City.
