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Digital Workspace becomes top IT priority for education sector, Softcat report reveals

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  • 80% of education organisations are prioritising Digital Workspace solutions in the year ahead –

 

  • 22% now say sustainability is key to their IT decision making – 

 

 A new report from Softcat offers an exclusive snapshot of the education IT landscape and what technologies organisations are prioritising in the year ahead.  

 

The findings are based on the views of nearly 1,250 organisations in the UK and Ireland, across 23 industries including education. 

 

Looking at a sector level, the report reveals 80% of organisations in the education sector are now prioritising Digital Workspace solutions above all other technology areas. 

 

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in the planning, provision and delivery of education, accelerated further by the COVID-19 pandemic and government ordered restrictions on in-person teaching. 

 

Exceptional user experience and frictionless workflows are becoming key to supporting students and employees to work easier, from anywhere, requiring investment in new Digital Workspace solutions. 

 

Digital Workspace solutions put people first and technology second. They enable true collaboration and deliver a great user experience by securely connecting people, applications, data and devices together, helping employees to do their job seamlessly – wherever they are. 

 

 Cyber Security is the second most cited technology investment area for the next year, with 68% of education organisations saying it’s an important part of their IT strategy. 

 

Maintaining robust cyber security is a pressing challenge for the education sector, as demonstrated by the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021. While primary schools are relatively close to the typical business in terms of how many identify breaches (36% vs 39%), secondary schools (58%) and further education colleges (75%) are much more likely to identify breaches. 

 

Universities have also become lucrative key targets for cybercriminals in recent years, mainly (but not soley) due to the huge amounts of non-public research information they hold. A report published by the National Cyber Security Centre shows that the university sector was the third most vulnerable to cyberattack. 

 

And as education becomes more digitalised, the sector will only attract more interest from cybercriminals looking to exploit vulnerabilities for monetary gain. Therefore, cyber resilience in education is now a high priority and organisations are being encouraged to take a proactive rather than reactive approach to securing networks, devices and data. 

 

Networking is ranked as the third most important IT priority within education, according to the study, with 43% of respondents citing it. 

 

Importantly, organisations were also able to rank sustainability as a focus for the first time. And 22% of those in the education sector (compared to a 10% cross-sector average) cited sustainability as an important factor in their IT strategy for the coming year, signalling a shift towards greener and more ethically conscious decision making. 

 

Technology has a vital role to play in supporting organisations in meeting their sustainability goals, to ensure compliance with tightening legislation and help the global community meet science-backed climate targets.  

 

Richard Wyn Griffith, Managing Director of Softcat commented on the findings: 

 

“Over the past 18 months or so, the education sector has been heavily challenged; working hard to limit the impact on business-as-usual or respond to unprecedented restrictions on in-person teaching.  

 

“People, empowered by technology, have made navigating this uncertain and disruptive period possible. And this will only continue as we learn to live and thrive with new ways of working.” 

 

The full findings from the 2021 Softcat Business Tech Priorities Report, including expert analysis, can be downloaded here. 

 

TrilbyTV releases free Black Pioneers signage content in celebration of Black History Month

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Digital signage software company TrilbyTV has released a fantastic set of free signage content showing Black Pioneers in celebration of Black History Month. Originating in the United States in 1970, the month-long event has now received recognition from nations across the globe. 

 

In recognition of Black History Month, the team at TrilbyTV has created a set of content celebrating pioneering figures from history and are giving this content to the TrilbyTV community and beyond to add to their signage. The individuals featured on the slides are from all over the world, as well as a few British figures.

 

Five slides including; Martin Luther King Jr, Mary Mahoney, Alexandre Dumas, Bessie Coleman and Elijah McCoy are available for anyone to download here. They can be used on digital signage screens, in presentations or even wall displays.

 

An additional 35 inspirational individuals can also be added via TrilbyTV’s Content Catalogue which works as if you had added the content yourself. You can add or remove slides, edit times and dates, and add your information to the mix. It’s a couple of taps to get this great content to start playing on your screens. 

 

TrilbyTV Director, Ben Stanley said,

 

“Learning about our own identity and history is critical in forming our world view and understanding others identities helps us build respect for those around us. We hope with the release of these slides, we help to highlight the global contributions these pioneers made. Contributions that we all continue to benefit from today.”

 

Each slide appears alongside a brief description of the pioneer’s great achievements. It’s a brilliant tool to encourage pupils to research and subsequently explore more about these key figures in global history, thus inspiring the next generation.

 

ABOUT TrilbyTV

 

TrilbyTV, created in 2015, is the number one digital signage platform made for education. Founders Ben Stanley & Neil Emery were technology trainers, who were fed up of walking into reception areas and seeing TV screens switched off. After investigating further and plugging in a cable or two, they’d usually find the Christmas play pictures from five years ago. When looking into why the screens were switched off initially, there seemed to be a pattern; the software was too hard to use and had to be constantly micromanaged by the IT department. This is why they created TrilbyTV, the easy to use digital signage software that gives users ownership and control of their own content. 

The platform offers a full range of content options for digital signage including video, slideshows, Twitter feeds and web content. It also contains a content catalogue, full of education-focused ready to use content from well known and trusted organisations.

More About TrilbyTV – https://www.trilbytv.co.uk/ 

Kajeet Digital Inclusion Grant 2021 Winners Announced

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Kajeet UK Ltd is pleased to announce the 5 selected grant recipients of the 2021 Digital Inclusion Grant.

Grant recipients 2021 “For their dedication and ongoing work to close the digital divide within education”

The Digital Inclusion Grant promotes merit in technical education by recognising schools who are putting an extra focus on digital inclusivity projects to work towards digital equality at their schools.

Hew Rees Physics subject lead at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Llangynwyd commented:

“We’re delighted at YGG Llangynwyd to have been successful in winning this grant. A reliable internet connection brings our most disadvantaged learners a huge step closer to their more privileged peers.“

Broadband internet is no longer a luxury, but an essential onramp to education, jobs and access to essential services. 9% of students in the UK lack internet access at home, yet nearly all homework requires online access, and students with internet access at home are 6-8% more likely to graduate from high school.

The lockdowns during the pandemic have highlighted this issue in a much stronger light. Two of the grant winners commented on the impact the pandemic has had on their student performance.

Colin Nicholson Associate Vice Principal at Shirley High School:

“ The National Lockdowns when schools were partially closed, really highlighted the disparity between learners who had digital technology to engage with remote learning and those without. Inevitably, the Kajeet devices will enable learners to engage with both remote learning, independent learning and to demonstrate resilience. This will develop the character of the child and help them become excellent global citizens in a digital age.”

Debasis Maitra, Teacher of applied science at Capital City Academy

“I wanted to promote digital inclusivity at Capital City Academy, specifically to the students who have suffered due to school closure because of COVID-19 lockdown measures. I am really grateful to Kajeet UK for this grant as this will assist our students here at Capital City Academy with reliable Internet Connectivity which will support their Online Learning.”

Grant recipients serve as inspirational leaders within the UK educational system for their work to bridge the digital divide amongst students and level the playing field.

The winning schools will receive unlimited filtered connectivity for their students for a period of 6 months to support their work towards promoting digital inclusivity at their schools.

Comments were also made by the Kings Langley School from head teacher David Fisher

“This is going to allow our young people to continue to develop their digital competencies and to improve their lives.”

Also Michelle Gale – Health and Social Care teacher at John Leggott College commented on the grant win

“John Leggott College are thrilled to have been awarded this grant. It will help our learners engage in their education by providing free connectivity. A perfect opportunity to enhance the college’s digital inclusion strategy in the community”

Digital Signage Software TrilbyTV Announce the Launch of Three Fantastic New Features Available

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Digital signage software company TrilbyTV has announced the launch of three fantastic new features. Following the launch of their “Word of the Day” feature in collaboration with Vocabulary Ninja last month, they have been working hard to bring the TrilbyTV community of schools even more ways to inspire staff and students alike. 

The new features include;

Twitter 2.0 – This feature has been popular allowing users to showcase individual Twitter feeds, while filtering via hashtags. This new release means your Twitter feed on your screens never looked so good. The screen layout now supports multiple images so if you tweet more than one image the layout automatically updates, while supporting GIFs and Videos. Hashtag support has been improved and you can now include a feed on your digital signage based on a hashtag. This is great for conference or event days, or to follow a particular trending topic.

Slideshow 3.0 – Adding a folder of images or a PowerPoint to TrilbyTV is the quickest and easiest way to update your digital signage.  Now with the new ‘Auto fill screen’ feature, your images will automatically be scaled to fill the screen. TV screens have a 16:9 aspect ratio while most digital cameras take 5:4 pictures leading to black borders at the top, bottom or sides of the screen. Auto fill screen fixes this and it’s automatic so you don’t have to tweak each image. New editing tools in Slideshow 3.0 let you manually change the framing of your image and zoom in if you want to see more detail. 

Content Catalogue -We have a collection of great resources from respected educational providers and services in the Content Catalogue. Now they are joined by five new tools that we have made to keep your screens looking amazing and up-to-date.

• Social Slide

Show your visitors your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube usernames so they can easily follow you and stay connected anywhere.

• Birthday Slide

Everyone likes to see their name on the screen and with the Birthday slide, everyone gets that annual recognition of their birthday. It’s easy to update from your school’s MIS with our CSV import feature or you can add and edit individually.

• Inspirational Quotes

A set of beautifully presented motivational, and mindful quotes which you can add to with your own.

• Notice Cards

When you need to get a quick message out to everyone you can use a Notice card and set a time and date to start and stop showing the note. Great for out of hours messages or use in the staffroom as a bulletin board.

• Staff Board 

A digital signage version of the staff photo board, which is so much easier to update with the click of a few buttons. Create one board for the whole school or separate boards for each department. Great for the reception screen to show the crucial Safeguarding leads information to visitors.

ABOUT TrilbyTV

TrilbyTV created in 2015, is the number one digital signage platform made for education. Founders Ben Stanley & Neil Emery were Technology Trainers, who were fed up of walking into reception areas and seeing TV screens switched off. After investigating further and plugging in a cable or two, they’d usually find the Christmas play pictures from five years ago. When looking into why the screens were switched off initially, there seemed to be a pattern; the software was too hard to use and had to be constantly micromanaged by the IT department. This is why they created TrilbyTV, the easy to use digital signage software that gives users ownership and control of their own content. 

The platform offers a full range of content options for digital signage including video, slideshows, Twitter feeds and web content. It also contains a content catalogue, full of education-focused ready to use content from well known and trusted organisations.

More About TrilbyTV – https://www.trilbytv.co.uk/