Every school owner wants to do whatever is best for their school and faces anxieties about whether they are doing enough. One of the most frequent concerns that we hear about during our interactions with school management is surrounding technology and its usage. In our experience at Schoolpad, even the schools with some of the best technology in the market are still worried if they are making the best of their tech. If they are really getting the edge when so many schools in the industry have similar technology or products?
The FOMO
This FOMO or the fear of missing out and being left behind is not entirely unfounded. It is reasonable to have doubts about your school’s performance and its position in this very competitive industry. The technology is meant to help schools stay ahead of their competition. But as the penetration and accessibility of the technology increase, more and more schools join the bandwagon of institutions that are thinking ahead and have a tech-first approach. In such a scenario, to wonder whether technology is really giving the school an advantage is logical and obvious.
The plain and simple answer to this question is that technology alone is not enough. If schools really want to stay ahead, they need to complement their technology with an approach that not only showcases and maps their USP but also optimizes the tech in unique and innovative ways.
Watch this: How Do Other Schools Use This Better Than Us? Is This a Question Bothering You as a School Owner?
When it comes to schools and their technology products, it is not just the technology that makes a school different. There is no denying the importance of investing in good technology products with reliable reputations and great features. But that is just an essential first step. Ultimately, it is how a school uses that technology to highlight its USP that makes all the difference.
Platforms may be the same. But what a school does with the platform, how they optimize the features available to them, and how they use that tech to regulate and streamline their internal processes is the true differentiator. What is needed is an ability to look beyond the obvious and use the tech features in a way that is aligned with the school’s strengths and bolsters the internal processes to create visibly exceptional outcomes.
For instance, using a tech platform to notify parents about important information is a common and obvious usage. However, a lot of schools have pushed the envelope and started using their tech platform to showcase their initiatives and display their extra-curricular activities through videos and photos that are periodically uploaded. This allows parents to directly see the kind of exposure their child is getting in the school and the kind of learning that is happening instead of simply hearing about them from their kids. This in turn helps schools build their reputation and earn the parents’ trust.
Also Read: People, Processes & Technology – The Three Pillars That Can Catalyse Your School’s Growth and Help You Build A Remarkable School!
Similarly, one of our partner schools floored and impressed our entire team with their innovative usage of one of Schoolpad’s features. Schoolpad provides an observation platform where observations about the students can be stored and tracked by the teachers in the student’s profiles. Our partner school created a separate category called PTM notes and started keeping notes about the discussion during PTM. This had nothing to do with observation. But because these notes were stored in the student’s profile, it allowed teachers and parents to keep track of their discussion and follow-up. The school also required the teachers to pull out the notes from the previous PTM and carry the discussion forward during the current meeting maintaining both continuity and consistency.
It was an absolutely brilliant and innovative use of a feature that was otherwise designed for a different purpose. And this is not just limited to Schoolpad. This applies to any and every tech platform that a school may choose to use. Any good technology platform can be transformed into a great tool and true differentiator if only schools adopt them with enthusiasm and a spirit of experimentation.
This used case is a classic example of a school making use of technology above and beyond its defined scope to map its USP and create effective and brilliant internal processes. It is instances like this that strengthen our belief that while technology is an essential tool in any school’s armor, what truly makes a school great is its own approach and willingness to think out of the box.
Want to understand how Schoolpad can help you derive the maximum benefit from your technology? Want to understand what Schoolpad offers in terms of features and how to make the best of them? Want to understand how we can help you spearhead your school’s growth story? Please feel free to get in touch with us at connect@schoolpad.in . You can also click on the request a demo link and one of our coaches will get in touch with you
