Communication makes the world go round. If we didn’t talk to each other, nothing would get done, problems wouldn’t be solved, needs wouldn’t be met and there’d be no collaboration – or learning for young or old(er) alike!
So it makes sense that we’ve built communication tools into the core of all our education products to be used in different ways. Let’s take a look at a few examples…
Keeping the conversation going
Chat and messaging tools are really useful for teachers to be able to interact with their class quickly and easily. Students are used to the concept of messaging from their online games, texts, apps and so on – and it’s almost as natural to them as asking questions verbally.
In SoftLINK, teachers can use chat features to answer any quick queries from students about class activities or simply just to check in with them to see how they’re getting on. This interaction is great not just for helping out, but also for relationship building. Another hugely positive use of chat is that it gives every student a voice, particularly those who are not comfortable speaking out in class.
Asking for help
If students are stuck, it’s vital that they have the tools to ask the teacher for help. Sure, they can put their hand up and ask, but if everyone is working quietly on an activity, they may not want to do that. This is where ‘Help requests’ come in handy and in SoftLINK, students can reach out and alert the teacher via their student toolbar that they need assistance, without broadcasting the fact to everyone else!
DNA has a feature for asking for a different kind of help: the ‘Report a concern’ tool. When students are having any issues or if they are concerned about a friend, they can let a trusted teacher know about it, quickly and easily. There’s an option to do so from their toolbar if they are in school – and from the school website if they are learning remotely at home and the school has enabled it. Teachers can then give the appropriate support.
Helping staff
In the last update of DNA, we introduced a helping hand on the tech support side by adding extended audio support. This means the school IT team can conduct a two-way audio chat session between any number of selected staff or students in full audio mode. They can use one-way talk, listen or have full bi-directional audio conversations, which is really helpful for providing further support, without the need to use a phone or any third-party chat solutions.
Sending messages far and wide
Email serves us well but, very often, inboxes are overflowing and so things don’t get seen or read as quickly as they might need to be. If schools need to get urgent messages out there fast, then they need a way to do that so they can be seen as quickly as possible.
Step forward, Notify! This mass notification solution means messages or alerts can be sent to desktop users and information panels but, most importantly, they will automatically appear on top of everything else on the screen, meaning they simply can’t be ignored. It’s a really simple and effective way to get very important messages seen.
