Teachable moments with unified communications

As businesses around the globe ring in the New Year with an air of optimism, the education sector continues to face budget uncertainty, teacher layoffs and cuts in services.

In my home state, California, the situation is quite dire. School administrators face unprecedented pressures to increase efficiency, cut costs, yet still deliver educational services that prepare the next generation for the modern, global workplace.

To meet the challenges of our changing world and to ensure the successful delivery of a modern curriculum across an institution, teachers and staff must be able to collaborate effectively with peers, students, and parents.

The methods for collecting and distributing information have changed dramatically since I was in school. For instance, alerts and updates to schedules or curricula can be quickly disseminated across entire communities on mobile devices; classes can be taught remotely as extension programs in strip malls; and virtual courses now exist using online and Web conferencing technology.

Unified communications not only supports all these changes, but drive their success, helping schools improve services across remote locations, reduce costs through cheaper calls and become more efficient by streamlining outreach.

They also foster an educational environment where students can explore the use of modern technology tools to interact with teachers and staff: instantly turn a study call into a document sharing session for instance, or use self-service features to quickly apply for tuition assistance.

Furthermore, innovations in the classroom lead to innovations in the outside world. Students who know how to collaborate and communicate effectively are better positioned to be productive in the workplace.

In addition to budget cuts, however, schools face a number of challenges in adopting new IP-based communications.

Deploying and managing unified communications in education institutions has to be easy. Many schools lack the resources required to manage complex IT systems, and need technology that will easily integrate with what they already have simply because they don't have the budget for a costly rip and replace.

Schools should not be spending more to empower and manage communications than they spend on empowering and managing our kids.

Unified communications also must be intuitive for teachers, staff, students and even parents to understand and use. When I was in school, leaving a note or hanging around a crowded corridor were the only ways of talking to a teacher outside the classroom.

Modern, IP-based systems mean that teachers can have voicemail and even have it linked to their email. Few teachers will set up this useful feature, however, if they have spend hours pouring over a massive manual.

Unified communications also offers many important efficiency benefits to school administration processes.

Sophisticated contact center capabilities can help increase efficiency with separate menus that route calls appropriately, and optimize call queues. For impacted colleges this can mean more students enrolled faster, and free up time spent on the telephone.

Campus safety can also be greatly enhanced with sophisticated applications for emergency notification and preparedness, directling first responders to the exact scene of an event, and notifiying multiple personnel at once.

As communication channels continue to merge with media channels, and tools such as video, instant messaging and Web conferencing bring important learning opportunities into the classroom, schools need flexible and affordable UC solutions that give them, and our children, a powerful connection to the future.

Unified communications is not a panacea for the budget woes faced by many eductional institutes today, but it can help. 

Dale Tonogai is VP of Engineering at ShoreTel.