Automation is no longer the future of business – it’s happening now. A recent article in The Economist reported there are now over 3 million industrial robots working in factories across the planet.
To be clear, we’re not talking about androids replacing teachers in the classroom or robots greeting parents at the school reception. We’re talking about software and apps that can automate repetitive tasks and help streamline processes.
So, how can automation give schools and teachers the advantage?
Do more with less
Nobody becomes a teacher because they love filling out attendance forms and reports. Yet teachers often find themselves overwhelmed with repetitive manual tasks, such as keeping track of student attendance, processing grades, reporting and more.
In fact, McKinsey research found that teachers spend as much as 40% of their time on activities that could be automated. That’s hours every week that could be spent on creating optimal learning opportunities and developing closer, more meaningful relationships with students – in other words, the things that teachers are trained to do.
David Weickhardt, CEO of Education Horizons, said that innovative education software makes a difference to student outcomes by automating or removing all the administration and hassle that goes with teaching.
At Education Horizons our engineering teams design software that enables teachers to capture information around student attendance, wellbeing, and learning progression without creating extra workload.
And it’s not just teachers who can benefit from more time. With the right School Management System, there are countless repetitive processes that can be automated for school administrators too.
Automation helps administrators get the right data into the right systems, faster and without the risk of human error.
Consider how much time could be saved each year if you halve the time spent on a three-minute record-keeping task performed 10 times every day by administrators. It could add up to the equivalent of one person working full time for a term – that’s highly valuable time.
Attract more talent
Automation could be a game-changer for schools in the current labour shortage.
Rather than struggling to find more resources to manage administrative tasks, schools can invest in creating positions that bring more value to students.
What’s more, in such a competitive recruitment landscape, automation helps schools stand out from the competition to attract and keep talented staff. Not only do teachers and administrators want to work in a supportive environment, but top talent in the education sector is looking for career opportunities where they can leverage technology, such as a Teaching and Learning Support System, to improve student learning outcomes.
Deeper insights for more innovation
For years, businesses have been using automation to collect customer data and use insights to create better products and improve the customer experience.
Schools can do the same to improve the student experience.
One of the priorities for teachers in 2022, according to our Voice of Australian Educators survey, is to gather insights to enable deeper wellbeing and learning engagement with each student.
Automation via a Student Information Platform enables teachers to capture information around student attendance, wellbeing, and learning progression – without creating extra workload. These insights empower educators to identify and address gaps in their teaching and tune their approach for individual students. It creates an opportunity for teachers to interact with students in a way that’s more personalised with less effort.
The time to automate is now
Teachers become teachers to help children maximise their potential, not to do admin. Rather than replacing teachers, existing and emerging automation technologies can help teachers save time – time that can be redirected toward activities that lead to better student outcomes and higher teacher satisfaction. That’s a powerful business case.
