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Driving better digital opportunities for students and teachers in South Australia
Connectivity is fast becoming a critical cornerstone of quality education.
Equitable access to the internet and key digital technologies empower all students to learn and grow at their own pace, giving them the tools and resources to embrace a connected future, no matter where they are.
The Department for Education, South Australia (DfE) recognises digital literacy as fundamental for fostering world-class student outcomes. During recent years, it has partnered with Telstra to execute an ambitious ‘SWiFT’ plan to connect 99.6 per cent of its schools with fibre optic networks.
This is part of a broader digital strategy to provide all children, students, and educators with engaging and empowering digital opportunities.
More than 800 schools are now connected to Telstra’s fibre network, with the program delivering impressive results for students and teachers across the state by providing them with the connectivity they need to thrive.
With a world-class foundation in place, DfE quickly started to assess how else it could improve digital experiences. This identified an opportunity to transform its mobility strategy by empowering staff and students with the right digital devices.
“We want to drive equity across our system, where every child, teacher, school and staff member have seamless access to the resources they need, regardless of their physical location,” Department for Education CIO, Daniel Hughes, says. “Connectivity was the first step and the mobility piece enables us to deliver devices into the hands of those that need them the most.”
DfE previously managed its mobility program in-house, with a bespoke capability that often required manual tracking and intervention.
The organisation had an incredibly fast-growing fleet of devices, tripling to more than 12,000 in a short space of time as COVID-19 pushed teachers and students into remote learning environments.
Devices were being provisioned on an ad-hoc basis, with limited visibility over who was using them, how they were being used, or how much bandwidth they were consuming. It was also difficult to assess billing, with no unified view over how much individual services were costing.
A new mobile philosophy
After a competitive tender process, DfE partnered with Telstra to shift its mobility strategy into an Adaptive Mobility framework to gain more control and oversight of its fleet. The fleet is now managed as part of a single unified contract, simplifying device management and providing a better view of billing.
Telstra partnered with specialist services provider 1Solution to help DfE deploy, track and manage its devices, providing four full-time dedicated telco specialists. Based locally, 1Solution provides critical managed services support, freeing up internal teams to concentrate on strategic initiatives.
Telstra and 1Solution also provided DfE with access to a mobile device analytics and intelligence platform called Bluewater, giving them critical insight across the entire fleet.
Bluewater gives DfE the ability to more strategically manage resources by deploying devices and connectivity where they are most needed. It also helps manage billing, with a complete view over where resources are being consumed and whether bandwidth is being appropriately allocated.
“My staff now have the ability to identify data usage down to the level of individual students and devices. This allows us to track and monitor usage and develop strategies to address situations where data is under or over utilised,” Hughes says.
Driving real outcomes that make a difference
With a unified Telstra Adaptive Mobility strategy implemented as a fully managed service by 1Solution, DfE easily deploys devices when needed, with the ability to scale in response to any future challenges.
It’s significantly reduced the administration time that the organisation spends on device management and billing, allowing teams to focus more energy on driving better student outcomes.
“The time we save allows us to build more impactful services that are more significant for our customers,” Hughes says. “The team we had managing the paper-based billing processes have now been redeployed to other value add services like taking problem resolution calls or having more strategic conversations regarding what’s next or what is possible.”
The mobility program support’s DfE’s initiative to provide resources to students that require additional financial support. That emerged as a significant problem during COVID, as many students didn’t have sufficient access to the internet.
Telstra and 1Solution helped address the issue by providing approximately 4000 internet dongles to student homes in a matter of days.
“This relationship isn’t just good for us; it’s making a significant and powerful difference for teachers and students across our state,” Hughes says.
Telstra is also working with DfE to deploy more 5G enabled devices, which the organisation is planning to incorporate in future.
A bright future for all teachers and students
Both the connectivity and new mobility strategy have been instrumental for delivering on DfE’s vision of equal and fair access to digital technology. Regional schools are now equipped with all essential digital resources, providing opportunities that were previously only available to schools in metro areas.
That includes the ability for teachers in metropolitan centres to cover classes in regional areas through video streaming and collaboration tools, providing a more equitable distribution of critical resources. It’s also exploring providing IoT sensors to regional schools to bolster their agricultural programs.
It’s these sorts of initiatives that DfE’s digital strategy is all about; providing unique, high-quality educational opportunities to all students throughout South Australia. Mobile connectivity is crucial for making that happen and the organisation will continue to drive exciting digital initiatives that accelerate growth for every school in the state.
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