As the year draws to a close and report cards are sent home, technology continues to play an increasingly vital role in enhancing students’ day-to-day learning experiences. Some 95 percent of teachers already use technology in their classrooms, and nearly 2 out of 3 K-12 teachers say they use it every day, with video streaming services being the most popular application.
With so much utilization, observability—the ability to monitor the health and performance of IT networks—has become essential for K-12 and higher ed administrators. By gaining insight into network usage and device performance, districts and institutions can use observability to optimize bandwidth delivery and provide a seamless, safe and innovative learning environment for students across the curriculum.
Why Observability Matters
Network observability supports safe browsing environments for students, protecting them against malicious and/or nefarious content. But it’s not only about monitoring students’ usage to prevent them from accessing unauthorized or inappropriate sites; observability delivers a broad range of benefits to provide a future-ready learning experience.
- Support for modern learning. The adoption of digital tools and hybrid education relies heavily on cloud-based applications, online testing platforms, learning management platforms and collaboration tools like Google Classroom, Zoom and more. Observability allows admins to ensure adequate bandwidth to support these essential tools.
- Better reliability and uptime. Network disruptions derail learning. Observability tools help ensure students and teachers can get and stay connected with a seamless, smooth experience for zero interference with education. Real-time monitoring can alert IT staff to issues like a failing router or wireless access point (WAP) or interference from other infrastructure equipment before these impact learning. Alerts for abnormal events such as WAP outages, access failures, or unusual usage patterns help IT staff address issues immediately to minimize downtime and ensure continuous access to educational resources.
- Improved safety and security. Observability can help safeguard sensitive student and staff data. The ability to detect cyber threats by identifying abnormal network behavior, like unexpected data spikes or access attempts, can protect PII and academic integrity and even reduce the risk of cyberbullying. Dashboards that flag unusual spikes in traffic provide early warnings of malware activity or unauthorized access attempts, including ransomware attacks, and support compliance with data protection laws like the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Children’s Internet Protection Act.
- Real-time classroom analytics. With network observability, districts can monitor student engagement with online learning platforms to ensure active participation and determine which resources are most effective. Already, 36 percent of teachers say they don’t or practically never use the technology provided by the school or district—observability would help identify those unused resources to optimize spending or provide better training.
- Optimize bandwidth allocation. By observing network traffic, admins can dynamically allocate bandwidth for specific needs. For example, schools could provision more bandwidth for online exams, state achievement testing, assemblies, virtual lessons or augmented reality/virtual reality labs. Dashboards can show detailed network trends for managing high-traffic areas like labs or libraries and identify areas where bandwidth can be stretched or borrowed.
- Troubleshoot hybrid learning. Observability tools can help identify root causes when a student’s connection may be slow to determine whether the issue lies with their device, the school’s network, physical interference or the ISP. This minimizes disruptions, even for remote learners.
- Managing IoT and smart classroom technology. Observability improves asset inventory, streamlines maintenance and supports sustainability. Monitoring network traffic from smart devices like interactive whiteboards, smart lighting, and environmental controls helps admins ensure smooth operations to enhance the learning experience, efficiency and asset management.
- Support for emerging tech. Many schools are expanding their curriculum and recreational offerings to include virtual reality labs, personalized learning, AI-powered tutoring, the use of AI and even eSports competitions. These are extremely high-bandwidth activities, and observability can help admins ensure each activity has the appropriate network resource allocation.
- Scalability for growing networks. As schools invest more in expanding their technology infrastructure with IoT devices, cloud-based learning, and high-performance applications, it’s helpful to know whether your current network can support new additions or whether it’s time for an upgrade. Observability helps ensure new systems integrate seamlessly into existing networks without performance degradation.
Network observability creates a more reliable, secure, and innovative learning environment for students and educators alike. To meet the educational needs of today’s students, schools should consider investing in observability tools that can help them monitor, allocate and expand Wi-Fi resources to ensure they can meet the demands of a modern, digital education. For more information, visit our State, Local and Education page or reach out via email.
This article originally appeared in Today’s Modern Educator.
Speleos Dravillas is Chief Revenue Officer and responsible for Nomadix’s go-to-market strategy and revenue growth through the execution of technology integration partnerships, strong channel and customer relationships, and industry alliances. He also is responsible for global sales and channel growth strategies and their plan executions.