Tag: education

At the AWS Summit Online – Americas fireside chat hosted by Max Peterson, vice president of AWS worldwide public sector, three public sector leaders discussed recovery and digital transformation across education and healthcare in the Americas following the COVID-19 pandemic. The fireside chat panelists experienced firsthand the need to scale rapidly due to the pandemic and their stories illustrate the transformational power of the cloud to drive impact in the public sector.

According to EdTech Magazine, at the height of the pandemic, 94 percent of educators agreed that students will need increased social and emotional support throughout the school year. There’s a renewed focus on social-emotional learning (SEL) support in the classroom, with educators looking for additional ways to help students be healthy and engaged in class. Four AWS EdStart Members are addressing different aspects of SEL and helping to positively impact the student experience.

Recent events, from public sector cyberattacks and severe weather events to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, have revealed that many educational institutions, as well as regional and local governments, are not fully prepared to respond to these incidents. At the same time, large-scale disruptive events illustrate how important it is for public sector organizations to respond rapidly to keep essential services running as well as quickly pivot to offer new services. In an IDC survey of 2,000 U.S. residents in September 2020, 31% said they would like to continue virtual government services as a replacement for in-person interactions, while another IDC survey of U.S. teachers revealed that 38% expect a growth in hybrid or remote learning to be a lasting change.

For school systems across the U.S., making sure students have a secure environment to use the internet is not only the right thing to do— it’s the law. When the Kentucky Department of Education switched to 100 percent remote learning, they turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Lightspeed Systems to keep students safe and engaged in online learning at home.

Our global network of Cloud Innovation Centers (CICs) powered by AWS and in collaboration with our CIC sponsors, who host and run the centers, aim to empower public sector organizations to quickly create and test new ideas using Amazon’s innovation methodology and cloud technology. Check out some stories of digital prototypes the CICs have published over the last few months that focus on improving public safety, adapting to the pandemic, and innovating through voice and video technology.

College exams are stressful enough without a pandemic. Singapore University of Social Sciences wanted a remote contact center solution to make it easier for students and faculty to get support during remote learning and examinations. They turned to Amazon Connect to create a streamlined, accessible, and equitable solution for their community.

Students’ educational achievements—including academic transcripts, work history, and skill credentialing—are often scattered across multiple institutions and disparate IT systems. EdTechs are adopting blockchain technology to simplify this process, with credential portability, data privacy, simplified workflows, and added data security.

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) has been focused on preparing  citizens for the growing tech, IT, and cloud industries. Collaborating with Ivy Tech and Amazon Web Services will help reach more learners and accelerate economic growth by fueling the state’s tech industry with skilled talent.

The AWS Open Data Sponsorship Program makes high-value, cloud-optimized datasets publicly available on AWS. This quarter, we released 44 new or updated datasets including satellite imagery over Africa, a large-scale climate ensemble, and product listings with 3D renderings. Learn how you can put these open datasets to work.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions that operated on in-person model shifted many of their traditionally in-person operations and activities—including grading, assessments and testing, and admissions—to a virtual format, where many had never been before. Educational technology (EdTech) companies around the world used the cloud to help quickly create and scale to meet the needs of these academic institutions while maintaining a consistent and smooth student experience.