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Tag: remote learning

  • Verizon Updates BlueJeans to Support Remote Learning

    Verizon Updates BlueJeans to Support Remote Learning

    Verizon has announced an update to BlueJeans, one that brings support for remote learning.

    BlueJeans is the Zoom competitor that Verizon bought in April 2020, at the outset of the pandemic. The company has since been integrating the platform in its various services, striking deals for other companies to support it and expanding its support for other industries, such as Telehealth.

    In the latest update, Verizon is adding Remote Learning to BlueJeans’ capabilities.

    “Teachers are telling us they’re lost, and they’re struggling to keep students engaged in today’s live virtual setting,” said Amy Jefferson, Head of Americas Revenue and Growth, BlueJeans by Verizon. “Having to spend time playing administrator and technical support expert is minimizing their ability to think through compelling, interactive ways to deliver the curriculum virtually. By bringing together our comprehensive education, collaboration and training features into one consolidated experience, we’re making it easy for teachers to operationalize their learning environment so they can go back to focusing on what matters most—educating students.”

    The new Teacher Dashboard is designed to provide an instructor with the various classroom management tools they need. Remote Learning features include student rosters, customizable layouts, flexible views, floating chats and teaching apps.

    Teachers and organizations can learn more at https://www.bluejeans.com/use-cases/education.

  • Senators Want High-Speed Internet Threshold Quadrupled

    Senators Want High-Speed Internet Threshold Quadrupled

    In a letter to several government agencies, a bipartisan group of senators is calling for the definition of “high-speed” internet to be quadrupled.

    Under former Chairman Ajit Pai, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload as the definition of high-speed internet. To matters worse, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines high-speed access as 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps uploading.

    In comparison, the top five countries in the world, in terms of internet speed, range from an average of 226.6 to 175.22 Mbps. The FCC and USDA’s definition seems glacial when placed against that backdrop.

    Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Angus King (I-ME) and Rob Portman (R-OH) are calling on the FCC, USDA, Department of Commerce and National Economic Council to take action. As the senators point out in their letter, the global pandemic has exacerbated the situation, forcing record numbers of individuals to work and learn from home. The abysmal upload speeds, in particular, are a major bottleneck for videoconferencing and other necessary services.

    Ask any senior who connects with their physician via telemedicine, any farmer hoping to unlock the benefits of precision agriculture, any student who receives livestreamed instruction, or any family where both parents telework and multiple children are remote learning, and they will tell you that many networks fail to come close to “high-speed” in the year 2021. For any of these functions, upload speeds far greater than 3 Mbps are particularly critical.

    The senators make the case that government agencies should agreed to a common definition and — since federal funding is being used to improve the nation’s broadband — to significantly increase that definition to a usable threshold.

    Going forward, we should make every effort to spend limited federal dollars on broadband networks capable of providing sufficient download and upload speeds and quality, including low latency, high reliability, and low network jitter, for modern and emerging uses, like two-way videoconferencing, telehealth, remote learning, health IoT, and smart grid applications. Our goal for new deployment should be symmetrical speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps), allowing for limited variation when dictated by geography, topography, or unreasonable cost.

  • Microsoft 365 Outage Impacting Users

    Microsoft 365 Outage Impacting Users

    Microsoft has experienced an embarrassing outage of its premier office suite, right as people are relying on it more than ever.

    Microsoft 365 is the cloud-based version of Office. As the pandemic has led to more individuals working from home and engaging in remote learning, Microsoft 365 has become a critical component. This makes the outage all the more devastating for the company’s users.

    To make matters worse, Microsoft identified an updated to the Microsoft 365 Admin Dashboard as the culprit. Unfortunately, rolling back the change has not fixed the issue.

    It appears users already logged into service are not impacted. In the meantime, Microsoft is “rerouting traffic to alternate systems to provide further relief to the affected users.”

  • T-Mobile Launches $10.7 Billion Project 10Million to Help Remote Learning

    T-Mobile Launches $10.7 Billion Project 10Million to Help Remote Learning

    T-Mobile has announced the launch of Project 10Million, a $10.7 billion initiative to help deliver internet connectivity to underserved children.

    Since the pandemic swept the globe, children across the country have been relying on remote schooling to keep up with their classes. Unfortunately, poor internet access is a major impediment to children being able to safely learn at home. Even before the pandemic, a ‘homework gap’ impacted some 9 million children, where poor internet access made it difficult or impossible to complete after-school assignments.

    Now that the ‘homework gap’ is turning into a full-fledged ‘schoolwork gap,’ T-Mobile is expanding Project 10Million. Schools districts can apply the value of the program to data plans, including a 100GB per month plan, or one that is fully unlimited. The Initiative includes free wireless hotspots and at-cost tablets and laptops.

    “Education is the great leveler, but without internet access, kids will be left behind. T-Mobile has a big goal – to deliver connectivity to every child who needs it across the U.S. Starting now with our historic Project 10Million commitment, we’re going to help open A LOT of doors to opportunity that might have previously been closed,” said T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert. “This issue is even more critical as the COVID-19 pandemic has completely shifted learning for many from the classroom to online. Big issues need big solutions, and that’s exactly why we’re not just launching but significantly enhancing Project 10Million and giving flexibility to educators so they can best address the unique needs of their students with plans that offer more data. As the supercharged Un-carrier, we now have the resources and network capacity to deliver reliable connectivity to students across the U.S. — and to tackle the critical homework gap and the schoolwork gap head-on!”