As we enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the messages we continue to see is the need to adapt to the hybrid model. This has presented unique challenges for educational institutions, where the push to turn your home into a classroom has come with a learning curve for both teachers and students.

Despite the fact that many schools have pivoted back to in-person learning, the classroom environment has become more complex and nuanced than ever before. Educators and administrators need to be ready with updated technology to switch up the learning structure from classroom to hybrid – and back again – if the occasion calls for it. Here are two ways in which they can accomplish just that.

Remember when we all gathered in a conference room for meetings? Fitting as many people as we could at the table, while others grabbed chairs and sat around the outskirts?  Feels just like yesterday, doesn’t it? Well, while meetings will always happen, the way we conduct them has changed, perhaps forever.

We are nearly two years into this global pandemic and there are several things that have changed the business world forever, including the use of digital technologies, flexible working environments and virtual meetings. 

Let’s talk about a few things to consider when attending a virtual meeting. Read on to learn about the 5 Do’s and Don’ts of virtual meeting etiquette.

Many in the AV industry might be familiar with the innovative work and reporting of Gary Kayye, founder of rAVe pubs and Teaching Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina (UNC). Pre-pandemic, you probably saw Gary and his dedicated rAVe crew conducting camera interviews at major industry trade shows such as InfoComm and the Digital Signage Expo. With his first-hand experience in academia, we thought it would be compelling to get the inside scoop from Gary on how AV is shaping the future of education and learning. 

It may be one of the greatest pet peeves for teachers. You get some fancy new technology to use in the classroom, oohs and aahs abound, but it’s incompatible or difficult to use with existing software and other systems. Or you need to learn an entirely new system, so it becomes a major time investment that counters what you thought you’d save with the technology. What educators need – and what will invariably make their jobs easier – is technology that can link up to existing devices seamlessly and that will require minimal effort to get up to speed on. This is where having an open platform solution can provide huge benefits. For interactive displays, open platform is essentially an agnostic tool that can connect with any other devices in the classroom environment.

Most "office workers"  work to communicate and collaborate with information - with our peers, with our partners and with our customers. Organizations that do this effectively make better, faster decisions and have a shared understanding of the business environment. And, they tend to “win” in the market. In this Simply Smarter blog, Sharp's VP of Marketing Bob Madaio talks about the challenges to communicate and collaborate in the modern work environment and how organizations can leverage technology to overcome those challenges.

There has been a tech renaissance this past year as many businesses have found that their operations have needed to change. If you had asked business leaders if they planned to let their employees work from home full or part time a year ago, many would have disagreed that this could be the best route for an efficient working environment. Yet, here we are -- nearly a year into the pandemic and office complexes sit empty while home offices buzz with online collaboration. Employees sleep later, yet get to work earlier, and energy once wasted fighting traffic now moves important projects forward.