The pandemic has touched just about every aspect of our lives. Its influence has been keenly felt in K-12 education. With many schools now moving to a hybrid approach to learning, classroom instructors are faced with a new challenge – how to stay connected to their students amid the back and forth between classroom instruction and remote learning.

Before joining CDW, I served as the director of curriculum and innovation for a large school district in Texas. In that role, I witnessed the creativity and dedication of teachers firsthand. I often traveled with those educators to conferences where we learned together about exciting new technologies that could transform the classroom experience. When we arrived back at work on Monday, we were often disappointed to learn that the networking or security teams wouldn’t allow us to use our new favorite tool in the classroom due to privacy issues.

Back then, I had a hard time understanding the rationale behind those decisions. I felt like the “Department of No” was simply getting in the way of the real work of the district. Today, that experience helps me understand both sides of the equation as I work with CDW clients to develop their security programs.

I know that teachers are only trying to do what is best for their students, but they often don’t understand that they might be putting children in jeopardy if they’re not using safe, vetted applications in the classroom. That’s why I helped develop the K-12 Blueprint for Security toolkit, to better educate administrators, teachers, students and parents about privacy and security risks.

With schools closed due to the ongoing health crisis, teachers everywhere have been inundated with instructions and suggestions on how to adapt to the world of remote learning. But volunteer facilitators, coaches and managers in charge of leading student extracurricular activities have been largely, if not entirely, left out the discussion. Many esports leaders are asking what they can do to manage the activity remotely. Here are a few ideas.

Only a few years ago, it seemed most educators still needed convincing that video games had any role to play at academic institutions. By now, many educators have come to understand the benefits of esports, but they lack staff with experience in implementing esports programs.

To make matters more complicated, there’s no one “right” way to design an esports initiative. After all, needs vary by size and goals. Find out how other K–12 schools, colleges and universities rolled out their programs, and get inspired to start your own.