IT Support Solutions Can Reduce Teacher Burnout in Illinois

The Illinois Choir frog, the short-eared owl, and the gray bat all have one thing in common: they’re are on the list of species in Illinois at risk for endangerment. While that’s worrisome enough, there is another group on Illinois’ endangered species list: teachers.

The nationwide teacher shortage is no stranger to the Prairie State. Teachers have been leaving the profession in droves, citing tech fatigue or fallout from the pandemic. According to an NEA survey, more than 50% of educators say they will likely leave teaching earlier than planned because of the results of the pandemic.

It’s time to really dive into what teachers need in their classrooms. Establishing efficient, functional technology tools is how K-12 IT teams can better support the teachers in their district. We’ve seen firsthand how streamlined workflows can save teachers time and let them return to what they do best—teaching.

Let’s dig a little deeper and see how interoperable solutions are key to combating the teacher shortage.

Make sure district technology is helping teachers, not hurting them.

As a K-12 IT leader, you know technology can stagnate past the point of no return. That’s why we recommend regular audits, which will help identify legacy technology that is just burning away at the district’s budget with providing a real return on investment. Not only is that great for a strained budget, but audits also directly impact teachers and students within the classroom.

Let’s say a teacher’s computer isn’t running as fast as it should. That inefficient loading time can slow down everything from grading assignments to presenting PowerPoints for their students, and the stress of that technical malfunction may just be the straw that broke the camel’s back. It may sound dramatic, but stress from technical problems has been shown to contribute to the nationwide teacher shortage. Teachers and students use technology every day—they need it to work reliably so they can continue the hard work of teaching and learning.

Dr. Joni Poff spoke with COSN about their auditing process for legacy technology at Botetourt County Public Schools.

“During my time in Botetourt, through an instructional discussion with principals, we realized we had a lack of consistency in the resources we were using, and sometimes a duplication of resources—multiple products that were intended to meet the same need. That led us to conduct an audit of all our resources, including edtech. We developed a product review process that considered cost, implementation, maintenance, and an analysis of whether it could meet intended outcomes.”

If you are looking for more resources about auditing, check out this blog from Edutopia and our article on the topic.

Garner real savings by making the change to interoperable solutions.

Budgets are a constant problem for K-12 districts, and we know it can be tough to find the right combination of software and hardware solutions that work best for your school. But in the end, tech solutions are what helps support teaching and learning going. Support teams owe it to today’s overburdened teachers to find out what platforms and workflows work best for your district’s needs.

But there’s no need to stress: going interoperable doesn’t have to break the bank. If a district were to switch to Incident IQ, a school district with 10,000 students is able to gain an estimated $1,349,666 in total savings. Our platform gets rid of inefficiencies that clog up a workflow, and provides ample help ticketing, asset management, and facilities maintenance tools that give districts as much as an 80% improvement with service access, issue resolution time, and service delivery. (Find out your district’s available savings by using our savings calculator).

Don’t burn out teachers and budgets with outdated tech— reach out to Incident IQ. Incident IQ is dedicated to streamlining critical support workflows for K-12 support teams so that Illinois teachers and students can thrive.

Click to learn how we support teaching and learning in Illinois K-12 school districts.