Month: September 2014

Posted on by Edsys

Admissions, recruitment of staff, quality assurance, performance management, retention and motivation of educators- school management! The functions and responsibilities of a school management range from recruiting to orienting new employees, creating job descriptions to tracking attendance, monitoring policies to monitoring benefits and what else. Nothing matters more to educational institutions than the teachers who work there. Schools are nothing without the right people!

The question of whether a school needs a human resource department is not a simple one to answer. Ask the question to a variety of educators, school authorities and HR professionals and you are likely to get a variety of responses. For instance, many professionals will tell you that the number of staff in a school is the determining factor. A lot of educational institutions assume that they don’t need an HR department. But there are various issues to be considered before arriving at a decision on this matter.

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Let’s assume that you have been requested to establish an HR Department in your school. So what all functions will it perform?

Recruiting the right people

Choosing and appointing the right people for your school is important. It’s not just about selecting the right ones to do the work, as schools are becoming increasingly focused on producing quality results. Addressing the long-term goals of the school, recruitment should be done to find the right people who enjoy working with your school and want to advance with it.

Administering the ‘student life-cycle’

From admission to leaving the school there is a number of activities concerning the students, which needs to be taken care of. You need to manage student data, simplify administrative tasks, maximize school-to-home communication, recognize and encourage student performance and success. So whether your school is public, private, international or charter, what matters is the level of efficiency in administering student activities.

Taking care of the payroll

When you have teachers, librarians, non-teaching staff and all other people who constitute the human resource of your school you have payroll and there is no evading it. Employee payroll processing is a tedious task and is usually well outside most schools’ area of expertise. So, combining human resource and payroll will allow automatic updating, reduce paperwork and lessen the difficulty in providing accurate reports.

Managing teacher performance

Teacher performance and development appraisals should be based on essentials of professional growth, improvement of performance and influence on school and student outcomes. Your school can help teachers to perform to their best abilities through an effective HR department, which has the following benefits

  • Documenting, measuring and assessing the performance of teachers using balanced-scorecards.
  • Conducting Performance Appraisals across various elements, including student outcomes, professional practice, professional knowledge and professional engagement.
  • Assisting teachers in identifying their potential and ways of improving their ability thereby raising their professional standard.
  • Providing counseling, guidance and training to those teachers who have difficulties in their performance.

Creating a safe and secure school environment

How safe your students, teachers and other staff to your school feel may eventually determine how well your HR department meets its health and safety responsibilities. Integrating school safety and people’s security in human resources management practices will foster a culture in which students, teachers and non-teaching staff stays together in harmony. Your HR department creates an environment free of violence, reducing the risks of illness or injuries and other external threats to individual safety.

These suggest that an HR department plays a key role in analyzing, categorizing and developing distinguished HR practices and ensuring their alignment and integration with your school’s overall strategy. In order to satisfy your needs for recruitment, selection, motivation and retention of employees, your school requires an effective human resource management system which incorporates the basic functions of HR starting from recruitment to retention.

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We know that GPS technology is finding more and more applications to improve our day to day activities. For example, there are various GPS enabled apps which can be of great help to us such as school bus tracking, parent portal and school mobile app which puts emphasis on the safety of students and allow parents to track their children’s whereabouts. The application of GPS technology is therefore not just limited to specific objectives like finding the right path when we are stuck in a place or searching the nearest restaurant. It can be used for more distinct things that we could ever dream of. Now we will see how GPS influence today’s social networking activities.

1. Helping hands for veterans

How do we make sure that veterans understand they have a peer network they can trust on in a time of need? Today, apps have been created using GPS technology, exclusively for veterans to prevent them from feeling alone and without deep pockets. There are a number of social media apps which can be used by veterans when they move to a new place and are looking for friends, to locate people nearby and to find a health care while traveling. The support network these apps create will help fend off the worst outcomes of loneliness and mental sickness and support veterans in a great way.

2. Follow your friends

Most of us want to follow our friends and dear ones, once they step out of their homes for a cup of coffee, a stroll up the street etc. We see their photos and wonder when they would be returning. For those of us who are connected with the new generation of social networking sites that uses satellite positioning technology, it is now easier as never before to see and monitor our best ones. We can view the location of our friends using GPS tracking apps and get in touch with them through the system.

Also Read: 27 Best GPS Tracking Apps for Android and iOS

3. Let customers find you

If you have a website for your local business, wouldn’t it be immense if prospective customers can easily find your location? This can be made feasible with Geo tagging. You can use this technology to let your customers know precisely where you are. There are plenty of unique ways that Geo tagging can benefit your online presence. If you are a little local business, then you can really benefit by labeling your business in all of your content. You will be able to reach people that are close by, so when they go over your content or website, they can effortlessly find your location!

4. Fun games

Have you ever wondered how you could facilitate kids in learning navigation skills using a compass and following coordinates? If you haven’t, it’s high time you should have known more about fun activities which are specifically designed for assisting children of all ages to play and learn with fun. The GPS enabled fun games allow kids to search or hide items and share their adventures online. It is an exciting way to help children learn about the world around them.

5. Tracking teens’ whereabouts

Teens love to publicize their whereabouts using location services. Many of us think that it is potentially risky for teens to put themselves on the map. But we can help our teens balance the social aspects they want with the safety protections they need with a number of downloadable location apps. Nowadays GPS tracking apps integrate features that cover a wide spectrum of capabilities from simple street directions for social networking safety. These programs help us to track our teens’ whereabouts and give alerts immediately when they arrive at or leave a place.

6. Monitoring people for enhancing security

Did you know? GPS enabled software is aiding governments and security professionals to track individuals via social media posts. Yes, the use of GPS tracking technology supports law enforcers to ensure security and monitor individuals to locations they frequent. Mobile phone calls and social media posts are monitored and linked to CCTV systems to deal with the homeland security thereby bringing security tracking to a new level!

7. Know your customers

GPS tracking technology is now used to track the behavior of customers to improve digital marketing campaigns. You can now collect location based data and a wealth of information regarding your customer’s shopping activity, behavior and preferences of buyers, length of time the customers spend for visiting your website etc. This helps you to improve your insights about the local market & the consuming behavior of your target customers.

8. Share your adventures live!

Share your adventures with others live (or afterwards) as you are doing them! Share it on a map with embedded photos, audio, videos, tweets and other media. You can create a map of your route live and share it with your friends. Each map you create can either be publicly visible to the world or only visible to you – even though you can set a default privacy setting, this can be altered for each map. Using these excellent outdoor GPS apps you can find people and interact with them, meet friends who live on the route, track friends using the map on your phone etc. It is an excellent way of improving your hiking experience!

9. Tracing trivial things

We often have an urge to let others know what we eat, drink and shop. Today a lot of social mapping apps allow us to trace the trivial things of daily life in even more minute detail. These apps are really appealing as it sends real-time recommendations on what to drink, eat and buy once we check into a location. The features of these social mapping apps include:

  • Simple privacy controls
  • Temporary sharing option
  • Parental restrictions
  • Locating family and friends easily

10. Sharing real-time road info

Ever wondered if you could join drivers in your area to share real-time traffic info? Well, now you can know! It would help you to outsmart traffic and improve daily commuting for everyone. Millions of drivers out on the roads jointly work towards a common goal to get everyone the best route to work and back, everyday. A number of social GPS apps help drivers to share real-time road info, including traffic, speed cams, police, accidents and many more with each other.

Advantages

  • Can navigate to the cheapest station on your route, report prices at the pump and save some gas money.
  • Can see other friends who are driving to your destination, when you connect to Facebook.
  • Can coordinate your friends’ arrival times when you pick up or meet up with them.
  • Can get alerts before you approach accidents, police, road hazards, traffic jams, etc. shared by other drivers in real-time.
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If you are a fan of Hollywood sci-fi movies, you might have come across various means of individual identification. Remember the retina scan in Minority Report, finger prick in Gattaca and many more. But these futuristic technologies would take quite a long time to become practical everyday solutions. For the immediate future – say the next couple of decades, we have smart cards, which everyone including you and me would find easy to use.

Smart cards or Integrated Circuit Cards (ICC) are very much similar to a credit card and it is usually made with plastic. Smart cards contain integrated circuits embedded inside them. They are capable of providing many functions such as identification, data storage, authentication and application processing. The advantages of smart cards over conventional magnetic stripe cards are high security, convenience, reduction in fraud activities etc. So smart cards have a bright future. Using a smart card, you can access various applications and networks. Smart cards offer services to both public and private sectors. The future aspects of smart cards in these sectors are discussed below:

Services in Public Sector:

Smart card provides services in various fields under public sector. Those are mentioned below:

1. Healthcare: Smart health cards are capable of storing various information regarding patients like medical, administrative, pharmaceuticals and biological records. It also helps to reduce frauds in healthcare, improve the privacy and security of patient data and also provides a secure platform to implement new applications in demand with the health care organization. Smart health card helps to simplify the administration process and allow doctors to access complete and comprehensive patient information.

2. Schools: Students are provided with multifunctional smart cards at schools and colleges. Take for instance, the Edsys student smart card solutions. Their uses include:

  • Student tracking: Edsys’ smart card solutions enable parents to get real time information about their kids and their vehicle. They can track their kid’s vehicle location. Automated SMS alerts are sent to the parents if their kids are in any sort of danger. Edsys’ smart card solutions also generate various Management Information System (MIS) reports. Data of students, drivers and parents can also be stored in this smart card.
  • As an electronic purse in canteen/cafeteria: Edsys smart card allows students to purchase items at canteens. Students can check the balance available on their smart card at the time of the purchase. At the time of the purchase, the appropriate amount will be deducted from the available balance and the attendant would issue the ordered item. Parents would be able to check the purchase statements against the money credited on to Edsys smart card.
  • Payment of fees: Using Edsys’ smart card, parents can pay their kid’s school fees. In comparison with the conventional method of providing name and other details to pull up details, encoded information in the smart card helps to identify the student and their fee details. At the Fee collection counter, parents can top up the credit on the card by paying the amount to the cashier.
  • Library: Using Edsys smart card, students can mark their attendance in the library when they are using library for reading. Similarly, librarians are able to pull up records of students to issue/return library books.
  • Book store management: Students can purchase books, magazines etc. from the book store using Edsys’ smart card. Parents would get a statement of items purchased from the store.

3. Transportation: Transportation smart cards are rechargeable and also they are contact-less cards. If you have this smart card, you don’t need to take tickets or pay money while you travel. It will also simply the process of passenger boarding. Using this smart card, you can even pay for your parking.

4. Welfare:
Smart cards can be used to identify finger prints of the card holder. Using this facility, card holder can access government databases and he/she can receive the welfare payment. The security provided by the card will help to eliminate the frauds.

5. Telecommunication: The Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) which is used in mobile phone is a smart card of reduced size. Calls can be made from the public phones using smart card and they can be recharged with cash points. By using the card, you don’t have to use coins in the public phones and this will reduce the vandalism. Usage of smart cards will reduce the operating charge and will increase the revenue. Studies have shown that people who use smart card to communicate tends to talk more on the phone.

Services in Private sector:

Usage of smart cards can reduce the handling and transaction costs. Smart cards combine the functions of various cards into one. They gives users the ability to make peer-to-peer and online/offline transactions. Smart cards have made rapid and potential advancements in various fields such as Banking, Internet and Electronic commerce.

6. Banking: Smart cards can avoid the major problems in banking field such as fraud, bad debt and the limitation of magnetic stripes. Smart cards are capable of storing 80 times more data than the conventional cards. Based on each individual’s profile, smart card helps the financial institutes to offer more services and personalized products for the card holders.

7. Internet: Instead of a remote device, smart card can store all personal data such as e-mails, user ID’s, phone numbers etc. It allows to get connected to the Internet anywhere around the globe if you have either a phone or an information kiosk.

8. Electronic Commerce: Smart cards can store electronic cash in it and card holders use that to make payments over the Internet. Customer data and payment details are transported securely over the Internet using Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) protocol.

Smart cards are widely accepted in Asia, Europe and in less developed countries mainly because of their convenience and safety. At present, smart cards are used for Internet access, wireless telephony, banking, payphones and healthcare. It would continue to revolutionise various sectors and pave way to a future that looks like a sci-fi movie.

Amazing smartcard applications

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GPS vehicle tracking technology has become popular in a short span of time. It tracks the location and position of vehicles. Commonly, a GPS vehicle tracking system will have a tracking device inside the vehicle along with software and a server which allows the user to track the vehicle from the headquarters. GPS vehicle tracking system is usually used by fleet operators for fleet management functions such as fleet tracking, routing, on-board information, dispatching and security. This system allows you to effectively manage your business, improvise the services and also to reduce the cost. There are 10 reasons you should invest in GPS Vehicle tracking system:

1.Reduce fuel costs

Fuel cost is one of the highest cost that affect businesses. GPS vehicle tracking systems help you to reduce fuel consumption by tracking over speed, excessive engine idling time, monitoring the routes taken by drivers to reach the destination, proper periodic maintenance and dispatching. Monitoring the routes via GPS system can also ensure that drivers are not using company vehicle for non-authorised trips and thus can reduce the fuel cost more efficiently. By installing a GPS system, it is possible to save as much as 15-18% on fuel costs.

2.Student tracking

GPS vehicle tracking system can also be used as student tracking systems. RFID student tracking systems provided by companies such as Edsys enables both the school/college authorities and parents to track the location of their students. It is used to enhance the safety of students while they are travelling. School bus tracking provides the real time travel status of the students who are availing the school bus facility. Management Information System (MIS) reports also helps in monitoring and enhancing the travel operations of schools/colleges.

3.Visibility of fleet

GPS vehicle tracking system provides you real time locations of your vehicles and drivers. Vehicle tracking systems’ mapping feature allows you to zoom the street levels. Satellite, street mapping and birds eye views enables you to accurately locate the vehicle and take action on any customer complaints or queries.

4.Increase in productivity

GPS vehicle tracking system helps you to increase productivity. As drivers and employees are aware that their activities are being monitored, they tend to be more alert. The feedback provided by the tracking system enables the managers to make plans to increase the company’s and driver’s productivity. Tracking systems help to reduce the phone bills as there is no need to always call drivers to know their location.

5.Theft prevention

Fleet companies prefer GPS systems in their vehicle due to this facility. As tracking systems provide continuous location updates of the vehicle, it is very easy to find out the lost vehicle’s location. This allows police to quickly find the car, arrest the thief and return your vehicle.

6.Improvement in driving behaviour

Real time monitoring allows you to measure sudden acceleration, harsh breaking, cornering, break times and route control and thus driver’s performance can be improved.

7. Better driver safety

Using tracking system, fleet managers can monitor their vehicles 24/7 and increase the safety of their drivers. Alerts can be set for sudden breaking, over speeding, harsh driving and it will inform the fleet managers when an employee drives carelessly. Managers can react to these situations and can prevent accidents from occurring. The tracking system also provides the drivers with means to raise an alert if they find themselves in any danger.

8.Better customer service

GPS vehicle tracking system can help fleet companies to improve their customer service. For example: Office staff can inform customers about the nearest cab location if their vehicle has been delayed on the way. Also, they can respond to customer queries effectively. As the employees present in the office have the facility to see real time location of their vehicles, they are able to identify quickly which vehicle will be best suited to attend a customer. They are also able to provide immediate answer and better service to the customers.

9. Manage and motivate drivers

Tracking systems can also be used as motivation tools to increase the productivity and performance of drivers. Drivers who perform well in all areas will receive recognition for their good performance and hard work. Those who under perform will receive feedback on how to improve their performance.

10. Reducing paper work

GPS vehicle tracking system helps to reduce the amount of paperwork that drivers have to fill out. As the tracking system provides detailed information on the whereabouts of the vehicle, drivers need not enter it on records. This system helps to increase the accuracy of records.

These are 10 reasons why you need to invest in a GPS vehicle tracking system. There numerous benefits that the tracking system can bring to your business. Any company that uses vehicles for their business can benefit from a GPS vehicle tracking system. It is a worthwhile investment as it helps to reduce costs and increase productivity.

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If you think the only application of GPS apps are the ones that offer basic driving directions and similar uses, think again. For example, application of real time GPS in school bus tracking and parent portal drives operational efficiencies and allows parents to track personalized information about their children. GPS technology is now in everything from cell phones to shipping containers, boosting productivity across a wide swath of economy including construction, mining, farming, etc. Now, let’s have a look at some GPS applications which will surprise you.

Tractors plow the field

We often buy nuts, berries, vegetables, fruits etc from the grocery shops frequently, but we usually never think about the difficulties farmers face in growing these crops. Driving a tractor is a complex operation unlike driving a car. It’s a tiresome job where you need to watch your gauges and tires, listen to the engine etc. But GPS enabled self-steering tractors make it easy for farmers to plow the field in ideal rows, day or night all by itself. Using satellite signals for guidance the tractor could assist farmers in easing the monotony of endless plowing. It’s such a wonderful thing to help farmers boost efficiency.

Wildlife/pet tracking

Many of us use GPS to track and find our friends or family, prevent getting lost and reach our final destination when on a journey. The effectiveness of parent portal and school bus tracking devices, for instance compel parents to rely more on GPS tracking technology nowadays. For them, it’s replaced maps as the simplest way to navigate, but it is not just helpful for mapping and tracking – GPS is now being used to understand the movement and behavior of different groups of animals.

  • A radio receiver is placed on an animal to pick up signals from special satellites.
  • The receiver calculates the location and movement of the animal and sent the data to another set of satellites which then sends the data to the people.

So if you have ever wondered why your pet cat often sneaks into your neighbor’s home or why sheep move to the center of a flock when threatened by a predator or why cattle often graze in a particular manner in their local area, you can now find all the details regarding these using this technology.

Catching criminals

We often hear stories of policemen who encounter dangerous situations while chasing culprits who escape in cars after committing severe offenses. However, with GPS Tracking bullets, police can put a stop to high-speed car chases. GPS tracking bullets increase the likelihood of catching the culprit who is fleeing in a vehicle as well as stop potentially deadly vehicle accidents.

How it works?

GPS tracker in bullets is attached to vehicles so that the speed and location of the vehicle can be monitored from a remote location. Police use a real-time map of the vehicle to track it and chase the vehicle using the GPS location data. They wait patiently to see where the trail takes them, thereby avoiding dangerous high-speed chases and increasing the possibility of catching the criminals once they slow down the vehicle.

It’s a high-tech solution to hamper an old-fashioned escape.

Tracking football players’ performance

There are several football players who even after putting their best efforts encounter disappointments and fail to correct their mistakes while playing the game. There are situations where the coach tries to monitor the performance of the player accurately but in vain. Well, no more chaos. It’s now easier than ever to track and monitor the performance of football players using GPS tracking technology.

Benefits

  • Provides an enormous amount of information, including the speed, distance and dynamics of a player during a game.
  • Helps coaches in monitoring the players, thereby helping them to take relevant measures to build up the overall performance of the team.
  • Reflects a great percentage of the competitiveness of football players on the field.

Preventing vehicle theft

Your vehicle is precious to you. That goes without saying – its your hard earned money. Whether it’s the vehicle itself or the valuables within it, your vehicle is as much an aim for thieves as it ever was. Statistics show that nearly 36,000 vehicles, which amount to Rs.115 crore, are stolen in India every year. This means that your vehicle and its contents are not as safe as you might think. So how do you keep your vehicle from getting stolen? By employing GPS tracking devices! It can prevent attempts at theft.

GPS tracking devices will alert you the minute your vehicle is stolen and you can track it in real time on a map, with your phone or computer .You can track every movement of your vehicle, its speed, location and the history of the vehicle traveled so far at any point of time. It can share data about the journey, as well as alert dear ones in case of a crash. So no more worries! Protect your vehicle, and increase your chances of recovering your vehicle if it is stolen.

Safe hiking

Hiking is a healthy, affordable and fun activity that is open to anyone. We all can get the most out of a hiking trip and it can be one vacation that we remember years down the road and tell our friends about. However, hikes can turn out to be dangerous. Even though you are an experienced hiker, sometimes you might get lost in the wild, whether it’s getting left behind, wandering away from camp, getting injured or trapped etc. In that case, the only perfect way to let others know where you are is through GPS tracking!

There are many GPS Tracking devices that come with long battery life and other related features necessary for a hiking trip. It helps you by showing where you are and finding a way out and broadcasts live signals to other people so that they can find you. So, before your next hiking or camping trip, ensure that you are equipped with a GPS tracker and make your hiking a whole lot safer!

Posted on by Edsys

GPS tracking systems have become immensely popular over the last decade. This technology has found numerous applications across industries. You can find it in major social medias such as Facebook, Google plus, etc. There are also tracking devices for ensuring safety such as the GPS school bus tracking system.

The basic function of a GPS vehicle tracking system is to gather the Real-time location of a vehicle. However, the difference between a good quality GPS system and the other low quality products depends upon way the data is transmitted to the server, the type of data transmitted and how the transmitted data reaches the user.

There are different factors to consider while choosing a vehicle tracking device. The seven most important things to consider when choosing a GPS vehicle tracking device are mentioned below:

1. Passive tracking system vs. Real-time tracking system: In Passive tracking systems, the receiver unit will store all GPS data. This stored data would be downloaded onto a local server only after the vehicle returns to the headquarters for the day. A Wi-Fi hotspot is needed to download the transmitted data onto a local server. The selection of Passive tracking system mainly depends upon the frequency of information gathering and the memory space available for the storage of the transmitted data. The Passive system gathers information in every 30 seconds and it requires considerable amount of memory to store the data.

The storage capacity of Passive solution is variable. Some solutions can store data only for 7 days while some can store data up to 60 days. There is a risk of data loss if the vehicle stays out of the coverage for long period and the data exceeds the memory capacity. Due to shortage of memory, the new data will overwrite the old data and the old data is lost forever.

Real-time tracking or Active tracking make use of the cellular/satellite modem within the GPS system. Based on a predetermined frequency, it will continuously update the data into the server. Depending upon the provider, the frequency of data updates can vary from 15 seconds to once in a day. As the data is updated continuously, there is no risk of data loss.

2. Cost: The cost of Real-time solutions is comparable with Passive solutions. There is a common myth that Passive solutions is affordable compared to a Real-time solution. Majority of the people have a feeling that Real-time solutions are costlier due to the monthly wireless fees. However, it is not correct. Real-time solutions are

increasingly affordable as wireless rates have come down over the last few years. On the other hand, a Passive system can be costlier due to Wi-Fi infrastructure as it needs regular maintenance.

3. Dispatching: Effective dispatching is possible with Real-time solutions. It is possible to know the status of each vehicle and the location of the drivers on a map. This feature allows you to take actions on emergency or other situations and to effectively manage the day-to-day operations.

4. Alerts and Notification feature: In a GPS system, Real-time alerts and notifications are very important and can be achieved only by using Real-time solutions. With the Passive system, the fleet managers will be able to monitor the vehicle only once the vehicle returns to the headquarters. Real-time system allows the fleet managers to track the vehicles 24/7 even when they are not in office.

Managers don’t have to stick to their desks all day because they will receive alerts via email or to their mobile device. Alerts can be initiated for excessive speeding and idling events, entering or exiting specific geographic areas, driving behaviour etc. It also allows preventing unsafe and costly activities in real time. The scheduling of these alerts can be done by Real-time engine diagnostics or the miles driven.

5. Quality Mapping: The mapping features of a

vehicle tracking device allows you to zoom to street levels. It also provides different views like street maps, satellite and birds eye. The GPS system should be partnered with a good mapping provider. One of the famous mapping providers, Bing mapping provides accurate and up-to-date mapping. This facility allows them to accurately track vehicle location.

6. Accidents: With Passive tracking system, if a vehicle meets with an accident and the unit is damaged, the chance of losing the data is high as the data is not continuously updated. In Real-time solutions, the last information right before the accident is transmitted. If the unit is not damaged, it would continue updating the real data.

7. Theft prevention: Theft prevention is another feature of GPS system. Most of the companies also prefer to implement GPS system into their vehicles due to this facility. As the Real-time tracking system continuously updates the position of the vehicle, it is easy to find out the lost vehicle. In comparison to Passive systems, Real-time systems are faster due to their live data updates.

There are numerous applications for GPS tracking. Probably the most important to any parent would be the School Bus Tracking system. It helps parents ensure the safety and security of their children. For schools, GPS systems are of great help as it helps them to give more attention to individual students.

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There is no uncertainty that mobile apps are taking the world by storm, as people depend on them for entertainment, productivity and what not! They are making their presence felt in the education field too. These school apps provide a variety of solutions to schools, students and parents in a convenient and easy to use method. The school app plays a supporting role to School workforce management system along with the parent portal. Let’s have a look on the numerous benefits that can be derived from school apps.

1. Creating Pleasant School to Parent Communication

The lucid and timely sharing of information between schools and their families is essential for resourceful and consistent education. School apps today improve school to parent communication by providing a multitude of advantages for schools, students and parents. They

  • Remove the monetary and environmental cost of paper newsletters.
  • Notes are communicated progressively by school staff to parents.
  • Saves the time of school staff by reducing phone calls with recurring and often

needless questions.

  • Helps sustain and maintain a harmonious relationship with parents.
  • Remind parents of approaching events or changes.
  • Inform students about their home works, clubs and different school news through

individual calendar.

2. Make sure parents receive the message

Just a couple of years ago, schools and teachers had to rely on the child giving the report card, letter or document to their parents. Pointless to say, many letters were left in the school bag. With school apps, the information can now be directly transferred to parents without any delay.

Benefits to Parents

  • Provides parents with a simple way to know what is going on.
  • Ensures parents always obtain notes.
  • Reduces ‘bad parent days’ by reminding busy parents about forthcoming school

events.

  • Informs parents when events are rained out, avoiding dissatisfaction

3. School Apps Facilitate Access to Content

As more and more schools now have blogs and websites, it gives both parents and students the facility to remain up to date with events and information that the school puts out. The accessibility of a school app lets the school increase its availability and openness to parents, which is imperative to student’s development.

A school app allows content and information to be sent to people at any point of time. Previously, documents that were stored on the home computer could only be viewed from one location (which could be inconvenient). Now with the advent of school apps, the same information can be accessed on a bus, as parents walk their kids to school or from any other location.

4. No Typing Required

Previously the user would have to type in the website address from a desktop and kill time until the relevant page is loaded. With a school app, the information can be accessed immediately by just loading the school app from mobile home screens. This provides a much enhanced user experience with an increased possibility of the content being read.

5. School Apps are Cool

One of the most important benefits of school mobile apps is that they are distinctive and offer a sense of fun. Both parents and children enjoy using the school mobile app, as the use of technology is appealing and exciting. This is a great way for schools to persuade interaction and get the wider community involved.

6. Reporting Bullying

Name-calling, gossiping, taunts, segregation, physical abuse – Bullying! We see and hear about it quite frequently and know for a fact that it’s a crucial problem for schools. But students often hesitate to report their problems due to several reasons. Indeed, it’s so severely built into our culture. So, how can a student be expected to turn it around? Well, no more fears. School apps today allow students to report cases of bullying that they have either witnessed or been victims of. The key is it’s a facility for students to easily report bullying safely and confidentially by submitting photos, messages or videos to school administrators, who are alerted in real time. One of the advantages of this facility is that it sort of takes the pressure off of having to go up in front of an authority and kind of being the sneak. Each message contains a GPS tag that could, at least supposedly, help adults interfere.

7.School Newsletters

School apps allow parents to read the school newsletters where they can check details and understand what’s happening in the school each week. Parents will always have the school newsletter stored within their smart phones, where they can check details and know what’s happening each week.

8. Interactive Forms

The use of parent portal in tracking real-time information about students facilitates parents to involve with their child’s learning and creates a greater opportunity to have learning conversations with their children. With the advancement in the school app, parents get the opportunity to liaise with the teachers directly. For the first time parents can submit excursion permission slips and details regarding student absences directly without any chasing! It’s as easy as that.

Posted on by Edsys

Today, people are ready to accept anything that would make their tasks easier. They are always in search of all-in-one packages. Smartphones are a good example of this. And, that tendency to embrace all-in-one packages is exactly why smart card solutions by Edsys would be relevant in student life.

Many tasks related to school can be accomplished effectively with the help of these smart cards, which are embedded with RFID chips. So, if implemented, how do these smart cards solutions improve student life? Let’s take a look.

1. Influence on student tracking systems

Student and school bus tracking devices have gained immense popularity at present as they tend to be a great relief in terms of the concerns parents have about their children’s safety on their ride to school and back. Smart cards by Edsys also serve the same purpose. With the help of smart cards,

It is possible to track students and school buses easily

  • Whereabouts of the students can be notified real-time via automated SMS alerts
  • Management Information System (MIS) reports can be generated
  • Data regarding students, parents, vehicles, and drivers can be stored, which can come handy for future needs

2. Marking attendance in class

Taking attendance logging process a step ahead with smart cards will simplify the life of both students and teachers. Student id cards if tagged with active RFID can be used to mark attendance. Just a swipe over the card reader placed at the entry point of the classroom will register the presence of the student. Active RFID cards are much advanced and do not demand proximity with the reader.

 

3. Changing interaction at Canteen/Cafeteria

Sometimes, students, after reaching the canteen, realize that the money they brought is not sufficient to buy food. Such situations can be avoided using a smart card.

  • Smart cards can be used by students to make purchases
  • Amount for which items were purchased, would be deducted from the card
  • Students have the facility to check the balance left in their smart cards
  • Parents get notified on the purchases made
4. Makes it easier to Collect Fees

Every parent knows what a tedious task it is to pay their child’s school fees. Every time, they have to provide their child’s roll number and other details, which barely stay in their memory, to pay the fees. school Smart cards prove to be useful there. Parents can easily access payment information with the help of smart cards. Also, it is possible to top up the smart cards at the fee collection counter of schools.

Also Read :  What is a Smart School? What are its Benefits?
5. Simplifies the way you use Library

In most schools, students are expected to carry a library card and show it to the librarian each time lend/return a book or when they are reading the book in the library itself. In case they lose that card, they may have to pay a fine to get another card. Smart cards mean less chaos for students in that case. They can use smart cards to lend/return books. Students can also use their smart cards to mark library attendance.

6. Safer, easier transactions at Book stores
  • Students can easily purchase the books
    they need from the school book store using smart cards
  • List of items bought by the students would be recorded
  • Parents get notification of items purchased by students
  1. 7. BMI records

Smart cards help students check their height and weight using smartcards on BMI scales. When the child swipes his smart id card on the sensor and his information along with his details get stored into the school database. Schools can identify students suffering from height and weight issues and help them improve their diet and lifestyle.

 

  1. 8. School Dismissal

Schools are in a terrible need of organizing their dismissal processes. This activity can be made way simpler by adding smart cards to the picture. Parents can be provided with active RFID cards. These cards are to be carried by parents when they come to pick up the child. The RFID card reader placed at the gate identifies the parent and notifies the child about the parent’s arrival. The child is only allowed to leave the class when the parent has reached inside the campus.

  1. 9. Library on wheels

A futuristic concept where libraries will no longer be a closed arena but a mobile vehicle! The vehicle shall visit the school once in a week and allow students to borrow books with the aid of their smart identity cards. The main aim of this is to eliminate the phobia of deserted library rooms and promote reading more often. Smart cards definitely will help in achieving this goal.

Advantages of Smart Cards

Smart carts are of great advantage, in terms of school-related purposes. The advantages of smart cards include:

Access made easy

ID Cards that use magnetic strips require students to swipe through an ID card reader manually. Students will have to wait in long queues to swipe. The cards tend to be damaged easily, as well. Smart cards do not require swiping and hence no long queues, making it more convenient for students.

Lasts longer

It is a common scene in schools that students replace their damaged ID cards at least once in an academic year. This can cause loss to the parents as well as the school, in terms of money. With school smart cards, which are made of durable materials such as PVS and polyester, students would not encounter such a problem. This can help them in saving money in terms of ID card replacement annually.

Save money, time and effort

The use of a single card to serve various purposes will be equally useful for students, parents, and schools. It helps in easy and cost-effective management.

Track student activities

With a large number of students present in a classroom, it is not possible to find out whether any of the students have bunked classes. However, it is possible with smart cards and if the student is present, it is possible to find out the amount of time a student spends in the class.

Library management made easy

Students can use smart cards to mark attendance in the library. They can also use it for lending/returning books and in case, there is an overdue, students can pay it through smart cards.

Electronic payment

Students can use smart cards to pay at the canteen for the food items/ beverages they buy. They can also use the cards in the school book store to buy the necessary items they need, of which the notification would be sent to parents.

Track students

Concerns of parents and school authorities regarding the safety of students on their journey to school and way back home can be addressed using smart cards. Whereabouts of students can be tracked in real-time using smart cards. School bus tracking is also possible with smart cards.

User-friendly interface

Though some software is said to be effective and useful to users, they lack a simple interface that they are able to understand and use comfortably. Therefore, the smart card software is developed in such a way that its interface is user-friendly and easy to understand.

Smart card solutions from Edsys have numerous advantages. Their ability to serve various purposes is useful to students, parents and school management in everyday school life.

Posted on by Edsys

A couple of weeks ago, I met a friend of mine in the evening. She is a teacher at one of the major schools (sorry, can’t disclose the name) in Kolkata. Quite the colourful character, she chose the profession because it was her passion. However, that particular day, she was unusually quiet. From the moment she came in, something was clearly bothering her. There was an air of tension around her.

Surprise, surprise!

After a few sullen moments, I asked her what the issue was. She replied “School’s so exhausting! On top of my regular work, I am now in charge of recruiting new employees.” I asked her –“Nita, why the hell? What is the HR department doing then?” She looked at me as if I am an alien. Her response shocked me. “What HR, dude? This is a school.” She added “there was one accounts guy who was taking care of all this. But he left last week, and ever since, I’ve been burdened by additional work.”

This was news to me. Most schools probably have a work force that would be proportional to the number of students and courses they offer, due to an existing mandate of one teacher for every 30 students. Going by this logic, an average school with 1000 students would have 50 plus teaching and an equally sizable number or more of non-teaching staff. To me, having an HR department for such an organization appeared to be the most logical thing to do. This is one of the best practices that the corporate world is very particular about.

The bigger picture

If you think deeper, it is a huge problem. Just think of the scenario after the recruitment has happened. In the absence of a qualified HR, who would calculate the employees’ salaries, leaves and other benefits? And we haven’t started to think of activities such as internal communication and organizing events.

Currently, what most schools do is to assign this job to someone who is not specialised, like the accounts person or dump the job to some poor teacher like Nita. The whole recruitment thing is similar to a circus show. They will somehow be able to manage one or two cases. But if it happens on a large scale, it would mean chaos.

Why does this problem exist?

The cost of maintaining an HR team is the most obvious reason. And traditional thinking dictates that part-timers can cover-up for specialists in areas such as recruitment. Convenience can be the other major factor. But modern day technology should be able to provide a more convenient and cost effective method.

How does it impact?

Not having an HR in an organization as big as a school not only affects the productivity of the available resources, but also has an impact on the school’s reputation. A school may not be able to attract talented candidates due to the absence of a proper system. That means the quality of teachers cannot be guaranteed. This directly affects the education students receive. Now, no one would want that.

But the Human Resource Department is not just for recruiting!

Recruitment isn’t the only responsibility of an HR. What about payroll, daily attendance, performance overview, etc? An HR takes care of each and every aspect of workforce management. This is an existing problem in a majority of schools that needs to be addressed because schools are where the foundation of the nation’s future is laid.

Posted on by Edsys

Early Years Foundation Stage or EYFS, as it is called, is a framework aimed at physical, social and emotional development of a child in his/ her early years. For that, EYFS has set some guidelines for Early Years providers to follow. They are expected to maintain a profile for each child to record the children’s stage by stage development. Maintaining such a record can help in analysing the skills and areas of improvement of children by the time they turn five years old.

Early years of a child tend to influence what he/she grows to be. Whatever a child learns during the time acts as a base to what he/she gets to learn at later stages of life. This learning happens by means of a series of playful activities, which are known as EYFS activities. Thus, EYFS helps children learn through activities, which would stay in his/ her mind authoritatively for a longer period than what they learn through books.

Maths plays an important role in every person’s daily routine and activities right from the early years. Therefore, maths related EYFS activities are a great way of developing a child’s numerical abilities. This also helps children in their preparation to start school. Here is a list of maths activities that you can introduce as part of EYFS activities at your day care centre/nursery:

Number book

Children love to explore and collect things. As a part of this activity, you can ask children to maintain a number book where children can count and arrange related objects that they have collected.

What children learn

  • Counting- To Count each object they place in the book
  • Group-Learn various shapes as they group related objects

Story time

This activity is suitable for children of three to four years of age. Children love stories and challenges. Therefore, this activity means fun for children. You can narrate a story to children, which ends with a problem to solve. This helps in the development of children’s reasoning, numerical, interaction and language ability.

What children learn

  • Counting for a purpose-to see whether others have also received the same answer
  • Addition-learning how many will be there if more objects are added
  • Subtraction-How many will be there if some objects are taken away

Building blocks

Playing with blocks is one activity that children would really enjoy. You can help children in building towers of various shapes using building blocks. This improves thinking ability of children and they get an idea of various shapes

What children learn

  • Counting-Children learn to analyse how many blocks can make a tower or castle
  • Shapes-Children learn to select blocks of appropriate shapes that would fit in.
  • Position-Children learn positional language, such as to the left of, to the right of, on top of etc. and understanding symmetry in placement of blocks to build towers, castles etc. according to children’s choice.

Number songs

Children, even before they learn to speak, react to music. Therefore, any activity involving songs would help them learn faster. You can involve the children in counting and singing by introducing them to songs which involve numbers.

What children learn

  • Numbers and counting-Number songs activity introduces children to numbers and counting, which includes counting using fingers
  • Position-Children learn the use of positional language such as next, previous etc.

What is in the bag?

In this activity, you can encourage children to put their hands in a bag and guess what is inside by feeling the shape.

What children learn

  • Basic shapes-children learn to identify basic shapes such as square, oval, rectangle etc.
  • Counting- Children can learn to count the number of objects or the sides and corners of the objects they have taken out.

Outdoor maths

Nature is the greatest teacher with the variety of resources it possesses. Therefore, let the children out of the day care centres/nurseries once in a while to interact with nature. Encourage them to collect similarly shaped objects or a certain number of objects. You can also help them in weighing the objects they have collected, thus introducing them to basic lessons of weight and mass.

What children learn

  • Grouping and Comparison-Children learn to compare objects in terms of size, shape and weight and arrange items according to that
  • Understanding difference-Children learn to differentiate between sizes and shapes

Shape hunt

This activity can help you to analyse what children understood in terms of shapes. You can keep objects of various shapes in a bucket or a bag and ask the children to pick the shape you suggest.

What children learn

  • Shapes-Children learn the properties of shapes and what each shape is called

Treasure hunt

This is an outdoor activity, which children will surely enjoy. Hide objects at various locations and give clues to children to find the objects.

What children learn

  • Directions-Children will get an idea on directions

 

Step on it

This fun activity helps children to understand numbers easily. You can sing a number song and in the song, you can ask children to step on the number tiles corresponding to the number you mention

What children learn

  • Numbers-Children learn to identify numbers

Match the numbers

Use number cards and balls or stones or blocks for this fun activity. Ask children to place the exact number of objects on each number card corresponding to the number given in the card.

What children learn

  • Identify numbers- children learn to identify numbers given in the number cards
  • Counting-children learn to count the number of objects according to the number given in the number card

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