Why Schools Need to Extend Quarantine to the Virtual Classroom

As an educator, you might be interested to know that Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines quarantine as,“a restraint upon the activities or communication of persons or the transport of goods designed to prevent the spread of disease.” As a person living in the year 2020, you know it in practice all too well. Since COVID-19 caught the world off-guard, we’ve been sheltering in place, only interacting with a few trusted members of our social circle in-person and holding everything from work meetings to weddings online.

Your school has fully embraced the new normal. You’re implementing policies that will bring all of the joy, growth and knowledge of a traditional classroom setting into students’ living rooms. That’s great — and we at eMazzanti commend you for taking these steps — but what if we told you that virtual learning could expose students and faculty to a host of new viruses?

COVID-19 Is Not the Only Virus Threatening Schools

From Cryptojacking to WannaCry, we’ve seen all manner of cyber attacks in our nearly twenty years of IT consulting. These attacks grow more sophisticated and more ubiquitous each year. Indeed, a 2017 University of Maryland study revealed that every 39 seconds, an Internet enabled device falls victim to hackers.

Think of how significantly frequency has likely increased in recent months, with people across the globe turning to the Internet for work, play, comfort and connection. Now think of your students. The pride they take in coming back from a holiday break with the latest iPhone. How often you catch them surfing social media on their tablet when they’re supposed to be taking notes. Think how easy it would be for one of those devices to become infected with malware and spread it to other student devices via your new online learning platform.

The Antidote

Luckily, Microsoft thought of this too. That’s why the company outfitted Office 365 Education with the option to limit access to school sanctioned devices. Teachers can lead virtual lessons, assign homework and quiz students to gauge comprehension with the peace of mind that they’re operating in a secure environment.

Office 365 Education can be customized to further tighten security. A previous blog post details how eMazzanti helped one school take control of Microsoft Teams for Education

To read more about the capabilities of Microsoft Teams for education, download this guide. To experience the benefits, contact eMazzanti.