How Vivi schools are addressing the challenges of COVID-19

6 October 2021 | By viviedu

Whether you’re a school district planning a safe return from a well-deserved school break, or stuttering in and out of restrictions and want to maintain the highest level of safety for your teachers and students when they’re back on campus, Vivi is designed to make the classroom a more collaborative, controlled, and creative learning space.

Below are examples of how schools have used Vivi to assist with the return to the classroom.

What COVID-related issues has Vivi helped your school overcome?

Stephen Bloomer, Network Manager – St. Peter’s College

The key area for COVID-19 that Vivi has allowed us to keep going is the ability to keep the students feeling part of a larger group. We can still do presentations at a whole-school level and we use Vivi to broadcast across a campus or building. House assemblies still continue and we have the student and teacher involvement in those presentations. But the key one that got our management on board was the ability for the principal to address the whole school as they would’ve in a very large assembly.

Do you use live broadcast to create shared experiences?

Amy Ernenwein, Director of Professional Development – Cardinal Gibbons High School

We’re a Catholic school and we hold an almost-2000-person mass in our gym, but the likelihood of being able to do that in the near future is not feasible. So being able to live stream that into a classroom is amazing to be able to create a semblance of shared experiences without everyone being in that one physical space.

What Vivi feature are you using more because of COVID-19?

Mark Calleja, Director of IT and Learning – Kingsway Christian College

We’re using the digital signage feature more than we ever had. Primarily, digital signage was used around our public spaces – reception and for open days when we would have masses of people coming in and wanted to display things about faculty. But the ability to broadcast things through messaging via digital signage has been a huge benefit.

How can Vivi help accommodate different learning environments?

Ben Russell, Technology Director – East Providence School District

A classroom could go to a partially distant scenario, with some students in the classroom and the rest joining virtually. The teacher could go live with their laptop connected wirelessly to Vivi and be in front of the classroom operating their screen. 

Thoughts for those struggling with the challenges posed by COVID-19?

Jim Manikas, Director of Technology – Webb School of Knoxville

I wish that we had all the answers, but we’re struggling with the same questions everyone else is. We went into this trying to anticipate every eventuality and I think we caught most of them. Bottom line is that you do the best you can. Every single school is different. What we do certainly wouldn’t work for another school, even if it was next door to us.