Tag: education

With most everyone off campus, parent and student communications are top of mind for school districts and universities. Amazon Alexa can help extend the classroom to home through integrations with commonly used education technology applications. Now Amazon Alexa can aggregate information across education skills into one response, creating a faster, streamlined, more convenient way to access information.

Across recent customer engagements, our teams have seen an increase in requests for support in four key use cases: remote workforce and productivity, citizen engagement, data management and analytics, and operational resilience and business continuity. Today I want to share a few stories of success where customers have implemented AWS services to address these use cases. They address four of the most urgent IT issues facing public sector customers in the crisis.

Getting started with the cloud can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be. The first step is understanding the basics. Learn what the cloud is, how it works, and its benefits. Next, learn the different types of cloud computing and the foundational cloud services to help get you started making sense of large amounts of data, innovating quicker, handling sudden changes in demand, and more.

In April 2020, the AWS Public Sector Blog covered stories on AWS launching machine learning enabled search capabilities for COVID-19 dataset, supporting healthcare with technology in response to COVID-19, and building a chatbot for your school in less than an hour. For more blog highlights from this month, you can also check out The Brief, hosted this month by Ray Rogers, the host of the Fix This podcast.

CyberPatient, a Canadian startup, provides an online, digital learning environment to help medical students around the globe practice skills virtually before they ever enter into clinical rotations or step foot into a hospital. In the platform, students can interact with virtual patients and work through scenarios that mimic real life. As more students turn to virtual learning, CyberPatient’s platform is being offered to medical students at no cost.

To help researchers learn about cloud computing, AWS curated a list of no-cost, on-demand online courses tailored to researchers’ needs. With the cloud, scientists can quickly analyze massive data pipelines, store petabytes of data, and share their results with collaborators around the world. These online courses are available at any time to help users learn new cloud skills and services.

Chatbots and modern call centers provide governments with an efficient way to connect with citizens during critical times. Governments, health systems, and educational institutions are responsible for communicating and maintaining information portals regarding public safety, health and human services, emergency services, social services, and more. Now more than ever, communities are turning to their public sector organizations for up-to-date information. Read on to learn from organizations across industries and how they have scaled their services to meet increased demand.

For the first-ever Amazon Alexa EdTech Skills Challenge, AWS teamed up with SXSW EDU to challenge United States-based EdTechs to use Alexa to transform education. With six finalists remaining, the event is now virtual and the public can vote for their favorite. People who register to participate and vote will also be entered for a chance to win an Amazon Echo Show (2nd Gen).

I am happy to share that the first AWS Public Sector Summit Online will happen virtually on Tuesday, June 30, 2020. Registration is now open, and we are building an experience that you will be able to access right from your own home. Leading up to the Summit, I am also excited to announce the release of a new, five-part series of the Fix This podcast. I will be one of the guest hosts, and I look forward to speaking with government, education, and healthcare customers about how they are solving some of the world’s most pressing challenges with technology.

Schools are looking for ways to help their students remain productive and connected while learning remotely. End user computing (EUC) helps schools enable remote learning by providing every student access to the applications they need for class on any computer. This means bring the on-premises computer lab experience to the students, virtually. Amazon AppStream 2.0 can help educational institutions create virtual computer lab spaces at scale. AppStream 2.0 is a fully managed application streaming service that offers on-demand access to desktops and applications. Check out five things you should consider when rapidly deploying a virtual computer lab space using Amazon AppStream 2.0.