by Natalie Schlueter
You’ve heard it here. You’ve heard it on the street. It’s no secret that school districts have converted to one-to-one devices in the classroom. Why is this? With added personalization and enhanced learning, one-to-one devices provide classrooms with:
This sounds like a great way for teachers and students to work together to create the best learning environment possible. But, what gets overlooked time and time again is the strategy to maintain such a program on a high level.
Questions like:
And many more arise when a strategy and execution plan is not set in place by the district or school. Tools to help manage this large deployment of devices and upkeep on devices can dramatically increase success over the years with these devices.
Learn what tools and strategies you should take into consideration when implementing and maintaining a one-to-one classroom device management strategy.
For some students, this is the first time they have ever had to keep watch and maintain a device for their learning or personal use. It can be hard for them to juggle their school work, making sure they remember their device, as well as keeping track of their household responsibilities and what happens outside of school walls.
Because this can be hard for many students, no matter the age, devices either come to school not fully charged, or not at all. In fact, we found out that 30% of students arrive at school with their device not fully charged.
This can be hard to manage when there are no other solutions on hand to assist these students in their learning needs throughout the day. A teacher may spend up to 75% of class time needing their students to be on a laptop.
Requiring a student to use a semi-charged device for 75% of their day will not work. Consider investing in a solution that supports the student’s needs and allows for them to have a device throughout the day with no hassle.
This can be accomplished in a multitude of ways, but a situation like this really requires a solution to manage and store loaner devices. This solution should be easily accessible to teachers while they check-in students in the morning and should be lockable for night to store devices for the next day.
Bretford’s CUBE Micro Station® 10 & 16 Pre-Wired offers the versatility to wall mount the devices or to daisy-chain solutions to add more devices as you grow or see fit. This is a great way to ensure each student has a working device during school hours.
Let’s face it: when students have their own device it can be hard to know exactly what is going on behind the screen when teachers are facilitating a lesson, but one thing that can help maintain classroom etiquette and order is ensuring that each student can learn from their own desk or spot.
When students don’t come to class with a fully charged device, it can be hard for them to sit at their desks for a lesson because they will probably need to plug in their device into a wall outlet. This is ok for a select few students, but not when 30% of the classroom needs to charge devices.
Whether the outlets are behind furniture or are in use, there simply isn’t enough to go around for each student to charge their device. In addition, teachers value work at the desk much more than having students scattered around the classroom charging their devices while a lesson is happening.
Ensuring student focus and engagement relies on them being in a position where they are not distracted by other things. Bringing the outlets to the students is the way to go.
Bretford’s CUBE Tower™ is the simplest way to bring 8 AC outlets to the student desks. Just glide the tower to the desks, nest the tower between the desks and have students plug in their devices.
Investing in a solution like this allows for the teacher and student to get the most out of class with minimal distraction and an easy solution to a seemingly complicated problem.
Not only do devices run out of power, but more often than not they need updating or other repairs. Again, many districts are dealing with students who have never had a device all to their own and are using the device on a daily basis, almost 24/7.
Devices are bound to break or need repairs. I.T. techs for schools cannot simply manage every one-to-one device as it comes in. The volume of devices and students is too large for one I.T. team.
Not only is the volume too large, but the response time and the repair time are much longer when strategies and tactics are not put into place. Student learning can be lost when devices are not turned around in a quick time. Minimizing this learning loss is important for student success.
Quickly managing break/fix programming or issuing loaner devices on demand dramatically improves the halted learning timeline. Bretford’s TechGuard Connect® Charging Lockers allow I.T. professionals to digitally manage issuing loaner devices to students and break/fix programming so they can spend the time they need on updating or fixing student devices.
Investing in a solution to quickly and efficiently do this will allow students to return to their classwork quickly and seamlessly.
Not only will your school allow for more equitable learning experiences for each student, but it will also allow students to spend the personalized time they need and deserve on their classwork.
Minimizing halted learning and maximizing time spent in the classroom between teacher and student is what will happen when you actively strategize with tools to support your 1:1 classroom device deployment and management.
Be prepared and always have a spare device charged and ready to go with the CUBE Micro Station®
Allow students to charge devices and use them everywhere in the classroom with the CUBE Tower™
Manage break/fix programming remotely and issue loaner devices with TechGuard Connect®.
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