Technology has transformed K-12 classrooms, opening up incredible opportunities for learning and engagement. But with these new opportunities come a lot of distractions. Instead of feeling excited about the possibilities, teachers (and students alike) are frustrated as they try to keep focus in a sea of digital devices. This is where your technology team can come to the rescue. By introducing teachers to classroom management software, you can help teachers defeat digital distractions by moderating device usage, and experience the benefits that technology can bring to their instruction.
More importantly than that, it helps teachers get back to teaching.
(Bonus: when you implement classroom management software that also has your technology needs at the forefront, you can make your own day-to-day responsibilities a little lighter, too.)
The Challenges of Technology-Enabled Classrooms
Imagine a classroom full of students on their school devices. The teacher, Mr. Jacobs, stands at the front of the room, guiding the class through their upcoming biology lab experiment. All eyes should be on him, but instead, about half of the students’ eyes are glued to their screens. He doesn’t know if they’re taking notes, messaging their friends, or watching the latest Mr. Beast challenge on YouTube.
A recent study of 25,000 teachers found evidence that poor class engagement, and the associated poor student behavior, are among the top reasons teachers experience burnout.
“Even more than the ability to present concepts or assess students, the best predictor of a new teacher’s effectiveness and likelihood to stay in the classroom is how quickly they learn to manage class, including student behavior.“
While classroom management software might not be a cure-all for these challenges that technology presents in the classroom, one thing is for certain: it give teachers game-changing capabilities to regain control and their confidence, and provides much needed additional support in the classroom.
Classroom Management Software Capabilities Teachers Love
Real-Time View of Students’ Computer Screens
If there’s one thing teachers love about classroom management software, it’s the screen monitoring ability. By giving teachers a bird’s eye view of their students’ computer screens, screen monitoring lets teachers finally see what students are doing behind the lids of their laptops.
During class, teachers can know when students are off-task and redirect them back to the lesson. After class is over, teachers can also see students’ browsing history to know what sites they visited during class. This capability helps them understand what sites they may want to block moving forward, as well as know which students were frequently off-task.
Features that Keep Students Focused
Classroom management software gives teachers the ability to control what resources students are accessing. When a teacher identifies a student who’s off-task using screen monitoring, the teacher can individually message the student or simply close the browser tab to redirect the student back to the lesson.
The teacher can also open a specific web page on all student devices, such as during online testing. All other sites can also be blocked to ensure students are solely engaged with the test and unable to access other content.
Tools that Boost Student Engagement
Classroom management software gives teachers helpful and easy-to-use tools to make lessons more dynamic and collaborative. Teachers can push online lesson resources to the entire class to get everyone quickly on task, as well as share their screens to make the learning experience interactive.
Teachers can also communicate with students in the ways that they prefer, including group chats and individual messages. For example, teachers can message or video chat with students 1:1 or engage the whole class in a group chat about the lesson.
Extra Features Technology Teams Appreciate, Too
Teachers aren’t the only ones who can benefit from classroom management software. When the software is also designed with the needs of technology teams in mind—like Securly Classroom is—it provides the additional benefit of easing the burden of technology management.
Give Teachers More Control, While Maintaining Oversight
When your classroom management software integrates seamlessly with your school web filter, you can give teachers more control, including the ability to create their own block/allow lists. This takes the burden off of your team for managing these all-too-frequent requests.
Securly Classroom lets teachers review students’ browsing history to identify the websites that are most problematic. They can then create their own block lists to restrict access to those sites during class, even if those sites are allowed by their school’s web filter.
Similarly, teachers can temporarily allow sites for their classes—such as YouTube or a game site—without having to put in a special request. In Securly Classroom, you can give teachers this level of control while still maintaining oversight of these changes to ensure your master block/allow policies remain intact.
Gain Visibility into Software Usage and Devices
Classroom management software that gives IT administrators visibility into how teachers and students are using the software helps with measuring adoption and return on academic investment.
The admin dashboard in Securly Classroom provides this visibility, as well as device-level insights, such as the total number of student devices in use currently or during specific time periods. It also provides the ability to track the number of lost devices at any time and enable geo-tracking to facilitate quicker recovery. For district-level IT teams, this information is especially useful, helping them understand device usage by school and across the entire school district.
Real Schools, Real Outcomes
Atlanta Public Schools (APS), Georgia
With classroom management software, 2,000 teachers in Atlanta Public Schools gain tools to monitor activity, push resources, and engage students, all while their technology team enjoys fewer support tickets and smoother daily operations. Read the APS case study.
Derry Cooperative School District (CSD), New Hampshire
In Derry CSD, teachers love having visibility of students’ screens and the tools to keep students on task. Hear what teachers say about classroom management software.
LaGrange Area Department of Special Education (LADSE), Illinois
At LADSE, classroom management software makes digital learning more interactive and less stressful for everyone involved. Get the whole story here.
Securly Classroom: Smarter Classroom Management Software
When your classroom management software is designed for both teachers and technology teams, it’s more than just a teaching tool—it’s a strategic investment.
Securly Classroom provides the features teachers love, plus tools your technology team will appreciate, too.
Curious to learn more about Securly Classroom? Check out these additional resources:
