Bangor Township Schools is comprised of 5 schools and a family center located in Bay City, Michigan. Although computers in schools have the power to enhance the classroom experience for both students and teachers, the benefits can easily be lost to distractions such as games, instant messaging, and web surfing. For the Technology Administrator at Bangor Township Schools, helping teachers battle these distraction was becoming a priority. The Technology Administrator was receiving requests from lab teachers for a solution that enabled them to view and control student workstations from their own workstation.
The Bangor Township Schools deployed Faronics Insight. Insight has empowered Bangor Township’s teachers with full control over their classroom computers and student attention. Teachers no longer need to walk around the lab to monitor student activity; teachers are now able to view thumbnails of every student screen from one central console. This has greatly helped reduce the chances of a student visiting an inappropriate website by circumventing Bangor Township’s web filter. Insight enables teachers to send students a warning if they visit an inappropriate website, and block the Internet access of repeat offenders.
Classroom Management Software Provides Total Control for Bangor Township Teachers
by David Anderson
Computers in schools have the power to enhance the classroom experience for both students and teachers, but the benefits can easily be lost to to inherent distractions. To solve this problem, Bangor Township Schools in Bay City, Michigan, employs classroom management software, and in particular, Faronics Insight.
Bangor Township administrators believe that having the best technology available will better prepare their students for today’s world. Josh Kolka, Technology Administrator, agrees but this also meant that he had to help teachers battle distractive elements, like web surfing, social networks, and gaming, that technology can bring.
“(Technology) is great when it comes to fostering collaboration and teamwork between students, but it does make it very difficult for a teacher to monitor what students are doing at all times.”
As a result, Josh was receiving requests to implement a classroom management software solution that enabled teachers to view and control student workstations from their own workstation. When renewing his Deep Freeze licensing, he discovered Faronics Insight. He found Faronics Insight easy to use and implement, and immediately made the decision to purchase it.
According to Josh, the Insight feature that is most popular with the teachers of Bangor Township is the remote control option. The teachers are able to monitor student activity via the Insight Console, and if a student visits a website or opens an application that is off topic, the teacher remotes into the student’s workstation and closes it.
The successes attributed to classroom management software continue as Faronics Insight provides Bangor Township teachers with total control over classroom computers and student activity.
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