Improving Digital Classroom Visibility With Faronics Insight

If you’re of a certain vintage, you may remember having a “computer class” when you were a student. These classes occurred in special “computer labs” — the rooms where these wonderful, futuristic machines were housed. In these special classes, students would learn the intricate details of the digital technologies that would shape their futures … or, perhaps more likely, they would just play Minesweeper and solitaire. 

Education is much different today. At many schools, it’s common for students to bring their own laptops to work on. And their own smartphones to goof around on. 

How can teachers, many of whom grew up in the old days of special computer classes (or before), manage these new, second- and third-generation digital-native students? Faronics has an answer.

What Exactly Is a Digital Classroom?

The term “digital classroom” can apply to any learning environment that integrates technology — computers, tablets, internet, software, etc. — to make education more interactive, accessible and personalized. This could be in a physical room in a traditional school, fully online (known as a “virtual classroom”) or in a hybrid model. 

These classrooms use digital tools for research, collaboration, feedback and immersive experiences. This newer technology replaces traditional methods with digital resources, enabling self-paced learning, real-time communication and access to innumerable online materials for students.

It won’t surprise you to learn that digital classrooms took a huge leap in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. But that simply pushed schools and educational organizations — albeit roughly — in the direction things were ultimately heading. And even afterwards, 73% of students said they’d prefer some courses to remain fully online. 

The Challenges of Digital Classrooms

The stated goal of the education system is to prepare children and young adults to be successful members of society. Given this, it would be doing students a disservice not to teach them to succeed with the newest technologies possible. Yes, there may be times when someone has to do long division without a calculator, but knowing how to use a variety of computer programs and hardware may play a larger role in their everyday lives.

With that said, there’s no question that digital classrooms present teachers with numerous challenges. Kids will be using their devices no matter what, but getting them to stay on task and use that technology to complete the work at hand — and to do so honestly — is no mean feat. 

As distracting as those Windows 95 games were, the attention-grabbing power of social media and modern mobile apps is far more potentially disruptive. Many teachers are tempted to simply ban all devices that can access the internet. But there’s actually a way educators can use technology to keep their students focused on the right technology. 

How Faronics Insight Can Help

Faronics Insight is a comprehensive classroom management software that helps teachers monitor and engage with students in technology-driven learning environments. The primary goal of our solution is to minimize digital distractions and keep students focused on their lessons by providing teachers with a central console to oversee all classroom activity. By giving educators direct control over the devices in their rooms, Insight helps transform potentially distracting hardware into productive educational tools, ultimately improving student achievement and class productivity.

The platform offers a robust suite of interactive features, including real-time screen monitoring, the ability to “blank” student screens to capture attention and tools for instant web and application filtering. Beyond simple supervision, Insight promotes collaboration through two-way audio and chat, file sharing and the ability to broadcast a teacher’s screen (or a specific student’s work) to the entire class. It’s also a highly versatile solution, supporting a mixed environment of Windows, macOS, ChromeOS, iOS and Android devices, which makes it ideal for schools with diverse hardware or bring-your-own-device programs.

Learn More About Learning With Insight

Want to discover how Faronics Insight helps teachers in a variety of schools and settings? Reach out to the Faronics team and we’d be happy to tell you more.