Likelihood to Recommend GoGuardian Teacher is great for a teacher who needs a way to monitor student activities and work time on a laptop. It is easy to set up, simple to use and helps to keep students accountable when online in class. It integrates with
Google Classroom which is a big help. It is more powerful for teachers experienced in using tech in the classroom. The archiving ability is great but the UX needs to improve.
Read full review I have recommended it across campus and would not hesitate to do so again. It has been great in our lab environments and would like to continue using it for years to come. In the future as we move away from physical labs I will be investigating to purchase for BYOD devices, however I know that I will face pushback from students on this. However we must weigh privacy & security vs. using BYOD devices and integrity on exams.
Read full review Pros Cloud-based. Teachers do not have to monitor from just one device - they can do it from any device. GoGuardian allows teachers to lock a student's screen when he/she needs the students attention. GoGuardian allows the teacher to view all students' devices simultaneously. Read full review Lenovo LanSchool has a very easy to use and easy to learn interface. With software, the hardest thing to do is to teach new teachers or veteran teachers how to use technology in their classrooms. Being able to easily teach teachers to use this software is one of the best aspects of the [Lenovo LanSchool]. Something that LanSchool does well is to monitor student actions. On the screens, you can see all the linked computers of all students. This feature lets you see every student on one screen. The alternative is walking around the classroom or scrolling through pages of student screens, with LanSchool you can guarantee that you are seeing all screens at once. Overall classroom management is a key feature on the platform. You can share files, freeze student screens, blank out student screens and share another screen to the entire class. There are far more options in terms of engaging the students than a conventional method of asking students to pay attention. Installing LanSchool is a huge asset for teachers to engage and update their lessons. A cool element I seldom use is the speaking software, being able to speak through their computer screens is great to give direction or get attention quickly. Read full review Cons Scope of device monitoring (laptops, desktop computers and not just Chromebooks) Needs an updated interface to more accurately fit advances in technology Ability to more easily interact and adjust with a student's device Read full review Messaging could be improved for notification when messages are sent. When multiple users use the same computer, sometimes LanSchool needs to be restarted to show changes in usernames. You can save layouts, but I would like more options for how to arrange the layout you see the computers on your screen. Dianna Wolf Computer Application and Computer Science Teaher
Read full review Likelihood to Renew For a technology-heavy school, it is a necessary and good tool for managing classroom use of laptops. It is easy to set up and use. Helps track time on task and internet usage. Another source of data when speaking to parents about student work and activity. Can help plan and manage work time when you have limited devices.
Read full review Support Rating The support is great. On the rare occasion that I've had to reach out to support they have been very quick to respond and extremely helpful. I've also had teachers reach out directly to support themselves. Most of the time I don't even know that a teacher has reached out to support until after the fact. They always seem satisfied.
Read full review Alternatives Considered I have used Hapara in a previous school district. GoGuardian is more user-friendly and easier to setup. I do think GoGuardian has some room on improving the ease of finding some areas of the program, but once you know the path to get there it is quick.
Read full review VNC Connect required you to manually add the "client" workstations to the "dashboard".
Read full review Return on Investment We have been able to identify inappropriate websites that students have discovered. For example anonymous proxies, movie streaming, etc. Through this software, we have been able to identify the students and in turn block the websites. We have been able to identify which students have been using other user's accounts. This was an unintended side effect of the software. If a teacher knows that a student is using a Chromebook but the student is not showing up in the software, we are easily able to deduce that the user must be using another student's account. Read full review Helps us serve thousands of students each year Has helped us improve classroom management Saves us time with technology set up (e.g. being able to do all from Lanschool, not having to set up each individual computer every day) Karee Smith STEM Instructor, Higher Education Coordinator, Curriculum Development, & Documentation Lead
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