LanSchool in All Schools
Overall Satisfaction with Lenovo LanSchool
Lenovo LanSchool is the premier software that we use in all of our technology rooms, computer rooms, and in the library. It is being used by our organization predominantly for classroom management and improvement of class culture. The current software of LanSchool is installed on all PC's and Macs. The software is used schoolwide and it is a default installation on the teacher station for every classroom that has computers. All teachers are trained and receive professional development on the software. The key problem it addresses is monitoring a computer classroom with over 30 students or a library with over 100 computers and students. In terms of education, there is a large issue with keeping students engaged and active in all lessons. The best way to keep students on task is to be able to monitor all students from a main teacher station. When actually teaching lessons, the best use case for the software is to take over the entire class' computer screens and share your teacher screen to demo assignments or tasks.
Pros
- 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.
Cons
- Room for improvement would be that the software sometimes has glitches. There are times that when you unfreeze a student machine it does not unfreeze, the student is required to restart their machine.
- If the wifi is poor, it is difficult to track the students because there is a lag in what it shows on your screen. I wonder if using Bluetooth could speed up that process from computer to teacher computer stations.
- Things that I would love to see that I have not seen are the ability to send emails to students. We can send messages directly to the computers, but being able to email directly from the software would avoid the need to leave the platform and go to other websites such as a Gmail. This would streamline communication.
- A positive impact on the school is how it is changing school culture. This trains students to be more active and engaged. As a school, it forces all students to be more focused and more aware that teachers can see their actions and use them to track their progress.
- A strong ROI is that it also provides key feedback to use in parent-teacher meetings. You can track what students are doing and identify how often they are on or off task in a specific lesson. Teachers can screenshot students that are off task and share it with parents to help support future student engagement. As a school, it supports the need for teachers to be on top of student activity.
- There is no financial ROI from the software, as education is a service industry, but the students definitely receive a better education as a result. When students receive a better education, we can increase students' scores, graduation rates, and college scholarships.
In terms of competition, there is no real competition that we have used at the school or find on the market. We use tools such as REMIND, MOODLE, and KAHOOT, but none of them would be a replacement for LanSchool. On the contrary, all of those tools would support what we do with LanSchool because it gets students in the comfort level of using different technology tools to communicate and be successful. Apple has a Remote Desktop tool, similar to LanSchool in most ways. The key difference between Apple's Remote Desktop and LanSchool is that Lenovo's LanSchool has a student app and a stronger teacher platform to use on non-Mac devices. Our school focuses on LanSchool because using it on a PC and on a MAC, it is the same interface with the same fluidity. Teaching students on MACs to use Remote Desktop and on PC's or Chromebooks to use LanSchool would be a misuse of resources and confusing for educators and students. The best system for engagement and student use would be via LanSchool on all operating systems.
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