In the modern classroom, teachers making use of classroom management software bear the necessary digital functions to directly intervene on a student device, and can even instantly close students’ distracting tabs to avoid distraction.
Without making educators sound too authoritative, it's a fundamental form of equipment provided to teachers to ensure a students' learning foundation at school is in order.
Let's consider a typical scenario in a K-12 modern classroom.
Students are in their English class, their devices open and ready to use, the teacher hits the “Start Class” button on their classroom management dashboard and the lesson kicks off!
Class begins with the teacher sending a ‘types of sentences’ video to the students.
Using a teacher dashboard, the teacher gains visibility into each of the students’ devices.
About ten minutes later, a student named Jenny is thinking she’s not really having it today, she’s not in the mood for learning. She opens a new tab on her browser and decides to check out the latest movies on Google. Now the teacher can see this, on their class’ dashboard, and is slightly annoyed but does not have time to reprimand Jenny.
So what does the teacher do?
Once again, using their teacher dashboard in their classroom management software the teacher simply selects Jenny's device, navigates to a button that manages tabs and closes her distracting tab.
Jenny is taken aback and is thinking “what sorcery is this?!”.
Well, Jenny, this so-called “sorcery” is a modern classroom management tool that offers powerful features designed for teachers to keep students on track during the lesson.
Classroom management software of the modern K-12 classroom enables teachers to take control of their student devices during lessons to keep their students on-task.
Teachers are able to directly manage what tabs or browser windows students can and cannot navigate to during digital class time.
K-12 students are quite technologically inclined and are very clever when it comes to anything mobile device-related.
Another scenario that really highlights the benefit of classroom management software by instantly closing distracting tabs is a very interesting one. Jenny could open a new browser window, to listen to a podcast say, and then sneakily drag and hide it behind the lesson content browser window. The likelihood of this occurrence in the modern classroom is very high.
Little does Jenny know that with classroom management software, her teacher has a front-row seat to their cunning act in class.
Guide Students back to the task at hand
The teacher can view the various tabs open on a device, and easily remove this distraction with a click of a few buttons. Using their teacher dashboard, the teacher can select the student, then select the button that manages student device tabs, and can simply close the distracting tab or browser window with a quick click on their mouse.
Teachers can perform this action digitally without saying a single word to the student!
And as we all know, the teacher doesn’t need permission to do that - it is their duty to use tools provided by their IT colleagues to ensure students remain on-task and focused during class.
Classroom management software has certainly come a long way.
Students who struggle to concentrate in class, require assistance on their devices, or perhaps like to cause a bit of trouble for the teacher will more than likely improve their behaviour and performance when exposed to classroom management software. Particularly, when a teacher can close distracting and irrelevant tabs or windows on behalf of the student.
Today, we will often find that digital action is far more effective than verbal altercation.
Classroom management software speaks a K-12 learners' language, so why not make use of it?
Managing students' browser tabs, windows, and focusing them back on the lesson at hand is an essential part of the modern classroom. Being able to directly close distracting student tabs is crucial to the success of any K-12 educator and learner.
Discover more of what Mobile Guardian can offer to your classrooms and help keep students focused during class.
If you would like to learn about ways to enhance your modern classroom. Book a demo with me, and I’ll help you unlock the potential of your school's or district's hardware investment.
Find out more about how Classroom Management tools can bring focus to your virtual classroom.
Onwards,
Caroline Levine
Team Mobile Guardian