Indiana teachersand students
embrace remotelearning withLanSchool

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When schools across the world were forced toswitch to remote learning, few were as prepared
as Northside Elementary and Union City Junior/Senior High in Indiana.
The local education authority, Randolph Eastern
School Corporation, has taken big steps over thelast few years to make distance learning a real
alternative to on-campus teaching.
Students regularly take part in on-campus
distance learning drills and pre-planned distancelearning days. When classroom learning isn’t
possible, the entire district is ready to go remotewithout missing a beat.
To make the district’s distance learning initiatives
possible, they needed the right platform. One
that would allow teachers to properly engage
with their classes and enable students to focus
on education when at home. IT Manager Blake
Clevenger implemented LanSchool Air, a cloudbased classroom management solution,
to support these objectives.

Prior to using LanSchool, the district relied on
email to help students and teachers communicate
during eLearning days. But Blake found that manyolder students didn’t check their emails regularlyenough for this to be effective. And some younger
students found email etiquette hard to master.
Also, teachers couldn’t see what
students were working on in realtime, so it was difficult to confirm
whether students were participating.
When technical challenges did arise(e.g. students not being able to findthe right web page), teachers had
no way of troubleshooting otherthan to ask the student to describe
what was happening on their screen.
This resulted in a loss of valuable
teaching time.
Blake launched LanSchool Air witha small group of teachers and wasimmediately impressed by how easy
it was to learn and use.

It’s a reallystraightforward
piece of software.
Blake Clevenger, IT Manager,Randolph Eastern School Corporation

He started a pilot with themost tech-savvy teachers who
immediately wanted to use it.
One of those members of staff wasscience teacher Karli Bransteter.
“At first I was worried it would becomplicated. But the fact that it
synced with Google Classroom
made it a million times easier,” shesaid. “It took me about 10 minutes
to learn it. I instantly figured it out.”

Karli was away at an education
conference when the pilot program
began, giving her a uniqueperspective on the software’s
capabilities. “I was able to see if
my kids were working while I wasaway. It was super handy,”
she said.

Ever since we got on LanSchool Air, I was big on
telling other teachers about it and how awesome it is.
Teaching remotely, it’s important to be able to see inreal time if your kid is having an issue, instead ofthem having to explain it over email or text.
Karli Bransteter, Science Teacher,
Union City Jr. High School

Distractions
during class?
Not with LanSchool
Now Karli uses LanSchool Air to make her lessons
more productive, whether students are at home or oncampus. “If kids are working in the hallway, they cansend me a question instead of coming in and out of theclassroom, which reduces distractions. And likewise, I
can send discreet requests to students, which they’remore likely to respond positively to.”Karli can also use the Push website feature to instantly
open the same website on every students’ device. Blank
screen can then lock those devices whenever needed,and ensure students are giving Karli their full attention.
When the pandemic dictated that Randolph Eastern
Schools needed to switch to distance learning long-term,
Karli used Google Hangouts to hold regular catch-ups
with her whole class.
“It’s helpful, as students are more willing to communicatethat way,” she explained. “And instead of calling kids out
by themselves, I can just say, ‘Some of you aren’t working
the way you’re supposed to,’ and it gets everyone backon track. Plus, it’s good for reminders.”

LanSchool teaches
students digital skills
and the value of education
Perhaps most importantly, LanSchool
has given Karli a way to stay connectedwith students who may otherwise havebecome disengaged. She organised
weekly meetings to give students aspace to interact with her and eachother. Karli was initially sceptical thatanyone would attend. But to her surprise,
students not only attended but were
enthusiastic to reconnect with her andtheir peers.
“Kids who weren’t fond of school before
have been reaching out and saying
how much they miss it,” she said. “Kidsand parents seem to have found a new
appreciation for school and what teachers
do. I think parents knew to some extent,
but a lot of kids have taken for granted
what a privilege school is.”When on-campus teaching does resume,
Karli expects digital devices will remain
a big part of her lessons. “I think that’s
a good thing,” she said. “Because it’schanging kids’ digital literacy andteaching them important collaborationand communication skills.”
After the successful pilot, the easy
scalability of the platform meant Blake
could roll it out to individual teachers assoon as they requested it. Now, most of
the district’s teachers use LanSchool Air.

“I thought the rollout was really simple. If there were any pain points,
I don’t remember them.”
Blake Clevenger, IT Manager, Randolph Eastern School Corporation

About LanSchool
As a pioneer and innovator of classroom
management software, LanSchool helps
teachers connect
with students to create more meaningful
online experiences, both in the classroomand remotely.
Backed by Lenovo and building on 30
years as an edtech leader, LanSchool
helps guide learning,
increase collaboration and maximize
teaching time. We’ve also partnered with
best-in-class safety
solutions to protect every student,
teacher and staff member fromcyberattacks.
Randolph Eastern Schools use LanSchool
Air on 1:1 Lenovo Chromebook devices.
For more information on device bundle
discount, to book your free 30 day trial
or a 1:1 demo, visit www.lanschool.com.