Competition for students’ attention is fiercer than ever.
Between Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and a host of other social media platforms, competition for student engagement is fiercer than ever. Whereas in the past, schools simply had to keep students from talking to one another or otherwise disrupting a lesson, they now must contend with an online ecosystem keen to distract students from their coursework.
What’s more, common technology issues can provide an opening for student disengagement. In one moment, the student is actively working on a particular assignment, but in the next, having forgotten their login for an online instructional platform, the student quickly pivots to non-academic tasks. Without the proper safeguards in place, the modern online ecosystem with which students regularly engage can derail learning, presenting yet another obstacle to content mastery.
At CTS, we promote student engagement by quickly resolving common technology issues, directing schools to the latest and greatest in online instructional platforms, and supporting data-driven interventions to combat disengagement. Taken together, our efforts ensure schools can focus on their students rather than worrying about technology troubleshooting.
CTS supports student engagement by quickly resolving common technology issues.
Common technology issues can quickly derail student engagement, providing an opening for online content that competes for students’ attention. These issues confront both teachers and students, frustrating everyone in the process and threatening to undermine classroom instruction.
If a teacher’s projector bulb blows out, she needs a replacement fast, or else students might begin to chat with one another, open their Chromebooks, scroll through their phones, and otherwise disengage from the day’s lesson. Similarly, suppose a student can’t remember their Chromebook login. In that case, a school-issued device breaks down, or the password for an online instructional platform no longer works, the student might, understandably, engage with non-instructional content while they await a resolution.
CTS seeks to dramatically decrease the time between the onset of these and other common technology issues and their resolution, quickly returning students to the day’s instruction and reducing the risk that non-academic content will lead to student disengagement. Depending on the service package a school adopts, teachers, students, and even students’ family members can call a designated helpline and connect with a support technician who can then help resolve the technology-related issue in a timely manner.
Student engagement is at the center of many online instructional platforms.
CTS also supports schools in sourcing, setting up, and managing online instructional platforms that excel at student engagement. As schools have increasingly adopted one-to-one student-device ratios, students engage with online content to a greater degree than ever before. From content management systems like Google Drive and Google Classroom to platforms like BrainPOP, student learning increasingly depends on online instructional platforms’ capacity to grab and maintain students’ attention.
For administrators unfamiliar with the educational technology space, the sheer number of online instructional platform marketplace options can prove overwhelming. Fortunately, CTS team members have decades of experience in the educational technology space and can easily recommend many online instructional platforms they’ve seen schools use successfully to promote student engagement. If students ultimately use their school-issued devices to access non-instructional content, the devices are of little use for teaching and learning. By placing engaging online content in front of students, schools can ensure that their technology investments support–not detract from–student learning.
CTS helps schools use student data to track social-emotional learning outcomes and combat disengagement.
Finally, CTS can help schools use their student data more effectively to identify potential issues with student engagement and intervene before students completely check out. For instance, CTS can support schools in setting-up data and assessment platforms that put students’ academic, social-emotional, and attendance datasets into conversation with one another. By plotting the relationship between, for example, student attendance and academic performance, school leaders can produce powerful custom reports that show students’ families the perils of disengagement.
CTS can also help schools manage unwieldy, longitudinal datasets that provide insights into engagement over long periods of time. If a student excelled in one grade but not another, CTS can help schools mine their student-level data for potential clues as to what’s holding the student back. If the student failed to attend school to a far greater extent one year than another, schools can craft attendance-focused interventions to get the student back on track.
At CTS, we take care of the technology so that schools can focus on their students.
We’ve partnered with more than 60 schools across the United States to craft and maintain world-class technology programming. As competition for students’ time and attention intensifies, CTS stands ready to help schools grab and keep students’ attention to support classroom instruction. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help your school accomplish its unique mission.
