Aerohive Networks, the pioneer in controller-less Wi-Fi and cloud-enabled networking, today announced StudentManager, a Wi-Fi app for K-12 teachers, giving them control of the wireless network inside the classroom. Building upon its WLAN administration app TeacherView, designed to reduce the burden on teachers utilizing Wi-Fi in the classroom, Aerohive has now introduced StudentManager that adds a suite of new features including Student Information System integration, Lesson Planning and CIO-level reporting for classes, schools and districts. Aerohive also announced today that it has formed a partnership with Pearson, provider of student information systems (SIS).
Today’s 1:1 laptop programs in primary and secondary schools are becoming standard practice for the 21st century classroom - but they are posing quite the challenge for teachers:
- Teachers are forced into the role of IT/network administrators; a role for which they are often unprepared. Enabling a classroom of students to log into their computers and get connected to the network can be extremely daunting to a non-technical instructor. Not only can these issues hijack class time; they can erode the teacher’s credibility.
- With any network connected computer there are innumerable distractions for students. Video and audio noise can inhibit concentration, while the temptation of unrestricted Internet access can easily draw students away from the task at hand.
- Given the lure of the Internet, teachers must be able to ensure that the laptop is being used as assigned/intended. The screen of a laptop faces the wrong way for a teacher to see what students are doing, which forces teachers to roam the classroom to view student screens.
- 1:1 programs are most easily justified when their use can be quantified. Unfortunately, a disparate set of solutions that do not interoperate can make this almost impossible. Moreover, some solutions do not integrate with other centralized information systems, so data either goes unused or must be reentered before it can be measured.
Aerohive’s StudentManager app is a monitoring and reporting system for school districts that use Aerohive HiveAPs for wireless access. StudentManager is designed to provide a school district with a single solution to monitor and track wireless client use in schools, as well as put power into the hands of classroom administrators while they are using the wireless network. StudentManager not only includes TeacherView, but it also simplifies configuration for TeacherView by integrating with Student Information Systems (like Pearson’s PowerSchool solution) providing reporting information about how technology is used in classrooms.
- StudentManager Features and Benefits: TeacherView Classroom monitoring and management for clients connected to an Aerohive HiveAP that does not require any client-agent installation Extensive Reporting Centralized reporting for detailed classroom content all the way to district-level correlation Includes historical resources accessed lists “Follow Me” Functionality Allows a teacher to automatically permit and redirect students to content the teacher is currently viewing Requires no endpoint agent and supports all browser types Lesson Planning Teachers can pre-plan classes integrated with wireless access Permits white listing URLs to limit classroom devices to specific HTTP resources during class time Sophisticated Authentication Integrated with Student Information Systems to quickly pull class, student, and teacher information Teacher access is authenticated with RADIUS and can be integrated with Active Directory or other secure user store
- Pricing and Availability TeacherView Cart has been available since Q3 2010 at no additional cost to existing HiveManager and HiveManager Online customers StudentManager is a separate app that works with all standalone HiveManager deployments The StudentManager appliance which includes up to 1000 students starts at $4,999 US list and each additional 1000 students cost $1,999
“iPods and the other interactive applications we provide are an incredible learning tool. However, we quickly realized that our teachers were spending too much time managing the classroom, taking away valuable teaching time,” said Joshua Spaugh, Director of Technology at Isle of Wight County Schools. “We are very excited that Aerohive is introducing StudentManager. This is the first tool we've come across that allows the teacher to make changes at the classroom level. At the touch of a button, the teacher is able to turn off access to the Internet, send students to a particular Web site and monitor the sites being used to ensure they are focused on the task at hand.”
