Student engagement in 2020 and beyond
While educators agree that advancing student engagement is critical, schools across the country continue to be challenged in their efforts to meet student engagement objectives. A Gallup study of more than 5 million student surveys revealed that more than half of U.S. students in grades 5-12 are either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” – and that was before the pandemic. Remote and hybrid learning now present new challenges for student engagement while amplifying many of the challenges teachers were already facing.
Increasingly, schools are turning to technology as a solution. Our 2020 State of Technology in Education report found that year-over-year a majority of teachers feel that technology in the classroom is a great way to engage students. Nearly 70% of educators report that they are constantly striving to innovate using technology as a tool for education and 82% predict that technology adoption, combined with traditional resources and teaching methods, will be the biggest trend school systems will see over the next ten years.
Promethean’s 2020 State of Technology in Education report found that the overwhelming majority of educators attest to technology’s role in classroom innovation.
Purpose-built for student engagement
For over 20 years, empowering students and teachers has been at the heart of Promethean’s mission. As a company by teachers, for teachers, Promethean understands the power of student engagement to influence everything from academic achievement and emotional functioning to retention and graduation rates. We see student engagement as fundamental to student success.
It’s with student engagement in mind that Promethean continues its focus on hybrid and in-person learning solutions. Amid the pandemic, the limitations of video conferencing and remote education have renewed educators’ appreciation of the physical classroom as an essential learning environment. Children learn through social interaction; the classroom is and will always be central to the learning experience. We believe that with the right technology in hand, teachers in the classroom have the power to turn student engagement trends around.
Student engagement is central to Promethean products and is addressed at every stage of product development and implementation. From observing teachers and students in the classroom to rigorous user testing and administrator focus groups, Promethean student engagement features are deeply informed. The result is award-winning edtech that is purpose-built for student engagement.
We know that no one understands student engagement, as well as teachers, do; listening to teachers and prioritizing their needs directly impacts edtech’s ability to drive engagement in the classroom. In fact, the Promethean Timer app is a direct result of teacher feedback. Teachers wanted an easily accessible digital timer, so Promethean created one. The Timer is now among Promethean’s most widely used features. By centering teacher needs and student engagement objectives, Promethean is transforming the way the world learns and collaborates.
Advancing student engagement with Promethean
Promethean gives schools and teachers the tools they need to drive meaningful, sustained student engagement in both hybrid and in-person learning environments.
ActivPanel Elements Series Interactive Displays
Promethean ActivPanel® Elements™ series panels are designed to enable intuitive learning experiences with more opportunity for interactivity. Promethean’s Vellum ™ writing technology allows students and teachers to write on the board with just a touch of the finger. This gives students more opportunities to engage at the front of the classroom and empowers teachers to better architect each moment for maximum engagement and quality learning.
The ActivPanel Elements series comes preloaded with a suite of premium teaching tools and student engagement features, including:
- Infinite canvas: the Whiteboard app’s infinite canvas feature provides students with ample opportunities to develop and apply critical thinking skills in the moment
- Screen capture: allows teachers to quickly capture and crop content, and open it within the Whiteboard app for student-led discussion
- Screen share: controlled multi-device mirroring lets teachers move freely about the classroom, and interact with mirrored screens directly from the panel for increased student participation both in the classroom and at home
- Spinner: student names can be added to a digital spinner to aid student participation
- Timer: an on screen timer helps teachers with classroom time management
- Annotate: enables teachers and students to write over images, videos, and anything that appears on the panel
Cloud Connect
Promethean Cloud Connect links classroom panels to the cloud, making it easy for teachers to access and save their files. Within Promethean’s easy-to-use interface, images, PDFs, Promethean whiteboard files, and more are instantly accessible through a digital locker, to ensure that everything teachers need is right at their fingertips. Multiple teacher profiles allow teachers to pick up right where they left off. Promethean is tech agnostic and seamlessly integrates with both Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive environments, so teachers can connect with their content regardless of where it lives. By improving teachers’ workflow in the classroom, Cloud Connect helps teachers maximize time spent connecting with students.
Promethean Lesson Delivery Software, ClassFlow
Subscription-free access to our award-winning, student engagement optimized software is included with Promethean panels. With ClassFlow®, Promethean’s cloud-based teaching software, teachers can build and access interactive lessons from any web browser, share lessons with peers, and collaborate using the latest mobile and student response technology. Not only does ClassFlow make lesson preparation easier, it has the power to make lesson delivery more engaging.
ClassFlow gives teachers the ability to bring presentations, documents, image files, videos, and more into a single dynamic lesson — anytime, anywhere. Teachers can connect with students via the ClassFlow student portal, where content can be shared efficiently and easily.
Through ClassFlow, teachers are able to further engage students and measure student engagement with interactive polls and quizzes. A broad range of student devices and question types immerse students in lesson content. ClassFlow also motivates students to engage with hundreds of teacher-created digital badges rewarding positive student behaviour.
Furthermore, teachers can explore the ClassFlow Marketplace, where they can access a wealth of interactive instructional materials such as lessons, unit plans, assessments, teaching guides, and worksheets.
Promethean Lesson Delivery Software, ActivInspire
A collaborative lesson delivery software for interactive displays, Promethean’s ActivInspire provides teachers with a vast suite of award-winning lesson creation tools purpose-built for student engagement. Like ClassFlow, ActivInspire makes it easy for teachers to embed multimedia files and import PowerPoint slides, PDFs, and other existing resources, making their lessons more dynamic and engaging.
With multi-touch functionality and interactive tools, ActivInspire is designed to drive student engagement at the front of the class. Teachers can invite students to the panel to interact with engaging activities created from Promethean’s customizable activity templates. Teachers also have access to the myPromethean Resource Library, where they can download over 50,000 free teacher-created Flipcharts.
A sustainable student engagement solution
More than a technology provider, Promethean is a partner. Student engagement is a long term initiative and our partners can count on Promethean to be there every step of the way. By offering an onsite warranty, expert support, subscription-free software, and automatic software updates, Promethean offers schools a sustainable edtech solution they can count on.
When asked what schools will need to prioritize to make remote learning successful, our State of Technology in Education report found that 43% of respondents said teachers will require technology training. But that same report also revealed that roughly one-third of the respondents’ schools have no formal strategy for using technology.
In addition to ongoing dedicated technical support, Promethean provides schools with the teacher training resources they need. Promethean firmly believes that supporting teachers is critical to driving positive student engagement outcomes — this goes beyond installing new technologies in the classroom.
Promethean offers comprehensive professional development through Learn Promethean®. With in-person training, online courses, video tutorials, articles, and more, Learn Promethean provides teachers with everything they need to advance student engagement with Promethean.
Driving student engagement success
Schools everywhere are partnering with Promethean to drive positive student engagement outcomes.
An upstate New York district partnered with Promethean to support and personalize active learning. ActivInspire software tools including timer, dice, and magic ink helped East Ramapo successfully scaffold an active learning environment, while ClassFlow enabled district teachers to craft more immersive lesson experiences. The district observed a boost in student engagement across all learning modalities with in-class students going to the panel for hands-on practice with the software’s math tools and blended learners using layers to complete interactive drag and drop activities.
After partnering with Promethean to improve student reading engagement, NYC elementary school P.S. 101Q was recognized as a 2019 National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education. “They are using ActivPanel to make the instruction very visible,” noted P.S. 101Q’s Principal. “The technology makes interactive learning a reality for multiple learning modalities.”
While schools face formidable challenges on the road to advancing student engagement, especially amid the pandemic, adopting the right edtech solution can yield remarkable results. To learn more about what Promethean can do to power student engagement in your district, contact us to schedule a demo today.
