Cañon City Schools, Colorado, U.S.

Challenge

Cañon City is a small school district and funding is generally difficult to procure. In 2017, the Mill Levy allowed funding to be designated to specific devices for districts to accomplish education technology goals. The school district wanted to move toward a more ‘Future Focused’ educational approach. When local voters passed the Mill Levy, this allowed schools to implement a 1:1 Chromebook program and start investigating interactive devices for the classrooms to work alongside Chromebook implementation.

The school district also understood that students are ‘digital nomads’ and use technology in their own lives outside of school. District goals included moving towards interactive technology to meet students where they are and adapt to how they learn. Interactive education technology would also make the classroom environment more relevant and engaging.

With the opportunities the Mill Levy provided, and the desire to enhance interactive student learning, Cañon City Schools moved towards changing what was in place — Epson projectors and some Promethean boards with devices that would meet their ed tech needs.

The school district’s goals were to strengthen technology use, as other surrounding districts had done, to provide a more uniform experience throughout the district.

Key Solutions

In August, 2020, Cañon City Schools invested in 110 Clevertouch Impact™ Plus panels on mobile carts that were installed in all K-5 classrooms (total value of $400K). Ashley DeVriendt, Tierney K12 Account Executive says, “We began the conversation regarding Clevertouch years ago and through demos and Administration attending our Tech Tour we were able to complete an impressive rollout of panels last summer to such deserving teachers. It was truly an honor to work with the wonderful Tech Team at Cañon City Schools and help them upgrade their technology. We appreciate them putting their trust in Tierney/Clevertouch and look forward to our continued partnership!”

The district chose the Impact panels for a number of main reasons:

• Compatibility with Chromebooks including USB-C port
• Clevershare collaboration app which allows for content sharing from any device
• The ability to use the Android system directly on the panel

These features allow for more fluidity among teachers in the classroom, which includes being wireless and untethered from their computers and desks.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed scheduling of formal training on the Impact panels, teachers were quickly up and running with the panels attesting to their ease-of-use.

Benefits

Of course, the coronavirus pandemic has made this school year more challenging than in years past. Yet, even with the challenges, leadership is happy to note that teachers have adapted well even without formal training.

“When COVID happened, we had to adjust so much in the present moment and the panels allowed us to adapt and become more mobile overall in the district,” states Dan Coppa, Instructional Technology Coach. “Staff was able to move the Clevertouch panels out to the parking lot so that they could conduct their staff meetings together while still social distancing. They used a daisy chain from one panel to another to allow for multiple screens to display information at one time.”

In the classroom, teachers have successfully adapted to the new technology and utilize many of the different features on the Impact Plus panels. Teachers enjoy using ClassLink on the Chrome browser which has made it easy to access all of their online curriculum directly on the panel.

Says Coppa, “Even the more traditional teachers are using the Clevertouch panels as an instructional tool every day in the classroom. Favorite apps include Clevershare and Whiteboard. The staff finds the panels very easy to navigate, which was a main reason the Clevertouch panels were chosen.” Teachers have embraced the technology, and this is making an incredible difference with their teaching. The Impact Plus panels and interactive apps allow teachers to be more mobile and attentive to the students in their classrooms, boosting student learning. Their drive and enthusiasm is making a challenging situation less so.

Teachers eagerly anticipate formal training on the panels and software to truly dig into the Impact features and functionality. We are equally excited to help Cañon City Schools make the rest of this school year, and beyond, tech strong!