Clayton County Public Schools, Jonesboro, GA

Years earlier, CCPS had spent millions of dollars putting digital technology into classrooms, ending up with a very disjointed solution that included projectors from one manufacturer, whiteboards from another, student response systems made by a third provider, and slates and cameras by yet another. “None of it worked well together,” says Chief of Technology Rod Smith, M.Ed. “From an instructional standpoint, teachers need something that’s seamless so they can save instructional time and focus on teaching students.” With the Boxlight solution, teachers only need to learn one platform for the entire suite of tools.

Ready for a refresh, the district’s instructional and operational technology teams developed a comprehensive RFP that yielded a number of different bids and submissions. Boxlight quickly surfaced as a top contender. “They had everything we needed, including interactive flat panels, a student response system, document cameras, slates, and a software suite to run it all,” says Smith.

Even better, the vendor listened to CCPS’ challenges and offered good solutions. “We’ve worked with technology vendors in the past who didn’t have our best interest at heart,” says Smith, “and who were more interested in selling versus helping us figure out how to meet our district’s needs.”​​​​​​​

Addressing Needs

To date, CCPS has installed Boxlight’s technology in approximately 3,000 classrooms and media centers. Comprised of 38 elementary, 15 middle, and 12 high schools, the district—working with ProLogic ITS—installed 75-inch interactive flat panels with PC modules and MimioPad™ wireless pen tablets in all classrooms. CCPS was also able to provide several MimioVote™ assessment system kits and MimioView™ document cameras for teacher and student use at all grade levels across the district.

Director of Instructional Technology April Mayo, Ed.S. says Boxlight’s solution met CCPS’ requirements for new investments by helping teachers maximize instructional time, increasing student investment, and providing opportunities for timely or immediate feedback. “During the evaluation process, the Boxlight solution met those baseline criteria right away,” says Mayo. The all-in-one solution also eliminated the disparate, underutilized technology that had been put into CCPS’ classrooms years earlier.

Supporting Teachers

“The older technology required teachers to learn multiple applications,” says Mayo. “We don’t want teachers to spend hours of their own time learning how to use many pieces of software just for the sake of having those components in their classrooms.”

With this in mind, the CCPS team placed a premium on finding a partner that could deliver the professional training to ensure teacher success with the technology. “We definitely don’t expect our teachers to become technology gurus,” says Smith, “but we’re responsible for taxpayer dollars to the tune of $18 million for this rollout, so we also need to ensure high adoption rates.”

To track those rates, Mayo’s team developed a survey that’s sent to teachers and media specialists three times per year, with the resultant data being used to determine how many teachers are utilizing classroom technology and at what level. The data has been very positive and shown increases over previously installed equipment.

“Prior to a school’s installation, DLSs provided a ‘kick-off’ event to ensure teachers would be able to immediately begin using the IFP once installed,” says Mayo. “Immediately following a school’s install, the DLSs went from classroom to classroom to make sure all teachers could log in to and begin using their new IFPs on day one. Our teachers felt supported right away,” says Mayo. To keep enthusiasm levels high and give teachers the support required to see utilization rise, the DLSs remain available to work with teachers in various settings, including shoulder-toshoulder, in the classroom.

High Adoption Rates

Less than one year into implementation, the project is 96% complete and on track to post very high adoption rates of the Boxlight solution for the 2018–19 school year. In addition to the onsite DLS support, teachers are able to participate in selfpaced online coursework, enabling them to earn a Mimio Educator Certification through Boxlight EOS. Participating teachers have reported only positive feedback, stating that earning the certification has allowed them to build upon the DLS support and utilize the platform at a much deeper level in order to support instruction.

“You can walk up and down our halls at any point and I guarantee that the IFPs (interactive flat panels) are turned on, being used to display content, and supporting instruction,” says Smith. “That’s better than what we were doing previously, and that’s good for teachers, students, and our taxpayers.”