One of the best things about the Learning Counsel’s Lunch and Learn discussions is that it allows us to feature and recommend education products that we feel very strongly about. In the case of ClassLink, its reputation as a must-have solution has been thoroughly proven during the Coronavirus pandemic. According to Gary LoMonaco, Senior Director of Instructional Technology at ClassLink, “Let's say I'm at home or I'm in the classroom. When I open my device, I would then land on a screen like this. If I'm using an iPhone or an iPad or an Android or some type of smart device, I also have that option to download those apps and access my resources that way as well for the younger kids, K through two, maybe special needs students where perhaps they can't type in a username because they can't read or write yet. What we offer as well is our quick card, making it easy for these users to access these resources with that quick card that user can simply open up a device.

“They can go to the camera with that card. They can log right into the device, or we can bring them right into the classic platform. Like you're seeing here either way again, trying to streamline that access to your district's resources. Over the pandemic, access became a bigger issue. I think New York kind of just talked about it a little bit as well, but that was a huge issue for schools that came on board with ClassLink. It was now easy for them to present these resources to their users, whether they were in the district or outside the district. They were still able to present a consistent experience to their users. I'm going to go ahead and log in with my Google account here. And of course, there we go.

“Now we also do offer multi-factor authentication. So, any of you IT guys out there that are focused on security, we have multifactor built in, but we can also integrate with programs like Microsoft Office 365. Once that user's logged in, this is where that customized learning experience is going to begin for them. So what does that mean? Well, not all your students and teachers are the same, right? They don't access the same exact applications. They don't do the same things. They all have different resources that they need to access and different applications they need to work with. And that's really where ClassLink shines when your users log in.

They're only going to see what they need to access. If they need to get into BrainPOP, they're going to see it. If they're a fifth grader, they're going to see whatever fifth grade resources they need to access. If they're an eighth grade, whatever that eighth grader needs to access. And of course, your admins and teachers can have their own experience as well. We also offer a parent portal where you can make it even easier for your parents and your district to access your resources. Whether it's a simple calendar link, whatever you need your parents to access, they can log in. They can have their own experience.

All they need to do is simply come in here, click on the resources and applications they need to access and bam, they are ready to go. True Single Sign In (SSI). I see it. I click it. I go. I see it. I click it. I go, and it's really that straightforward and that easy for them to access. We also want to help you organize these resources in a nice, easy way. So we have things like folders for all of your employees. You want to create a folder for employee resources. Go ahead and do that. A lot of our schools have library databases, which I'm sure all of you have as well. We've helped a lot of our districts put those databases out here.

So they are now accessed 24 7 through the platform. What we also do with schools is we help to create an application library. So, it almost becomes like an online store for your school district. Every application that we're going to build out and put into the platform, you will have the ability to access through customized libraries. So maybe you want your high school students to see a certain set of applications, and then you want your partners or your teachers to see other sets of applications. You can create those custom resources for them to access here. Another great benefit of this as well is users can start to add their own resources. I always like to use the example that I'm a science teacher and there's a bunch of science blogs out there. And I really like to use them in class. Well, I can go ahead and enter all of that information here. Once I do that, it would now show up as an application for me to access, simply click it. And I'm into that resource.”

It really is true. Your district can solve its top three digital challenges with ClassLink: Access, Engagement, and Rostering. Enjoy this Lunch and Learn presentation and take the opportunity to investigate this resource for yourself.