10 Top Benefits of Student Screen Monitoring

Today, classrooms dramatically differ from the educational settings we once considered typical. Educational Technology (EdTech) has revolutionized the classrooms of the modern age and has become a part of students’ daily school work. Using technological tools now seamlessly complements teachers’ work and improves student learning. However, when technology is present, it must be controlled, and educators must keep an eye on what K-12 students are doing behind their screens. That is why student screen monitoring is essential for every school setting where technology is present. To find out more on why and how to monitor students, check out the following 10 top benefits of monitoring students’ screens.

#1 Better Student Engagement and Productivity 

Classroom screen monitoring can greatly affect students’ productivity and engagement. By employing software to monitor students’ screens, you can get helpful insight into their learning. You can watch how they interact with given class materials, spot places where someone might need extra help, and create opportunities for engagement and interaction.

#2 Prevent Cheating and Academic Dishonesty 

When you monitor student screens, you also gain more power to prevent students’ academic dishonesty. Besides using student screen monitoring software to see the content they are viewing, you can control what they can and cannot do on their devices in real-time. So, you can decide what content they can use when being graded or handing in assignments. Furthermore, the software often allows for plagiarism detection and detecting AI-written content, so you know if students’ work is really their own or copied.

#3 Better Student Outcomes 

Student outcomes are positively affected by student screen monitoring in many ways. Using these technological tools, you can minimize distractions and, with it, improve the learning environment. With full control of students’ online activities, you can be assured they stay on task and are not distracted by content unrelated to school material.

#4 Better Discipline 

Keeping an eye on students’ screens is also a way of establishing and maintaining efficient discipline. If someone is distracted by irrelevant content, you can close their tabs and enforce ones relevant to school work. Furthermore, discipline is established with content filtering by setting filters and policies and deciding which content students can access and which has no place in the classroom.

#5 Early Identification of Learning Gaps

Student screen monitoring tools often include data analytics, with which you can track students’ progress in real-time. This allows you to keep track of individual students’ progress and to identify any learning gaps so you know which students need extra support and which may need additional tasks.

In addition to providing better-targeted support based on staying ahead of your student’s learning, you can customize each student’s learning experience. EdTech allows everything from monitoring students’ screens to serving the needs of any student—from those who are best at remembering visual images to those who prefer understanding and memorizing written texts.

#6 Recognition of Inappropriate Behavior and Cyberbullying Prevention

Besides recognizing learning gaps early, you can also identify inappropriate behavior when you monitor student screens. In addition to classroom monitoring, all-in-one tools, like Blocksi, also offer student safety tools that identify cyberbullying and prevent similar undesirable behavior. The software blocks inappropriate content, like websites and emails, which results in better student mental health and better school performance.

#7 Enhanced Student Safety 

When the software detects harmful content or inappropriate behavior and is double-checked, the people responsible are notified in time so that they can take action. So, according to school administrator settings, admins, parents, and guardians are notified when worrying content is detected. This enables effective responses before anything bad happens, resulting in enhanced student safety.

#8 Better and Easier Classroom Management 

Besides the countless benefits student screen monitoring has for students, their academic success, and overall well-being, it also greatly benefits you. In addition to having more efficient classroom management, lesson planning, and lesson execution, you are empowered by getting the technological support you need to work in a classroom full of students with their own devices. Here are some other ways that student screen monitoring benefits teachers.

#9 Teacher Empowerment

Modern teaching usually calls for more mobility, and modern tools now allow you to move around the classroom and interact with your students simultaneously. By watching students’ activities from portable devices, like laptops and tablets, you can stay on top of all classroom activities from any corner of the room.

#10 Fostering Digital Citizenship

Making internet use safer also promotes digital citizenship: teaching students to conduct themselves online morally and responsibly. Not only are they shielded from undesirable information, but students also pick up technological know-how for interacting safely and successfully online. This is helpful in their everyday lives and will benefit them later in their careers and personal lives.

SOURCES

[1] Districts struggle with social media verification, reporting cyberbullying
[2] Essential Elements of Digital Citizenship