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Customer since: 2023
Number of students: 2,700 PK-12
Tools they leverage: Hāpara Highlights and Teacher Dashboard
Featuring: Bill Rader, Director of Technology Administration
“The very first thing that I’ve always thought was crucial is to give teachers a way to somehow be looking at 25, 30 screens at the same time, which is hard to do walking around,” says Bill Rader, Director of Technology Administration in Danville Community School Corporation.
Danville previously used a classroom management solution that proved to be unreliable. Often, half of the student screens were not visible to the teacher, making it difficult to manage the digital classroom.
The district realized they needed to make a switch to a more reliable and powerful classroom management solution. That’s when they began looking into Hāpara.
Bill Rader explains why teachers need a screen monitoring tool.
When adopting technology district-wide, Bill always includes teachers in the decision-making. He reaches out directly to teachers to understand how a tool will affect them in the classroom.
This was the case when transitioning to a new classroom management solution. Teachers sat in on demonstrations for several platforms, ultimately choosing Hāpara.
“Every day our funding gets more challenged. So, we have to get these decisions right when we pick something,” Bill emphasizes.
“We know that [students] want to be digital. They’re naturally digital citizens and so trying to include everybody, be inclusive, give them the option of using digital tools to interact and collaborate. I think anytime you can make somebody enjoy what they’re doing and maybe not even be aware they’re learning, I think is a way to kind of knock it out of the park. So, you’re really solving that need along with the ability for the teachers to keep them on task,” says Bill.
Hāpara provides teachers in Danville with consistent real-time visibility into what learners are doing online. With this visibility, teachers keep learners on track by guiding their browsing, opening websites onto devices and having one-on-one conversations with Hāpara’s Chat feature. Hāpara also provides Danville teachers with the ability to view learners’ Google Drive files to check in on progress. These features empower teachers across the district to manage their digital classroom effectively and help learners become responsible digital citizens.
Bill Rader describes today’s classrooms.
When it comes to integrating technology in schools, Bill believes that collaboration is the key in Indiana.
He explains, “We’re lucky. We have a really tight relationship with our DOE … So that really helps us share our stories, share our challenges. And I think that helps where everybody struggles to get their appropriate funding and really helps our districts to be more consistent. I would hope that if a student changes schools for whatever reason, hopefully, they get a similar experience.”
Bill Rader explains the collaboration between Indiana district tech teams
