Logging in remains a huge barrier to learning for many schools. Teachers share horror stories about supporting young learners with 20-25 character email addresses that include their surnames and school names. Outdated solutions like class/year shared passwords fall short of the Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2023 updates.
I’ve been working with schools and trusts across the country to solve a problem that nearly all teachers have experienced…. the real frustration of getting students logged in to their computers at the start of a lesson.
Too many teachers have abandoned lessons altogether because logging in has become too big an obstacle and too many teachers hesitate to make use of devices for fear of losing time due to unnecessary distractions. Additionally, alternative methods like sharing or posting passwords hurt data privacy and security.
The more research we’ve done, the clearer the issue has become; getting kids logged on to a device is a simple problem that can have a huge impact on any lesson. Chromebooks are literally built from the ground up for ease of use and transferability, making them perfect for educational settings, especially where devices are shared between users. However, we are surely missing the point if logging in is a barrier to secure access.
One headteacher explained, “So far in Year 1, we’ve spent the best part of the term learning to log in. The joy of computing is fizzling out for our kids.”
Do we need to teach children logging in as a skill?
Yes, logging in is a skill and of course it needs to be taught (at some point), but it can’t be a barrier to learning. For technology to thrive in the classroom, it needs to just work.
The right login solution will work for all abilities in any classroom and keep login information private.
Alice, Year 4, eloquently described how logging in impacts her learning: “By the time I’ve logged in, all my ideas have fallen out of my head because it's such a faff trying to get onto the Chromebook and start typing.”
Introducing Clever GO for Google Workspace
Clever, founded ten years ago, has been thinking about these classroom access problems for a long time and developed a student-friendly solution. Clever GO logs the student into both their Chromebook and applications with a Clever Badge, which is a unique and secure physical passcode that looks like a QR code. Additionally, their free Clever Portal, customisable by Year Group, gives students access to their “Sign in with Google” learning applications in one click.
Clever invented Badges in 2015, and now QR codes have become a popular solution for logging into individual applications. However, Clever GO takes security and privacy to a new level by kicking in a step earlier. Students just hold the Clever Badge up to the device’s webcam and all applications are available with a click of a button. Clever Badges keep login information safe, so students can log in quickly without any typing.
Clever, the platform powering digital learning for over 95,000 schools worldwide, has been connecting students to learning for the past 10 years and developed a student-friendly solution.
Clever GO helps students easily log in to Chromebooks and learning applications in one place.
Chromebooks should work the way they were designed: open the lid, login, and learn. Workspace makes learning tools available to the classroom, but login delays eat into valuable learning time. With Clever GO, students simply flash their Badge and start learning right away.
Contact Canopy to find out more about setting up Clever GO in your school - hello@canopy.education. Clever Go can also be included with Education Plus from Canopy - find out more at: www.canopy.education/education-plus