THE #1 Innovation for Students without Home WiFi

As one-to-one and Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) initiatives continue to soar globally in K-12, we are quickly approaching the milestone of 50 million mobile computing devices in service by schools. Recent surveys have shown that 81% of teachers believe mobile devices enrich the classroom experience, and there are now over 200,000 educational apps in the Apple iTunes store and Google Play.

At the same time, according to Strategy Analytics, less than 60% of households in the U.S. have WiFi networks, ranking us as 11th in the world. (The Netherlands is #1 at over 80% in case you were wondering).

A fundamental challenge facing K-12 schools today is how to level the playing field for students without WiFi at home.

The ability to work offline is an absolute must for any school today using mobile devices. Teaching and learning cannot stop during the school day just because the WiFi network goes down, and affordability prevents data plans on large volumes of iPads at virtually every school. Further, students must have equal ability to complete and submit homework after school hours, even if they don’t have a wireless network in their home.

The good news? There is an answer, available today with iPads, and in the future with other devices. It’s called a “connected learning platform”. Modern connected learning platforms (like ours at Canary Learning) not only were designed specifically for K-12 mobile workflow, they were designed to work offline.

A connected learning software platform is a new, foundational building block for K-12 infrastructure, designed specifically for schools using mobile devices. The software makes digital lesson creation and scheduling, assignment workflow, and grading much easier for teachers, helps students stay organized, and enables a much more detailed, real-time view of learning for parents. (For a broader look at the benefits of a connected learning platform, see “The Ten Coolest Things About to Happen in K-12 Education”)

Today’s leading connected learning platforms can harness the local storage of the iPad by offering sophisticated synchronization software. This enables homework completion and submission for students, including time stamps and automatic submission once wireless connectivity is re-established. Along with offline grading, local storage of assignments for teachers also means zero loading time of documents to be graded, a common frustration for many teachers today.

K-12 is one of the most underserved markets on the planet, which is one of the primary reasons Canary Learning was founded. Addressing the large number of students without home WiFi is just one of the significant benefits that our Canaryflow mobile learning platform is delivering to schools today. With three K-12 students of my own, I am very excited to see these kinds of advancements for our teachers and students, and for us as parents.

Let me know what you think.

Keith Higgins

CEO Canary Learning