Things to consider when rolling out Airtame in schools

Airtame unlocks new opportunities for creating a more student-centered and collaborative learning environment. In addition to benefiting students, educators, and guests, the lives of IT administrators are also made a lot easier.

We try to make things run as smoothly as possible for our partners who use Airtame but, sometimes, implementing a new technological tool can be challenging. Getting deployment right depends on everything from leadership to staff and student engagement and quality training.

In order to help you make the most of Airtame in your educational setting, this article outlines everything to take into account — from the preliminary questions to consider before purchase, to ongoing processes for maintaining Airtame, and re-training key staff members and keeping your student body engaged. Your school will be up and running with wireless streaming in no time!

Looking for a step-by-step guide on mass deployment? Take a peek here. And here’s a quick overview of Airtame:

Make sure that investing in wireless technology is the right choice

Before investing in a new technological solution, make sure that you have asked yourself these relevant questions that will uncover whether this is the right choice. These can involve anything from budget considerations to which computers and displays are most commonly used.

You should also be sure that people want the change. No decision should be made before taking into account the preferences and concerns of educators and other staff members. IT administrators must also be involved to ensure that deployment will be realistic from a technical standpoint.

Do your research to see if Airtame is the best match for your particular needs, by taking into consideration how it compares to other solutions (check out our comparison articles here).  Even when you feel confident that it’s the optimal solution, double check that the requirements for using Airtame can be met.

We understand that funding can be tight, which is why we run a 30-day risk-free trial, to give you peace of mind, and to help offset any uneasiness about investing in a specific solution before getting to test it out first-hand.

Still in doubt? Let’s talk your questions through in a demo call. Don’t have the time? Check out our recorded Airtame for education demo:

Install and configure Airtame

Perhaps you will buy 40 Airtames for your school or institute – or perhaps you will buy 400. You may be using Airtame for a television or projector at the front of a classroom, or in a hallway, lobby area, or assembly hall. Whatever the case, the initial setup will require some planning.

First, think in advance about how you want to power the Airtames (i.e. through the USB port of your display or with the AC adapter that comes in the box). You could also use a PoE (power over Ethernet) solution for your devices. Consider the physical layout of each room, and whether or not the chosen setup can be accommodated.

Second, take into account if the devices will be at risk of theft, and physically secure them according to your judgment.

Third, consider an efficient labeling system that will be used for each Airtame based on its location (e.g., Biology Lab, Lobby Left, Classroom 24, etc.). Later on, you can save the same name on the label to a given device’s settings.

Fourth, plan how you will configure the devices. Configuration refers to how you will connect Airtame to the local network, and the settings you will turn on for each device (e.g., Pin Code Connect, Password Protection, Resolution, AirPlay, etc.).

Many educational settings have various groups of people who’ll want to present wirelessly—teachers, students, parents, guest speakers, etc.—and they’ll all need access to Airtame regardless of which network they’re on.

Start streaming – and test, test, test

Once you have physically installed and configured Airtame, it’s time to start streaming! We highly recommend having students, teachers, and IT administrators stream to Airtame from the various platforms used with your environment (be they Chromebook, Mac, Windows, Linux computers and/or iOS and Android mobile devices).

You can share your computer screen to one Airtame-equipped screen, or to multiple screens at the same time. During testing, judge image, video, and sound quality when streaming different kinds of content.

You can always reach out to our support team if you encounter any challenges. We also have a help center with articles to help guide your IT administrator (and everyday users) each step of the way. During this phase of testing, it may be useful to:

1. Test your Airtame setup to make sure each device is detectable.

2. Calibrate your display for the best possible image quality.

3. Test and improve streaming: including audio and video streaming.

4. Test and improve your WiFi network for better overall performance.

4. Get your devices on Airtame Cloud

Airtame Cloud, used for the easy management of your screens is available at https://airtame.cloud and is completely free. You simply set up a Cloud account with your work email, and then start adding Airtame devices to the platform. Once this is complete, you will be able to monitor and make changes to devices even when working remotely.

Cloud management is great for ease of use when it comes to the mass deployment and upkeep of dozens or even hundreds of Airtames.

One-on-one changes can always be made to an individual Airtame through the Airtame app, such as in the case of a teacher wanting to update something specific for a particular class. The Airtame app is handy for the everyday user, and Airtame Cloud is the best possible way for IT administrators to monitor performance and manage settings throughout the entire school.

One Airtame customer, Lake Superior College, has seen support tickets drop by 80% since deploying Airtame. This is due to the efficiency that Airtame Cloud, and other features, can provide when deployment is done right.

Get rolling with digital signage

When no one is streaming to Airtame for a class presentation or meeting, it can be used to show an image, website, or custom dashboard. This lets you make the most out of the displays that are already in use in classrooms or public spaces throughout the building, and can easily be updated via the Airtame app or from Airtame Cloud.

You could display the school’s website or its logo along with a welcome message to visitors on career day, or you could have the class timetable shown when students are working on independent assignments. You could even show a clock ticking down the time until a test is over, or an image of a famous painting as the backdrop of an art class.

Administrators can use Airtame Cloud to instantly display relevant mass communication (related to fire drills, directions for guests, or other public service announcements) across a building or entire campus. There is a multitude of ways to use signage to make a learning environment that much more safe, organized and inspiring.

Teachers and other staff should have a way to either update this content themselves, by having access to the device settings (which can be password locked), or, alternatively, there should be a simple forum for requesting that the relevant administrators update digital signage on an ongoing basis through Airtame Cloud.

Train teachers – and students

Training teachers and students will be an essential part of making the most of the devices. Showing people what they can do with technology, that they could not do previously, is the best possible way to demonstrate value. Meaningful change can only occur when this is realized in the long-term.

A single training session won’t be enough to ensure that old habits don’t kick back in soon after. Ongoing workshops and one-on-one sessions with an instructional technologist can help to sustain steadily increasing use of all the different features of Airtame.

While individual instruction is effective, a complementary learning tool is to have a landing page that gives everyone an overview of why you’ve chosen Airtame, and how it works.

A great example is this one created by Boston Public Schools who have taken a special initiative to take full advantage of their investment. Our team is of course always happy to assist over the phone, and by offering written instructions such as our printable guides and help center articles.

Continue updating, teaching, and learning

Airtame is a living product, meaning that we’re continually working on improving the user experience and product in order to help you use your screens better.

The Airtame Cloud platform offers a centralized and efficient way to make sure that all the devices are up to date. Ensuring quality control is also made easier by staying in touch with Airtame’s support team, in order to learn about relevant developments as well as get answers to any questions or concerns.

Airtame can help unlock more collaborative learning, one teacher, and student, at a time. With a steady influx of new educators and students, it’s important that training is ongoing, and that everyone has the time to peacefully move into a new method of teaching, and learning, in an increasingly wireless world.

If you have questions or need assistance with setting up Airtame in your environment, please get in touch via:

• Our live chat at www.airtame.com
• Email at support@airtame.com
• Booking a call

Interested? Let’s talk.