Lan School is a classroom management tool that works on Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS. It is a management software built to keep learners engaged and learning while staying within the walls of a safe digital environment. It provides tools to monitor learners’ screens to make sure that they stay on task. It also has a chat function that allows instructors to communicate with learners and help them with their projects. The broadcast feature allows the educator to broadcast his/her screen to the rest of the class.

Website: https://lanschool.com/

What Users Love About the App

“LanSchool has been an absolute game-changer in my classroom. During virtual education and the pandemic, they became used to gaming or otherwise tuning out during class, then Googling all the answers once it came time to complete their assignments. Using LanSchool, I can block specific websites and applications during class, check in on students to ensure they are on task, and blank student screens when they need to focus on the front of the classroom.”

“It is nice to centrally track, restrict the exposure and sharing of programs and pages on other screens. It helps to differentiate a lesson greatly as everyone actively engages in the subject. Students will look at my screen and follow my pattern in a small window. You don’t have the problem that because of lighting issues or their classroom location, a student can’t look at the monitor in advance.”

“I like that this software allows me complete control over the screens in my classroom. I don’t have to worry about getting up and walking around the classroom as much to monitor screens because I have all of the tools necessary to do that from the front of the room at my desk. I also really like the fact that I am able to control screens and devices from my computer, this gives me more control over what is going on in the room.”

“I really like the LIMIT WEB feature that allows teachers the control to set the sites they want their students to go to. They can set it and forget it, and be confident that LAN School will only allow the students to go to the sites the teacher has pre approved. The teacher is safe to move around the room and work in small groups knowing the other students are not accessing sites that are not allowed during their class.”

“LanSchool helps teachers to minimize distractions and encourage students to stay on task when completing assignments. I love that teachers are able to communicate one to one with a student without drawing unwanted attention. LanSchool increases student engagement as well as provide differentiated learning in the classrooms.”

What Users Dislike About the App

“It could be a little difficult to schedule lessons with many different teachers. Scripting is too technical to configure. A simple Quick Launch Transmission tool should be given to allow me to claim that you have these next computers in this room rather than open outdated configuration files.”

“The interface is not amazing and you have to go into menus sometimes to get features. Also when it freezes or gets buggy you have to completely close and reopen the program which can take some time to do.”

“The crashing and unfriendly user interface. Mostly the fact that it doesn’t open as a normal program and is hidden in the bottom right of Windows hurts. Our staff that is computer illiterate has a tough time understanding this. We try to have days where we try to show off more uses for Lanschool. Unfortunately, some people “lose” themselves in the menus even though it doesn’t seem that difficult for typical computer savvy users.”

“There are some hiccups with the Chromebooks. Students can restart the Chromebooks (which only takes a few seconds) and when they come back online the teacher no longer sees the device in their console so the student is free from the teacher control.”

“What I’ve found on both the MacBook and Chromebook OSs is that students are really adept at finding ways to thwart their system. For instance, in many cases, they just need to toggle on and off their wifi connection or shut their laptop and open it for their teacher to lose access to their device. The teacher can only fix it by entirely rebooting their class. This is a real problem.”