Virginia School Division Improves Digital Equity with Kajeet Education Broadband™
MCLEAN, Virginia (PRWEB) January 09, 2017 -- Kajeet, the industry leader for safe, mobile student Internet connectivity, announces its expanded partnership with Fauquier County Public Schools (FCPS) to improve digital equity, especially within rural areas in the division.
Under the program, FCPS students can check out Kajeet SmartSpot® devices – Wi-Fi hotspots – to gain mobile access to educational resources on the Internet. The devices, which are checked out through the schools’ media centers, are connected to the Kajeet Sentinel® platform. The platform enables the school to filter in educational materials, filter out unsafe and irrelevant content and manage data allocations.
After successfully completing the pilot phase, the technology services department received additional funding for Phase Two where the division distributes Kajeet SmartSpot devices directly to students in three high schools, five middle schools and one alternative school. Now in the second year of its program, the division aims to provide annual funding for Kajeet Education Broadband.
Significant portions of Fauquier County have limited or no Wi-Fi connectivity, hence why FCPS turned to Kajeet to meet students’ needs to access the Internet to do online homework. Holistically, the county hopes to fund broadband expansion to rural areas over the next five years.
“We recognize that there is a digital equity issue in our county,” said Louis McDonald, director of technology services for FCPS. “Significant limitations on Internet access have impacted the ability of many of our students to do their homework and be fully engaged. We asked, ‘How can we provide our students – and our teachers – with a service that facilitates learning and helps our children succeed?’ We found the answer in our partnership with Kajeet.”
“Internet connectivity for homework is an acute need for students who do not have it. And there are many, many such students across America,” said Daniel Neal, CEO and founder of Kajeet. “As our teachers increase their reliance on technology and Internet resources to achieve success in the classroom, the need to ensure digital equity among all students intensifies. District leaders such as Fauquier County exhibit far-sighted leadership in meeting this need, and therefore investing in the success of their students.”
The Kajeet education filtering and management capabilities complement the division’s firewall and comply with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). These filters and policy management tools also keep students within their daily data limits. “The [education] filters help students stay focused when using the SmartSpot devices,” said McDonald. “This is a device to help you do your schoolwork, and device policies allow you to stay on task and avoid distractions.”
In addition, Sentinel provides a dashboard for administrators to better understand how students are using the devices outside the classroom, including which educational sites are accessed. McDonald noted that “the dashboard is very helpful.”
The Kajeet Education Broadband solution connects students outside the classroom through two robust nationwide 4G LTE networks so students are ready to connect to any device, anywhere. The Kajeet solution is designed to provide educational information and keep students on task without worry of data abuse. Kajeet has partnered with hundreds of schools and districts across the nation.
About Kajeet®
Kajeet, the industry leader for safe, mobile student Internet connectivity, is closing the Homework Gap in school districts across the country. Kajeet provides an affordable mobile broadband solution that connects low-income students to the resources needed to complete homework. The Kajeet SmartSpot® solution, a portable Wi-Fi hotspot combined with the innovative Sentinel® cloud portal, enables administrators and teachers to provide CIPA-compliant, customizable filtered Internet access that keeps students focused on school work and provides mobile Internet connectivity for education without worry of data abuse. Kajeet products and services, which operates on both the Sprint and Verizon network, are protected by the following issued U.S. patents: 9,237,433; 9,137,389; 9,137,386; 9,125,057; 8,995,952; 8,929,857; 8,918,080; 8,774,755; 8,774,754; 8,755,768; 8,731,517; 8,725,109; 8,712,371; 8,706,079; 8,667,559; 8,644,796; 8,639,216; 8,634,803; 8,634,802; 8,634,801; 8,630,612; 8,611,885; 8,600,348; 8,594,619; 8,588,735; 8,285,249; 8,078,140; 7,945,238; 7,899,438; 7,881,697. Other patents are pending. For more information, please visit us at kajeet.net.
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Linda Kerr, Kajeet, http://www.kajeet.net, +1 240-482-3516, [email protected]
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