Contract Overview

Clevertouch won the 3-year contract with its multi-award-winning IMPACT touchscreen along with its accompanying software, LYNX Whiteboard and Clevershare. The initial rollout within the Texas School District includes the installation of 615 front of classroom interactive touch screen displays, encompassing 40 campuses serving 25,000 students and 2,500 faculty members. The initial first phase investment of $1 million for 615 IMPACT Clevertouch touchscreens will be closely followed up by a second order for a further 1,200 IMPACT touchscreens in 2021 with an overall total of 3,000 IMPACT touchscreens to be installed by early 2022.

The Challenge

Previously a SMART and SMART Notebook District faced the challenge of replacing ageing interactive whiteboards and projectors with innovative, collaborative, and easy to use technology. Why? To improve the learning environment for today’s students by using best-in-class technology.
The Texas School District had a complex set of criteria for its required solution.

Besides wanting the best hardware and features, the district was looking for a software suite that:

• enabled faculty and staff the opportunity to use existing resources
• complied with the IT department’s regulations
• worked seamlessly with the current network system
• ensured teaching continued during the technology refresh
• improved the overall student learning environment

In addition, with the implementation of any new product, there are challenges and a learning curve. Yet, the teachers — even those who aren’t the most tech-savvy — found the Clevertouch solution features easy to navigate and robust in comparison to the SMART boards they were accustomed to.

There was also the issue of cost when it came to revamping their existing technology. Because the SMART products required numerous replacement parts, such as bulbs for projectors, motherboards, and even fuses, it became too costly to do so districtwide.

The Vetting Process

A project of this magnitude required a strict evaluation process. In addition to meeting the needs of the selection criteria, the district was looking for a partner with a strong education focus that could offer future-proofing technology with longevity.

Phase One consisted of the demonstration of all hardware and software feature capabilities. This was compared with competing solutions and those that did not meet this criterion were swiftly eliminated.

Phase Two was the assessment period of the remaining solutions. These solutions were tested over 6-8 weeks to make sure each of the selection criteria was definitely met. In addition, the testing window helped to ensure compatibility between the current and new infrastructure for each campus.

The Clevertouch IMPACT touchscreens surpassed the competition, easily satisfying each of the requirements outlined. The superior connectivity, easy to use LUX interface, and built-in education app store, Cleverstore, also provided far more than just whiteboarding.

In addition, auxiliary features helped to strengthen the Clevertouch solution, such as USB-C inputs which enable single- cable connection from the Chromebook to the screen, and Clevermessage built-in signage for broadcasting news, alert messages, and notifications:

•    district or local news
•    special events like evacuations, intruders, or pandemic information
•    external content to keep staff, students, and visitors updated

District staff feels that they have yet to scratch the surface of what can be done with the Clevertouch IMPACT touchscreens.