Lockhart Independent School District Teaching Outside the Box

The Challenge

Lockhart Independent School District is an independent school district situated in one of the fastest growing regions of Texas. They serve approximately 6,100 students across 9 campuses and cover 300 square miles in Central Texas. Lockhart ISD have three set district goals: First, to create a collaborative culture of contagious ambition, second; to expect all staff to embrace growth opportunities, and third; to empower students to seize opportunities to achieve at high levels. The district has a particular focus on education technology believing this is the key to best prepare students for ‘world and workforce experience in a rapidly-evolving technological revolution’.

Lockhart ISD offer students mobile education technology classes. They have discovered that certain classes (especially the ‘Special Education Program’ which offers more intimate classes of 5-10 students) benefit in their learning by offering variety in their teaching environment. This means hosting lessons in the cafeteria, the library and outdoors to offer a more scenic and open ‘classroom’ atmosphere.

The school district also offers a teaching method called Integrated classrooms, also known as mainstreaming or inclusion. This is the practice of placing students with learning disabilities into general education classrooms with non-special needs students. This project stems from a federal law by the US Dept of Education that states that students with specials needs should be taught in the “least restrictive environment” possible. With such a diverse range of learning abilities in one classroom teachers must work harder to keep the interest of the full class. Staff having to leave classrooms for long periods of time to go and locate the whereabouts of charging carts, moving noisy metal charging carts around the classroom to redistribute charging access, or dead batteries in devices mid-lesson can quickly lose the focus of the class. This can mean the difference between a successful or unsuccessful lesson.

Cassandra Salinas, part of the Operations and Technology department, approached LapCabby on behalf of the department and explained their specific requirements. Offering such flexible classes requires mobile teachers that travel to all 9 schools within the district and can take their technology resources with them to avoid having to locate charging carts at each destination. Changing the location of the classes and moving them outdoors or to other locations can be an upheaval and become disruptive so Lockhart faculty must also make these transitions as smooth as possible.

The charging solution must be simple to deploy and provide ease of portability – specifically moving the classroom outdoors. The most obvious problem with outdoor learning for a technology department is the lack of electronic points to charge devices. The solution must also be ‘built to last’ to eliminate additional costs to fix or replace the units. They must also be durable enough to cope with students who may be ‘hard’ on equipment.

In short, flexible learning requires flexible teachers and thus requires equipment and technology to offer flexibility to make the endeavour a success.

The Solution

The LapCabby GO² Portable Charging Case offered as much flexibility as was possible for this situation. The agile case charges up to 8 laptops, Chromebooks and other portable tech devices in a simple design with extra compartments (perfect for additional school supplies that may also be needed in a pop-up classroom). The GO² case has a reinforced frame and telescopic detachable trolley – just grab and go whenever required. For outdoors the GO² Case would only require one singular electrical point to charge all 8 devices at once, the power strip is easily accessed at the front of the case enabling a class to access additional charging points without disrupting the class. This last point is useful whether outdoors or indoors; adjusting the location of a large, bulky charging trolley in a classroom can be noisy and be difficult to find a location that doesn’t get in the way of students or the teacher, the GO² Case can be put in the middle of a table for a smaller group of students or tucked neatly under the desk while still being accessible to offer charge throughout the lesson.

Lockhart ISD decided the LapCabby Go² Case was the right mobile charging case for their needs. A total of 27 cases have been purchased so far, for classes that want to take their lessons out of the classroom to the cafeteria, the library or outside.

Cassandra Salinas said she has ‘been buying LapCabby charging solutions for the district for over 2 years and receives nothing but positive feedback from everyone that uses them. The products are durable, robust and easy to use and she never has reports of broken components like cables, keys and wheels etc.’ The GO² Cases have been a more flexible charging solution for the district and enable them to meet government standards as well as servicing the needs of students who may otherwise struggle to get the most from their education.