Clever App

Ever been frustrated getting a kindergartner logged in to a Chromebook? Or have you created a 2-sided password sheet for your students to make sure each student has their password for every site they need to login to? Teachers at Hastings Area School System are trying out a free single sign-on tool called Clever this year to save them time logging students into devices and managing their passwords. Here’s how it works:

SIS Integration

Clever connects with your student information system to draw the necessary account creation information into the most common apps you use at school. This allows for it to quickly create accounts, classes, usernames and passwords for all of the students, teachers and administrators in your district. The tool syncs with your SIS every night to keep all information up-to-date. No manual management of classes, accounts, etc. To keep student information safe and make sure you’re not sharing more information than you need, Clever allows you to select what data you share with the apps you choose.

In Hastings we use Clever to sync with one of our testing systems, i-Ready. By syncing with Clever, all of our accounts were created and student accounts were matched with their appropriate teachers.

Clever Portal

While SIS integration saves admins and teachers a lot of time in creating classes and student accounts, the Clever portal saves all users time getting to where they need to go. When students log in to Clever, they see a grid of all of the apps that are available to them and can log in with one click without needing a password. You can see a list of apps that support this feature here.

In Hastings we also had other apps that many of our students and teachers use that were not supported by Clever. Thankfully you can still add links to these tools in your Clever Portal so students can still get to all the places they need to go in one place. Also, the Clever Chrome Extension that we’ve pushed to all of our student and teacher devices, will remember usernames and passwords that students enter in these sites. In other words, students enter their login information the very first time they go to each of these sites and never need it again. This saves minutes per student each day, especially at the younger grades.

Clever Badges

Among all of the amazing things Clever does, they’ve created Clever Badges for young students to use for logging in. Each student gets a QR code badges and can scan it using their webcam to login to the Clever portal AND (pause for effect) Chromebooks. Kindergartners in Hastings open up their Chromebooks, scan their badge and they’re instantly logged in. No email, no password, no stress.

Photo Courtesy of Chromestory.com

Most importantly, Clever is COMPLETELY FREE FOR SCHOOLS. We’ve been able to implement Clever, saving a ton of time for students, teachers and admins, while keeping our students safe. Definitely worth checking out in your district!

Have questions about how we’re using Clever? Contact me at keith.tramper@kresa.org or check out clever.com for more information.

Keith Tramper, Instructional Technologist

Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency

REMC 12W