Premier Advanced Hotspot

Premier's Advanced Hotspot is a purpose-driven device, designed to engage even the youngest learners for long periods of time. It provides CIPA filtered internet access in an easy-to-use form factor. It enables a student to easily access their specific classroom learning apps, access the internet for research or join a classroom video session all without the need to connect a secondary device such as a Chromebook. At the same time, if a student needs to use their Chromebook to type a paper and submit it online, they can easily turn on the hotspot feature and connect their Chromebook (or another device) to it. Best of all, if they’re not sure how to connect it, they can watch the “How To Video” that is included with every device!

Premier's Advanced Hotspot provides a student with access to the internet via the Chrome browser as well as the ability to connect a Chromebook or other device via its wi-fi hotspot, it does not include any additional apps. Premier's Advanced Hotspot provides access to the internet via both the browser and the hotspot functionality, plus it includes additional apps on the home screen.

We pre-load the specific applications that your school uses on Premier's Advanced Hotspot. Each device will be activated and tested prior to shipping, to ensure that all of your apps, such as Google Classroom, Clever, Blackboard, Zoom or IStation, have been tested and are working properly, ensuring an easy deployment for you and your team and ease of use for your students.

Easy to manage, easy to update

Premier's Advanced Hotspot can be easily customized to meet the needs of your students by grade or learning level. It’s easy to load a different set of applications for each group through our web portal, as well as update, add new or delete apps along the way.

Premier's Advanced Hotspot is a purpose driven device built on a form factor that today’s students, young and old prefer – a smartphone or a tablet. It enables students to become empowered, learners. This device does everything a traditional hotspot does, plus more. Chromebooks and hotspots work well for a lot of students, but not all students and that’s the problem. Students that are often being left behind due to remote learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic are:

• Pre-k through 2nd grade: Need parent assistance to connect to a Chromebook
• Special education students: Need device modification and content personalization
• Homeless youth: A burden to carry – a theft risk and bodily harm as a result
• Students from homes that are the least tech-savvy, where parents and students aren’t comfortable or familiar with Chromebooks and traditional hotspots

According to KPRC Channel 2 in Houston, enrollment for Pre-K for the start of the 2020 – 2021 school year is down as much as 44% in some school districts compared to last year. As a nation, it’s imperative that we reverse this trend quickly to ensure these children have access to quality education and they reach their lifetime earning potential. Premier's Advanced Hotspot can play a role in providing a quality education because Premier's Advanced Hotspot enables self-sufficiency and secure internet access. It’s easy to turn on and off and due to its form factor, almost every child knows how to operate it without additional instruction. The apps are on the home screen and make it easy for the child to navigate and participate in engaging and interactive lessons.

According to the National Educators Association (NEA), roughly 7 million or 14 percent of public school children receive special education services. Further, NEA’s states that educators agree there will be a “COVID slide” that will be particularly steep for special education students and low-income students. Premier's Advanced Hotspot is one way to provide more personalized content to these students in a manner that is easy for them to engage with. The vast majority of this student group is comfortable playing with a smartphone or a tablet already, making the transition to Premier's Advanced Hotspot an easy one. From an educator’s standpoint, it is easy to create a personalized device with the right content and applications for a student.

According to The New York Times the number of homeless children has risen to 1.5 million in 2018. Education administrators expect this number to climb with the increase in unemployment and nearly 30 million people out of work. The question then is how do educators reach these students and provide them with the resources they need to continue their education? Chromebooks are bulky, they’re not always easy to carry. Premier's Advanced Hotspot is a smart alternative. Its small form factor enables a homeless student to carry it in their pocket easily, whereas carrying a Chromebook is often complicated. Additionally, there are times when it puts a student’s life at risk from someone trying to steal the Chromebook from the student. The ability to have Zoom (or other similar apps) on the device enables the student to connect with their teachers and their classmates, helping to keep these at-risk students from falling through the cracks. Class assignments can be completed easily on the screen and via the apps themselves.

Schools across America closed in March due to COVID-19 with dismal distance learning results. The hope was that most schools would be able to re-open in the fall of 2020 like normal and history wouldn’t repeat itself. Unfortunately, most schools won’t open “like normal” and while school administrators and technology directors have worked tirelessly through the summer, trying to prepare, trying to close the homework gap, trying to ensure 100% student participation, just in case schools didn’t re-open, the gap still isn’t closed. There are students that will still be left behind unless we find a better way.

Premier's Advanced Hotspot use either a tablet or a smartphone as its form factor because cell phones are the most preferred technology device in America today and the vast majority of people know how to use them. Today’s students are comfortable with this technology and they already embrace it in their everyday lives. Statistics show:

• The average person taps, swipes, and clicks their cell phone over 2500 times per day (King Online University)
• The average person uses a gadget more than 10 hours per day (Penn State)

Based upon the thousands of Premier Advanced Hotspots that have been deployed, there is a significant increase in usage with advanced hotspots versus traditional hotspots and Chromebooks. Students that have a choice between a laptop, Chromebook, or iPad will overwhelmingly choose to use Premier's Advanced Hotspot over any other device, simply because its form factor is familiar, comfortable and one they use regularly.

4G LTE-enabled Premier's Advanced Hotspot

Premier's Advanced Hotspot leverages today’s 4G LTE cellular technology, to provide internet access for your students. Each device has the ability to allow up to 12 additional devices to connect to it, even while one (1) person is connected on-screen to another app.

Chrome browser

The built-in web browser is Chrome, which can either open directly to a Google search page or to any other landing page that you prefer. The ease and simplicity of the browser on the screen helps students that prefer to work on a smartphone or tablet or who do not have access to a secondary device like a Chromebook, laptop or other web enabled device.

Custom home screen

Premier's Advanced Hotspot has a single app on the front screen along with your school or library’s logo. This personalization helps keep students feeling connected to school with a sense of pride. This is so critical during COVID-19 with our stay-at-home orders and mandatory social distancing.

Safe and secure

Premier's Advanced Hotspot is securely locked into kiosk mode with our Mobile Device Management (MDM) software, enabling only the device features that you want your students to access. Select features, such as the camera feature can be enabled to work only with specific applications. For example, use of the device’s camera can be restricted except for use within an approved app such as Zoom, otherwise, a student will not have any access to the camera.

CIPA-compliance

CIPA compliant content filtering has been enabled on all K-12 Premier Advanced Hotspot (unless requested otherwise). This ensures total compliance by blocking or filtering Internet access to pictures that are: (a) obscene; (b) child pornography; or (c) harmful to minors (for Premier's Advanced Hotspot that are accessed by minors)

Theft-resistant

Premier's Advanced Hotspot is locked down with our mobile device management software and each device will have your school or library’s logo on the front of it. In the event that an individual tries to root or jailbreak the device, the device once restarted, will revert back to the initial Premier Advanced Hotspot screen.

COVID-19 didn’t create the digital divide, but it has clearly exposed the need for us to find innovative and creative ways to close the homework gap and provide internet connectivity to our nation’s most vulnerable in an effort to close the digital divide. Premier's Advanced Hotspot is one of the best devices for a library to lend out to its patrons. Its availability in either a 5.5” screen or an 8” screen makes it the right screen size for most applications. The included hotspot creates a wi-fi hotspot for those times a secondary device is needed or desired. Oftentimes, socioeconomically challenged individuals and those without reliable internet access, don’t have the skills to navigate the complexity of turning on a traditional hotspot and then figuring out how to connect the secondary device. Premier's Advanced Hotspot “How To Video,” simplifies this process. The user of the Premier's Advanced Hotspot can watch the video and easily learn how to connect a secondary device such as a laptop or a Chromebook to Premier's Advanced Hotspot.

According to The EPOCH Times, children and their families in rural America have been more than 10 times more likely to not have high-speed access to the internet versus their urban counterparts. Studies show only 3% of individuals in urban areas lack high-speed internet, compared to nearly 35% for people in rural areas. Overall, nearly 21% of Americans across the country lack connectivity. The ability for these individuals to be able to go to their local libraries and check out a hotspot for connectivity is critical to their long-term economic success. According to Fast Company, 92% of hiring managers leverage the internet to find new recruits and therefore it’s imperative that schools ensure digital literacy to secure jobs in the future.

In 2020, internet access is no longer a luxury or even a nice to have, it’s a must-have. In fact, 82 percent of middle-skill jobs require digital skills, according to a Burning Glass Technologies report. That same report finds that digitally intensive middle-skill jobs pay more than non-digital middle-skill jobs: Baseline digital skills alone pay a 17% premium over non-digital roles. At the same time, the Houston Public Media reported that 25% of households in Texas lack internet, and nearly 8 million homes don’t have a computer. Based upon these statistics alone, it is imperative that we find ways to provide internet access in a manner that individuals can understand and use to improve their digital skills for the jobs of the future.