In today’s schools, tech isn’t just supporting education—it is the infrastructure of learning. But aging devices, overburdened IT teams, and growing cybersecurity threats make managing that infrastructure harder than ever.
Rob Chambers, EVP of Product at Lightspeed Systems, shares how the company is tackling these challenges head-on with two innovative tools—Lightspeed Insight and Lightspeed Signal—designed to give school districts better visibility, stronger security, and smarter budgeting.
Districts are facing serious budget constraints. How can they cut costs without cutting corners on learning or safety?
Rob Chambers: Efficiency is everything right now. With budgets under pressure, districts need tools that consolidate functions, reduce manual work, and extend the life of their existing tech.
At Lightspeed, we offer an integrated platform that includes filtering, classroom tools, safety monitoring, MDM, and analytics—all designed to reduce overhead and streamline IT. Consolidating solutions saves money, and bringing more data together in a single pane of glass saves time.
Tools such as Lightspeed Insight can uncover underused licenses, apps no one’s touched in months, and Signal can identify devices collecting dust in storage. That’s real money saved.
What role does proactive monitoring play in protecting district budgets and student time?
Spotting issues before they impact teaching and learning minimizes headaches and time sucks and lets everyone focus on what really matters—teaching and learning.
Lightspeed Insight shows what apps are actually being used, by whom, and how often—so leaders can make data-driven decisions on renewals, training, or eliminating risky, unvetted apps.
Signal, on the other hand, adds a critical layer: it monitors device and app performance in real-time. If an LMS is crashing during third period or an update breaks a core tool, Signal alerts you before it impacts instruction.
It even tracks devices to specific users, helping you spot damaged, missing, or shared and swapped assets—a major win for resource management.
What exactly is Lightspeed Signal — and why does it matter?
Signal gives you a real-time pulse on your tech environment—starting from the device level.
It uses agents to get deep, device-level visibility into app performance, network behavior, and device health—across any OS (Chrome, Windows, Mac).
You’ll see who’s using a device, when and where, and whether it’s running as it should. You’ll know if VPNs are being installed, if apps are crashing, or if students are struggling to get online at home.
It’s not just about troubleshooting. It’s about proactively preventing disruptions and making sure every student has equitable access to learning tools.
How is Lightspeed thinking about AI — especially as it relates to school safety?
We’ve used AI and machine learning in our products for years. But with generative AI advancing rapidly, we’re finding new ways to use it even more meaningfully.
One example: Our safety monitoring tools flag concerning behavior—things such as self-harm indicators—without flooding staff with noise. For instance, every year when students read Romeo and Juliet, we see a spike in suicide-related searches. AI helps us filter contextually, so counselors can focus on real signals, not false alarms.
We’re also adding AI features in the classroom. A recent update to Lightspeed Classroom delivers a daily engagement report to teachers, showing which students were off-task and when—helping them respond in real time to get students re-engaged.
Can you share a real-world example of Signal in action?
One district struggled with wifi drops in a classroom and spent weeks trying to track it down. Signal pinpointed the issue to a single location—turns out, a microwave near the access point was disrupting the connection every time it ran.
In another case, Signal helped a district identify off-campus students who didn’t have strong enough internet access to participate in lessons. That allowed them to deploy hotspots where they were really needed.
And districts are also using Signal to track shared devices—seeing not just who a device was assigned to, but who’s actually using it.
All of this comes from listening to our customers. Signal exists because school IT leaders asked for a better way to surface meaningful data and make smarter decisions. That’s our job—to build tools that solve the problems schools are facing right now.
Want to see what’s really going on in your school’s tech environment? Learn more about Lightspeed Signal and Lightspeed Insight.