“How long have they been on the device?”
- Counts active minutes on the device
- Treats every minute the same
- Answers compliance questions, like a daily K–5 cap
For districts, schools and families
Not all screen time is equal. Measure what counts.
ScreenWise shows how long students spend on school Chromebooks and how much of that time goes to learning. Districts use the difference to keep classroom technology tied to instructional goals.
Grade 5 · One school dayExample data
Screen Time3h 24m
Screen Use2h 28m
73% learningEverything else
Screen Time vs. Screen Use
Two different questions about the same minutes
A minute on a coding project and a minute on a video site look identical on a timer. They are not identical in a classroom. ScreenWise keeps both numbers so schools can see the whole picture.
“What are they doing, with whom, and why?”
- Counts time in tools the district defines as learning
- Asks whether the time adds value or only fills it
- Answers instructional questions, like which tools earn their place
Screen Use is a share of Screen Time. Reporting both stops a school from cutting valuable minutes to meet a limit, and from hiding unproductive minutes inside a reasonable total.
Passive · LimitActive · Goal
Watching videosReceives information
Clicking through slidesLow effort, low recall
Research and writingFinds, sorts, explains
Coding and building modelsCreates and solves
Passive use asks little of the student and is linked to shorter attention spans.
Active use has the student create, explain and solve. The more a child thinks and makes, the more the time is worth.
Why the difference matters
Boards, states and families now ask how the time is spent
Nearly every student has a district device. Few districts can say what happens on it. A total-minutes number can't settle that, and a filtering log only shows what was blocked.
60 min
Daily digital-instruction cap for Iowa K–5
Iowa’s cap and Utah’s limits on K–3 screen time took effect July 1, 2026. Six states enacted classroom screen-time laws this year.
Whiteboard Advisors, May 20262,982
Edtech tools the average district accessed
That was in 2024–25, and the number grows about 8% a year while budgets tighten after federal relief funds ended.
ClassLink / Instructure EdTech Top 401 number
What boards and families want to see
How much of a student’s device time is learning, by school and grade, in a form a principal can explain at a parent night.
ScreenWise Screen Use metricLimits without context backfire
Cutting every minute equally removes the coding project along with the video. Screen Use shows which minutes to protect and which to cut.
Renewals need evidence
Seats bought and seats used often differ. Usage by school and grade shows which tools students use and which ones nobody opens.
Trust comes from transparency
Families can see that school screen time has a purpose. Educators get data that supports their judgment instead of a timer that ignores it.
Tracking the usage data
Measured on the device, reported by school and grade
A Chrome extension, installed through Google Admin, measures active time on district Chromebooks during school hours. ScreenWise Cloud stores it securely and turns it into reports. There are no servers for the district to run.
Chromebook
Records the site in the focused tab and how long the student is actively using it.
HTTPS
every 5 min
every 5 min
ScreenWise Cloud
Hosted, backed up and monitored by ScreenWise, with a separate database for each district.
Reports
& CSV
& CSV
Dashboard
Screen Time and Screen Use by school, grade, site and hour, for leaders and principals.
What is measured
| Measure | How it works |
|---|---|
| Active time per site | Time the focused tab is on a domain while the student has used the keyboard, mouse or touch screen in the last 60 seconds. |
| Video and audio | A focused tab that is playing audio keeps counting as active. |
| Idle time | Screen unlocked, no input for 60 seconds or more. Reported separately. |
| Other apps | Time in ChromeOS or Android apps is recorded as “other app.” |
| Locked or asleep | Not counted. |
| School hours | The district sets collection days and times. Outside them, nothing is recorded. |
Never collected
- Keystrokes
- Screenshots
- Page contents or form data
- Full URLs, paths or search terms
- Personal accounts, when limited to the student domain
ScreenWise records the domain, the time spent and, optionally, the page title. Titles are never stored for email.
Aligning technology with instruction
Use the data to keep every screen minute on purpose
The goal is purposeful use, with technology chosen for a clear learning reason. Usage data shows whether the plan and the practice match, so schools can adjust before a habit sets in.
- Set the goalName what technology should do in each grade and subject, and what stays screen-free.
- Map tools to goalsSort sites into categories and decide which ones count as Screen Use.
- MeasureCollect active time during school hours by school, grade, site and hour.
- Review togetherPrincipals and teacher teams look at the gap between planned and actual use.
- AdjustCoach, renew or retire tools, and update categories as goals change.
Try it
Your district decides what counts as Screen Use
Choose the categories that serve your instructional goals. The Screen Use total updates for this sample Grade 5 day. In ScreenWise, a change to the categories applies to past data too, so reports always reflect current goals.
Active minutes by siteExample data
Screen UseOther Screen Time
Teachers
- Request approval for a new tool and see its privacy status.
- Check that class time on a platform matches the lesson plan.
Principals
- Compare Screen Use by grade against school goals.
- See when in the day screen time peaks, and whether recess and lunch stay screen-free.
District leaders
- Report daily minutes by grade against state limits.
- See reach, seats used and cost per active student before each renewal.
For families
Healthy habits at school and at home
At school, ScreenWise helps keep device time purposeful. At home, the same question applies: what is your child doing on the screen, and does it add value?
The pediatricians’ “5 C’s”
CChildKnow their interests and worries
CContentQuality over quantity
CCalmNon-screen ways to settle down
CCrowding outProtect sleep and family time
CCommunicateKeep talking about it
From the American Academy of Pediatrics. Common Sense Media suggests aiming for weekly balance rather than a fixed number of minutes, and offers free age-based reviews and a Family Media Agreement at commonsensemedia.org.
Conversation starters
- “Show me your favorite game. What do you like about it?”
- “What did you make or figure out on a screen today?”
- “How do you feel when it’s time to stop using your device?”
Privacy by design
Built to measure time, not to watch students
Smallest footprint
Domains and durations only. No screenshots, keystrokes or page contents.
Isolated district data
Each district gets its own encrypted database in US cloud regions. The district owns its data.
Role-based access
Teachers who request software see no student data. Changes and access to student records go to an audit log.
Retention limits
Old data is purged on the district’s schedule, and a student’s records can be deleted on request.
Start with one school
Run ScreenWise free for 60 days in a single school. Bring the Screen Time and Screen Use numbers to your next board or family meeting.
- Fully hosted. Installs through Google Admin, with no servers or new hardware
- Your categories decide what counts as learning
- Reports by school, grade and hour from day one