Although I absolutely love using technology in the classroom and that my students now have access to 1-1 devices, this does bring about some issues, like monitoring students to make sure that they are being academically honest (plagiarism and cheating are huge concerns!), and that they are not accessing websites which they shouldn't. Even though our school has an Acceptable Use Policy and filtering, there are still times where students are either off task or are visiting websites that aren't 100% appropriate.
That being said, I want to recommend an extremely useful tool that your school district may want to adopt to prevent some of these problems: GoGuardian!
GoGuardian is a suite of tools which can be purchased by the district either separately or as a bundle. These tools include Filtering and Monitoring content, Teacher Classroom Management, Suicide Prevention, Network Filtering, and Asset Management.
In a nutshell, the administrative tools can be used to block certain websites, "ping" administration if students are searching certain terms (these could be drug or alcohol-related or sexually explicit--anything inappropriate for the school setting), YouTube filtering/blocking, theft recovery for devices, and active planning alerts for suicide ideation.
Next, the teacher tools allow teachers to see the screens of their students on their own computer while students are working. Teachers can lock devices, close students' tabs, send alerts, and video conference through this tool. Teachers also receive a summary of all websites their students visited during that class period.
Additionally, the Beacon product picks up on further suicidal ideation depending on terms the student is typing or searching on their device. It alerts a designated user (such as the School Counselor) of the typed or searched terms so that person can intervene and help as needed.
Lastly, DNS filtering is an offered network filter, and Fleet can be used to track devices handout out to students and those sent for repairs.
If this sounds like something that would help your school to monitor online activities, especially in our current climate of 1-1 technology, hybrid learning, or remote instruction, check out this link for more information! Using these features has helped our school to monitor students when online test-taking or working on assignments, as well as to protect them from accessing materials on the internet which they shouldn't.
It is so true that 1-1 technology has heightened the need for more vigilance by school personnel to monitor students' access. GoGuardian sounds like a wonderful tool to assist in this process.
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