I've Got Eyes Everywhere!

Earlier this school year we started off with new monitoring software for student devices.  We have been through a few different platforms over the years, and considering I've been working remotely, we needed something especially intuitive and simple.

Enter GoGuardian Teacher.

Set-up took almost no time, and we were up and running in minutes.  I had a small team of teachers using the platform for the first week as we planned a two-week trial before we purchased.  I think it was day 3 into the trial that we realized it was exactly what we needed.

We purchased a subscription for our 3rd - 8th grades, as they are 1:1 Chromebooks.  Students who use their personal devices are also monitored (once we found the little checkbox I forgot to check!)

Because GGT syncs with Google Classroom, the teachers can easily add or remove students as needed without admin intervention.  This is especially helpful in our 3rd and 4th grades this year, since if a student switches to remote learning for whatever reason, the remote teachers can easily add them to their classrooms and voila!  They're on!

The whole school is remote post-Thanksgiving and let me tell you how amazing it is to have the management platform!  In addition to a screen view, there is also a great timeline view teachers can scroll through to see student activity.  

What I like best about GGT (besides the fact that I can see student screens when I'm teaching!) is that the teachers and students use GGT for private conversations.  Students can not chat with each other, but they can message the teacher if they have a question that they might not want to ask in front of the whole class or in the main chat.  The teachers can see student screens and can pop a comment into a private chat to provide a hint or any help for students. Unlike any of the previous monitoring platforms we used, students are seeing GGT as a support, instead of a pain in the you-know-what!

Scheduling, link sharing, GoGuardian Teacher has it all, and I highly recommend it!

Spy Time?

Source

A parent sent me an interesting article today - Schools are using AI to track their students - and it has prompted some thoughts.

The gist of the article is that schools are now monitoring students every move online to protect them, which, unfortunately, while keeping kids safe, is also encroaching on their privacy.

It's an interesting dilemma. On the one hand, yes, schools have a responsibility to keep kids as safe as possible at school, online and off. Schools have the responsibility to help kids learn how to interact online and off, and how to be a responsible digital citizen. However, adolescences hits, turbulence ensues, and things happen.

That said, while we do have software at my school that both filters the internet, keeping key words on alert at all times and blocking inappropriate content, as well as monitors student work online, nothing is failsafe. Which is why it's so crucial that teachers know their students, and luckily, that relationship is in the forefront of everything we do.

If a teacher notices something off with a student, a behavior change or concerning comments, or catches someone searching for inappropriate content, then IT can go in and do a deep search of a student's online activity. But for a district or school to have someone constantly monitoring online activity? That would be a full time job and not necessarily the best use of time or money.

The disorganized chaos that is online changes so rapidly, it seems that time is best spent teaching teachers and kids to look for signs of unrest, vs monitor their every move. To be proactive instead of reactive. At least that's what we're trying to do!

All I have to say is that I am SO glad to have grown up when I did.  I feel like I got the best of both worlds - playing outside until the street lights came on, and excitedly waiting for the 1200bps modem to take over the phone lines so I could log into Prodigy and play Carmen SanDiego!  Growing up today?  Yikes!