Thoughts on the New Year

As we start the new school year, there are so many things we need to be mindful of. Online security is a major concern when students are almost continuously plugged in. Last year we went 1:1 in our middle school. We chose Chromebooks for the students to use and most of the teachers quickly caught on to Google Classroom and other ways to make use of the new tech. The one huge complaint from them - students were playing games when they were supposed to be working in class. Many devices were confiscated and conduct referrals doled out. As a result of the students' adding game apps to their Chrome, some also added malware that, in some cases, locked them out of their computers. Then they would bring the device to me to fix it. I would have to do a reset of all data and wipe their profiles to get them back in. 

This year I have purchased GoGuardian. I'm hopeful that this will solve many of our problems. I have already locked students out of the themes feature and a few others, as well as directing all searches to safe searches. There seem to be lots of options from the admin console and with the teacher licenses, there will no longer be a way for students to hide their game playing during class. 

Teachers are thrilled, students, not so much. It remains to be seen if this will really work but I am starting the year with high hopes. Now we just have to get our WiFi working!!