GoGuardian: Chromebook
Management Software
Dear Long Beach Middle School Parents,
We are excited to announce that we have now rolled out Chromebooks to
all students at Long Beach Middle School! We have a full 1:1 initiative
which is very exciting and allows for new learning opportunities that
strengthen our educational program. Over the course of our rollout, we
have solicited feedback from parents, students and staff to make our
program better. We have also visited other schools with 1:1 programs to
share ideas. Throughout these visits, we have made suggestions for
improvements to our Technology Department and we have already
implemented some here at our building.
One of these improvements is the use of GoGuardian: Chromebook
Management Software for Schools (https://www.goguardian.com/) which is
now up and running. GoGuardian is a powerful tool that includes web
filtering at home and school, activity monitoring and geolocation
features for locating missing devices.
The purpose of this email is to make you fully aware of the settings we are using at the Middle School.
Filtering - We have now updated our settings to filter these devices at
school AND at home. This means that if a site is blocked at school, it
is now blocked at home as well on these devices. Right now the devices
are only blocking pornography and other sexual content at home, however,
we are working to fine tune the filters so that additional
inappropriate material will be filtered as well. It should be noted
that there is no perfect system to filter everything on the Internet and
that close supervision is still the best method. We are working to
find the perfect balance between not making the filters too restrictive,
and, not allowing our students to be exposed to inappropriate content.
Monitoring - GoGuardian has the ability to monitor the Chromebooks 24/7,
however, we have made an administrative decision to only monitor
student activity at school after carefully considering privacy concerns.
As you know, to ensure the safety of our students, we have already
been monitoring student Chromebook usage at school which is outlined in
our Chromebook Procedure manual and user agreement, and, posted on our
website (http://www.lbeach.org/schools/ms_chromebooks). With
GoGuardian's Chromebook monitoring, we can get an in-depth look into
which sites are accessed, what searches are performed, and what
documents are opened during the school day with just a few clicks.
Geolocation Services - GoGuardian has the ability to track the location
of all devices at all times. We will not be using this feature on a
regular basis, however, we can use the location services in the event
that a device is lost or stolen. Administrators with full
administrative privileges in Google Apps can move particular stolen
devices into Theft Recovery mode. From there, the Theft Recovery
software starts to collect data to help track the stolen Chromebook.
Using advanced geolocation techniques, GoGuardian will pinpoint the
location of the stolen Chromebook on a map for easy reporting to
authorities. In addition, the GoGuardian's software will take
screenshots of webpages in order to help capture the identity of the
criminal. Keeping important privacy concerns in mind, GoGuardian will
not enable keystroke logging or remote activation of the webcam at any
time.
Thank you for taking the time to read this message. As always, feel
free to contact me at any time to discuss this further. We look forward
to working with you to keep our students safe and improve their
educational experience at Long Beach Middle School.
Paul Romanelli
Principal - Long Beach Middle School