Is there an inexpensive solution for school web filtering?

[sfx2000]

One of the things you might consider is a Disney Circle device perhaps... there's a review on the main site, but it's a bit dated...

https://meetcircle.com

Not sure how it scales, but between DNS, Router stuff, and then this - it's a belt and suspender approach...

The major point here is to define policies up front, and then apply the appropriate tools to implement those policies...

 

[bernard038]

The school doesn't have a need for VPN right now, so for the time being this shouldn't be a problem..

Well, thats settled then!

About Office 365 and (or) G-Suite, both programs have their stronger and lesser points. Using G-suite enables you to set google searches on 'safe search' for your users and you might want to install either Android or Chrome OS on the old PC's and Laptops given to your school. And google has some nice environments to start with programming (here and here)
Microsoft has the bonus of free use of office for students and teachter and also has all kinds of nice applications for schools.

And as because today is another day:
But as with every educational tool, you will have to know when and how to use your digital materials. If you don't give students a (very) specific, time-limited assignment and supervise this, this will happen. And, when i was teaching i used many e-learning materials which were made available free of charge by large IT-companies, so my students didn't have to buy those very expensive books. Due to my bad handwriting i always made a Powerpoint to support my instructions, which i made available for my students. I've noticed a few things:

1. Students needed a lot of time to learn to navigate through yet another e-learning environment, and they asked if i couldn't recommend a book (which they usually didn't buy after seeing the pricetag).
2. Students stopped taking notes, because they would get the PPT anyway.
3. When students had to learn for their tests, they usually only learned the summary at the end of every chapter of the e-learning tool and / or my PPT's, missing out on all the stuff which wasn't mentioned in the summary and all the stuff i wrote on the blackboard during instructions.

When i stopped giving out my PPT's and asked my students to show me their (handwritten) notes at the end of each class, i noticed that their test results improved(!)

So digital materials are great! But use them wisely and know when to use them and when not...

Cheers, b.

 

[sfx2000]

But as with every educational tool, you will have to know when and how to use your digital materials.

One of the interesting things with Kids, Computers, and the Classroom...

Any content generated by teachers and/or students is protected by Copyright, and sometimes even Intellectual Property laws... from documents to photos - lessons to homework assigned...

K-12 is a special case, outside of upper level college edu... they are in many ways, a protected class in a legal perspective.

Which means... the school district does need to consider some policy aspects of what is being done, and by whom...

One of the reasons why I really don't like Chromebooks in the Classroom.. as Google is sucking up everything done on a Chromebook...

 

[bernard038]

Hi!

Oh! i was talking from an educational perspective! But you have a point, that, before a you implement ANY(!) cloud based environment in your organisation you should have the agreement checked by a lawyer, especially when you store confidential information about others (test scores, medical data) on it, but that is just good practice i guess...

I am not very worried about Google or Microsoft abusing the stored data of their paying or EDU clients. That would damage their business too much. I am however very worried about student-data stored on servers of smaller e-learning publishers..

 

[sfx2000]

Make sure you test out any solution before going live. Web filters often fail when it comes to filtering search results, images in particular.

@thiggins - I probably should mention that there are ways...

Google Translate was an interesting way to get around web-filters as an english to english translation back in the day...