The pandemic has brought many new changes to the school corporation. One of these being the distribution of a Chromebook to every student. With the entire classroom having access to the internet at any given time, it gives students an endless amount of distractions.

   GoGuardian is a company that creates products for schools to monitor student content whose software has recently been introduced into our classrooms. The idea behind GoGuardian is that it eliminates distractions and engages students. Though there are many features, the main use is to monitor computer usage. It allows teachers to view a real time preview of students’ screens.

   “Guardian software helps schools easily manage their devices, better understand their students, and keep them safer online,” said Mrs. Susan Schweitzer, Technology Trainer.

     Teachers can now see if students are productively working on assignments or on unrelated web pages. They even have the ability to close out of these tabs from their computer, send students to a specific website, view history reports, limit student browsing and send chats. All of these features are aimed towards making managing classrooms easier.

   “Teachers will be able to view tabs and close them if they are not related to that content area.  Also, teachers can set what are called scenes.  In a scene, teachers decide which sites students could access.  For example, during testing teachers might set a Testing Scene that would only allow students to have access to Canvas,” said Schweitzer.

   All school issued Chromebooks have GoGuardian installed. It will be up to the teacher to decide how to use the program.