fbpx

Need peaceful screen time negotiations?

Get your FREE GKIS Connected Family Screen Agreement

blog65teaching

Digital technology (screen media) has increasingly become an important part of modern education. And despite the fact that many parents would rather avoid screen media altogether, it is here to stay. Just as many of us struggle to keep our kids Internet safe at home, parents frequently express concern about Internet risk through school-required technology. Today I interviewed Dr. Jay Greelinger, Director of Instructional Technology for Pleasant Valley School District (PVSD), to help us understand how schools keep our kids Internet safe.

Who is Dr. Jay Greelinger?

Dr. Greelinger started his career as an elementary school teacher, then a middle school dean, and finally an elementary school principal before he earned his doctorate degree in educational leadership. This means he is an expert with instructional technology rather than information technology, or as he put it, “a teacher with a penchant for tech.” With his teaching tech expertise, he has spearheaded many exciting tech projects at PVSD including personal Dell Chromebooks, digital citizenship classroom and parent curriculums, and makerspaces (student centers that provide technology and 3-dimensional materials for educational opportunity).

Today’s article is about how PVSD addresses screen risk for their students, both in terms of technological filtering of online content and skill building for good digital citizenship.

Applicable federal and state legislation:

Public schools must meet federal and statutory requirements when it comes to protecting student data and student access to content. Here are quick summaries of the key pieces of legislation designed to maintain student privacy and safety. (Come back for the links after you’re done reading the article for more information).

FERPA: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (1974)

FERPA is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children’s education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level.

COPPA: The Children’s Online Privacy Act (1998)

COPPA imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age and on operators of other websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age.

CIPA: The Children’s Internet Protection Act (2000)

CIPA was enacted by Congress in 2000 to address concerns about children’s access to obscene or harmful content over the Internet. CIPA imposes certain requirements on schools or libraries that receive discounts for Internet access or internal connections through the E-rate program – a program that makes certain communications services and products more affordable for eligible schools and libraries. In early 2001, the FCC issued rules implementing CIPA and provided updates to those rules in 2011.

SOPIPA: The Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (2016)

This bill would prohibit an operator of an Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application from knowingly engaging in targeted advertising to students or their parents or legal guardians, using covered information to amass a profile about a K–12 student, selling a student’s information, or disclosing covered information, as provided. The bill would require an operator to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the covered information, to protect the information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure, and to delete a student’s covered information if the school or district requests deletion of data under the control of the school or district.

overdrive

What does this mean for PVSD students?

It means that schools take student privacy very seriously. If student data is required for use beyond its educational aspect (e.g., advertising or research through a digital resource vendor like Google or Discovery Education), PVSD must obtain parental consent.

It also means that schools take student online safety very seriously. This year all PVSD sixth graders received their own Dell Chromebooks. These devices can be used at school or at home for academic use or entertainment. PVSD is therefore obligated, to the best of their ability, to filter inappropriate online content on the Chromebooks. It is PVSD’s plan to provide all middle schoolers Chromebooks by year three.

How does Pleasant Valley School District filter computer and Chromebook content?

Pleasant Valley School District (PVSD) utilizes two filtering programs for onsite computer and student Chromebooks, Lightspeed and GoGuardian.

Lightspeed Systems Web Filter

Back in 2008, PVSD researched the filtering programs offered by four major suppliers for school/business filtering. They selected Lightspeed Systems Web Filter, a K12-focused company that provides a customizable filter for all screen media content with the goal of blocking harmful material while still allowing ample access to educational material. Types of content that is blocked includes pornography, drugs, academic dishonesty, gambling, and specific sites, like particular YouTube channels and videos.

Dr. Greelinger admits that his biggest challenge is “keeping up with the countless websites and slang terms that can get through the filter until they’re identified.” But with school tech devices in place rather than student cell devices, PVSD is better able to filter content than ever. Teachers and administrative staff realize that nobody can prevent kids from making bad choices. But by teaching digital citizenship in a group format and counseling kids individually, school staff can determine whether counseling or discipline is necessary on a case-by-case basis. In agreement with GetKidsInternetSafe philosophy, Dr. Greelinger stressed that relationships are our most powerful tool for safety.

GoGuardian

In addition to PVSD’s Lightspeed content filter, all PVSD Chromebooks and PVSD Google accounts logged into by other screen devices are filtered by GoGuardian. There are no workarounds. In fact, if a student tries to do a hard reset on their Chromebook, it gets disabled.

With the GoGuardian filtering tool installed on all PVSD Chromebooks and Google accounts, school staff has access to a real-time log that shows exactly what each student is working on, complete with aggregate history reports. Even better, Dr. Greelinger and school principals receive real-time notifications anytime a student searches for inappropriate content.

He reports they get an average of 10-12 flagged activities a day, but only one or two that are actionable. Google assigns a threat level to each notification. An example of a report that doesn’t need action is when a student searched for the term “homo erectus” during history class. Older middle school students tend to generate more notifications, because they search more controversial topics like legalization of drugs for class projects.

How is PVSD using social media?

PVSD has a Facebook page and a Twitter page for fun and informational posts. Images (and first names) of children are only included if parents signed the consent form in their first day packet. This is a fun way to see PVSD events and keep up to date with fun educational activities. For example, during my recent GetKidsInternetSafe presentation at back-to-school night at Camarillo Heights STEM, Dr. Greelinger had his own personal twitter party, tweeting quotes and announcements as I mentioned them. From there PVSD parents favorited and retweeted the information. This is an awesome way to share information to parents real-time.

How are PVSD teachers being trained to teach digital citizenship?

Last year PVSD narrowed down the scope and sequence of CommonSense Media’s comprehensive digital citizenship curriculum to develop classroom lesson plans. Efforts were made to match digital citizenship topics with classes (e.g., online searching and researching/website validity for science, cyberbullying for social studies, and academic honesty/plagiarism for language arts).

Starting next year, PVSD intends to provide complimentary home curriculums so parents can reinforce digital citizenship concepts at home. These lesson plans bring in writing and communication skills with the goal of being preventative rather than reactive (another shared mission with GKIS).

PVSD has four teachers on assignment who dedicate full-time (and one half-time) support for teachers with technology implementation. One specializes with STEM, one with makerspaces and collaboration, one with writing, and one half-time for math.

Thanks to PVSD and Dr. Greelinger for their support of Camarillo students and for your collaborative partnership with GetKidsInternetSafe. As our schools and homes get more technologically savvy, parents need and appreciate the support to keep us up with our digital native offspring!

If you’re ready to get serious about Internet safety in your home, the GKIS Screen Safety Toolkit is an easy but effective introduction to home strategies that prevent Internet risks for years to come.

I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetYourKidsInternetSafe.

Onward to More Awesome Parenting,

Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
GetKidsInternetSafe.com

Opt In Image
Get your free report

Don't worry, we will never spam you.

Dr. Tracy Bennett
Dr. Tracy Bennett
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn