Student Privacy and Technology at ASA

Have you ever wondered about the technology your child uses at All Saints Academy? Have you been concerned about your child's internet footprint and privacy with all those online accounts? Fear not! The ASA faculty and staff have your child's online safety and privacy in mind when choosing which educational resources to use with students.

Why Can't I Check Twitter at ASA?

The vast majority of our students are under the age of 13, and therefore need to be protected from accessing sites and services that are not specifically designed for, or rated as safe for children. This may add a layer of inconvenience, but the fact remains that we are required by law to protect our students' privacy and shield them from inappropriate content. If you are unfamiliar with, or curious about, these laws, they are linked here:  FERPA, CIPA, and COPPA.

The ASA team takes student privacy and online protection very seriously. It starts with internet access. Ever wonder why you can't check your social media accounts when using the All Saints Guest WiFi? That's because it is filtered at a student level since the password is publicly shared, and many students have their own mobile device(s). Student chromebooks, however, have their own WiFi, and are filtered by GoGuardian Admin, which allows us to customize the filter to catch inappropriate sites that might be missed and need to be blocked, as well as allow sites that have been erroneously blocked. It also gives us a record of all the sites students visit, so we can spot trends and determine if those sites are in the student's best interest.

Monitoring Students Online

Lucelia Ribeiro, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Let's face it, children are resourceful and fearless online and the internet is filled with delightful distractions that tempt even the most studious child...or adult for that matter. Think about how easily we can all get pulled in to social media or YouTube for an hour with nothing productive to show for it, and no idea how so much time passed. Now try to keep 12-25 kids in a class focused on school work with those same temptations. For this and other safety reasons, in addition to filtering the internet, we also monitor student activity online in three ways. First, the GoGuardian Admin filter also monitors student accounts for self harm intent, and notifies the building principal and technology coordinator. Second, Teachers use GoGuardian Teacher to monitor the student online activity for their class in real time. They are able to redirect students who are off task, direct students to a particular site, restrict online access to keep kids focused, and directly message students privately. Finally, Bark for Schools monitors student online activity at the Upper Campus, and sends notifications to the building principal and technology coordinator if there has been activity in the areas of self harm, violence, drug/alcohol, profanity, cyberbullying, and weapons. With these tools, we feel we can reduce the number of distractions and keep kids protected online.

Student Online Resources

With the filtering and monitoring foundation in place, the next phase is carefully curating the online accounts we use with students. Not all fun, "educational" games are truly safe for children, or very educational. Many offer unfiltered access to social media, which allows strangers to interact with children. For this reason, before using an online resource with students, we thoroughly review the site's privacy policy and data sharing practices. We also look for online sites and services that allow teachers to create a class without the need for students to create their own, individual accounts. A list of the online resources we currently use with students, along with links to the privacy policies, can be found on the ASA website > current families > technology in use with students.

If you have any questions or concerns about the technology your child uses at ASA, please contact Technology Coordinator, Karen Szczytko, at 616-363-7725, ext. 1106 or kszczytko@asagr.org.