Updates

GMail

Beginning Monday, April 27 GMail will be turned ON for students in grades 3-5 to support communication between students and educators. Settings have been put in place to only allow email exchange between students and CPS educators. Students will not be able to email other students nor individuals outside the CPS domain, and will receive a notification that such messages have been blocked if they make an attempt. Students will also receive notifications from all Google Classrooms they have joined.

YouTube

Beginning Monday, April 27 YouTube Restricted mode will be turned ON for students in grades JK-8 to support distance learning. Until now, YouTube has been blocked on CPS Chromebooks, so this will be a change in access to content for students. Educators and curriculum coordinators have requested this change to allow students access to digital resources that are aligned to curriculum and instruction. YouTube Restricted mode is the most restrictive setting, but does not block all videos, rather it works as a filter to screen out many videos based on an algorithm/filter managed by Google, while leaving some videos still available for viewing. In addition, CPS educators have the ability to approve videos and make them available to students, as well as, the ICTS department has the ability to block videos that are deemed inappropriate.