Bookmarks and History

One skill we think is important is how to create bookmarks to resources online you want to visit again. Your chid's teacher may lead your child through this process in one of two ways. Just like a web browser on a computer, students can set bookmarks within Safari. Students and our IT department can also create bookmarks called "web clips" that will not appear within Safari, but instead as app icons on the iPad. We have found some students finding online games and saving these web clips on their iPad. If you find non-educational bookmarks on your child's device, we are happy to remove them.

Safari also tracks which websites your child visits through its browsing history. Think of the history list as a breadcrumb trail of places you've been. While students cannot erase their browsing history within Safari, not that they likely can on shared devices or devices you have at home. By monitoring the browsing history of your child's device, you can help ensure they are not visiting inappropriate websites.

Filtering

Goochland employs two types of filtering with its iPad devices. All internet traffic at the school runs past this filter. The filter is an appliance that contains rules of what can and what can't pass through to devices on the network. Our filter is trained daily through our vendor to block adult content and other content inappropriate for learning (i.e., online forums, specific websites, and games).

When students leave their school, the iPad is still filtered. When the software on the iPad detects it is not on our school network, traffic is routed through our vendor's filter on the internet. If you are using a Kajeet device with us, that hotspot is also filtered, so that if a student were to use a non-GCPS device on that hotspot, the entire internet is not available for students.

Currently our technology does not provide detail to us about where your child is going or has attempted to go on the Internet in a parent-friendly format. If you have a concern about browsing behaviors, please let us know so that we can more closely monitor your child's use of the iPad. Also know that filtering technology is never perfect—new sites are constantly being created and keeping up with the list of sites to black- and white-list is an on-going challenge. In addition to our filter updating itself nightly with new sites, we can also custom whitelist (let sites through) and blacklist (set sites that won't get through) to our iPads.