1:1 Chromebook Program

GoGuardian

The Whitman-Hanson Regional School District (WHRSD) has a 1:1 Chromebook Initiative for students in grades 3-12. To help keep your child safer and more scholarly online, we have adopted online services provided by GoGuardian. It may be helpful to know that over 10,000 other schools use GoGuardian to protect 5.5 million students across the world, and the Global Educator Institute has endorsed the GoGuardian Teacher product.

We have chosen GoGuardian Admin and GoGuardian Teacher services to:

• Help protect students against harmful and inappropriate online material

• Help students stay “scholarly” and more focused when learning online

• Facilitate communication between teachers and students during class time 

We will work with students during class time to help teach them digital responsibility and safety. Additionally, we will train teachers about how to operate GoGuardian and our policies and procedures to help protect student privacy.

How does GoGuardian Work?

GoGuardian keeps track of the websites students visit on any device logged into a Chrome Web Browser using their WHRSD credentials, both in and out of school. A report provides a chronological timeline of websites visited and how much time was spent on each site. Even if the browsing history is erased, the record is still available from when they were online.

How does the district use GoGuardian?

GoGuardian’s web-based services operate on our school’s managed Google Suite for Education Chrome accounts (i.e., when a student is logged into Chrome or a Chromebook with his/her school email address). The WHRSD Network Use Agreement explains that schools will filter and monitor all district-owned equipment, networks, and accounts. The district’s technology department along with the experts at GoGuardian create filtering policies that block or allow access to websites based on predetermined categories assigned to the various organizational units.

How do teachers use GoGuardian?

GoGuardian Teacher is a classroom management tool for Chromebooks. It allows teachers to see what is on the screen of every student in their classroom. They can see the active tabs the student is currently looking at, as well as any other open tabs in the browser. Timeline View allows teachers to see what each student has worked on, and for how long, all in one place. Teachers can close tabs for students, send messages to students, and lock student screens. Messages between teachers and students, on GoGuardian, are logged. Students are NOT able to message other students through GoGuardian, only the teacher.

How does GoGuardian help protect my child’s privacy?

GoGuardian has consulted with privacy experts, participated in privacy organizations, is a proud signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge, and has been awarded certifications by iKeepSafe for complying with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act and California student privacy laws. For more detailed information, you may visit GoGuardian’s website.

DEVICES

• Students in Grades 3-12 are allowed to take their Chromebooks to and from school. 

• Chromebooks for students in Grades K-2 are housed in charging carts in their classrooms.