 | |
| Industry | Education Technology |
|---|---|
| Founders |
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| Headquarters | 2030 E Maple Ave, , U.S. |
| Products |
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| Website | www.goguardian.com |
GoGuardian is an educational software company founded in 2014 and based in Los Angeles, California. The company's services monitor student activity online, filter content, and alert school officials to possible suicidal or self-harm ideation. [1]
GoGuardian was founded in 2014 and is based in Los Angeles, CA. [2] Its feature set includes computer filtering, monitoring, and management, as well as usage analytics, activity flagging, and theft recovery for ChromeOS devices. [3] GoGuardian also offers filtering functionality for third-party tools such as YouTube. [4]
In June 2015, GoGuardian reported it was installed in over 1,600 of the estimated 15,000 school districts in the United States. [5]
In January 2015, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) chose GoGuardian to support their 1:1 device rollout program. This provides LAUSD device tracking and grade-level-specific filtering, and facilitates compliance with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). [6]
In September 2015, the company released GoGuardian for Teachers, a tool to monitor student activity and control student learning. [7] [8] [9] In January 2016, GoGuardian announced the launch of Google Classroom integration for GoGuardian for Teachers. [10]
In May 2018, GoGuardian was acquired by private equity firm Sumeru Equity Partners and appointed Tony Miller to their board of directors. [11]
In August 2018, GoGuardian launched Beacon, a software system installed on school computers that analyzes students' browsing behavior to alert people concerned of students at risk of suicide or self-harm. [12]
In November 2020, GoGuardian merged with Pear Deck. [13] [14]
GoGuardian products allow teachers and administrators to view and snapshot students' computer screens, close and open browser tabs, and see running applications. [15] GoGuardian can collect information about any activity when users are logged onto their accounts, including data originating from a student's webcam, microphone, keyboard, and screen, along with historical data such as browsing history. [16] This collection can be performed whether students connect from school-provided or personally-owned devices. [17] Parents have raised privacy concerns over this data collection, claiming the software is spyware. [18]
In 2016, researcher Elana Zeide raised the concern that the use of GoGuardian software for suicide prevention, though "well-meaning", could result in "overreach". Zeide further noted that legitimate personal reasons could motivate a student to wish to search for sensitive information in private. According to Zeide, this concern is compounded by the fact that school devices may be the only devices for lower-income students. American School Counselor Association ethics chair Carolyn Stone said that GoGuardian's ability to track web searches conducted at home is "intrusive" and is "conditioning children to accept constant monitoring" as normal. [19]
Until October 2015, GoGuardian software was able to track keystrokes and remotely activate student webcams. [20] GoGuardian said that the features were removed as part of its "ongoing commitment to student privacy." [20]
GoGuardian technical product manager Cody Rice stated in 2016 that schools had control over GoGuardian's collection and management of data and that no client had complained about privacy. [19]
Educational software is a term used for any computer software that is made for an educational purpose. It encompasses different ranges from language learning software to classroom management software to reference software. The purpose of all this software is to make some part of education more effective and efficient.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, commonly referred to as Deloitte, is a British multinational professional services network. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of employees in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with EY, KPMG, and PwC.
Ad blocking or ad filtering is a software capability for blocking or altering online advertising in a web browser, an application or a network. This may be done using browser extensions or other methods.
Parental controls are features which may be included in digital television services, computers and video games, mobile devices and software that allow parents to restrict the access of content to their children. These controls were created to assist parents in their ability to restrict certain content viewable by their children. This may be content they deem inappropriate for their age, maturity level or feel is aimed more at an adult audience. Parental controls fall into roughly four categories: content filters, which limit access to age inappropriate content; usage controls, which constrain the usage of these devices such as placing time-limits on usage or forbidding certain types of usage; computer usage management tools, which enforces the use of certain software; and monitoring, which can track location and activity when using the devices.
A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, materials or learning and development programs. The learning management system concept emerged directly from e-Learning. Learning management systems make up the largest segment of the learning system market. The first introduction of the LMS was in the late 1990s. LMSs have been adopted by almost all higher education institutions in the English-speaking world. Learning management systems have faced a massive growth in usage due to the emphasis on remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Educational technology is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, "EdTech," it often refers to the industry of companies that create educational technology. In EdTech Inc.: Selling, Automating and Globalizing Higher Education in the Digital Age, Tanner Mirrlees and Shahid Alvi (2019) argue "EdTech is no exception to industry ownership and market rules" and "define the EdTech industries as all the privately owned companies currently involved in the financing, production and distribution of commercial hardware, software, cultural goods, services and platforms for the educational market with the goal of turning a profit. Many of these companies are US-based and rapidly expanding into educational markets across North America, and increasingly growing all over the world."
Technology integration is defined as the use of technology to enhance and support the educational environment. Technology integration in the classroom can also support classroom instruction by creating opportunities for students to complete assignments on the computer rather than with normal pencil and paper. In a larger sense, technology integration can also refer to the use of an integration platform and application programming interface (API) in the management of a school, to integrate disparate SaaS applications, databases, and programs used by an educational institution so that their data can be shared in real-time across all systems on campus, thus supporting students' education by improving data quality and access for faculty and staff.
"Curriculum integration with the use of technology involves the infusion of technology as a tool to enhance the learning in a content area or multidisciplinary setting... Effective technology integration is achieved when students can select technology tools to help them obtain information on time, analyze and synthesize it, and present it professionally to an authentic audience. Technology should become an integral part of how the classroom functions—as accessible as all other classroom tools. The focus in each lesson or unit is the curriculum outcome, not the technology."
In the context of education, one-to-one computing refers to academic institutions, such as schools or colleges, that allow each enrolled student to use an electronic device in order to access the Internet, digital course materials, and digital textbooks. The concept has been actively explored and sporadically implemented since the late 1990s. One-to-one computing used to be contrasted with a policy of "bring your own device" (BYOD), which encourages or requires students to use their own laptops, smartphones or other electronic devices in class. The distinction between BYOD and school-issued devices became blurred when many schools started recommending devices for parents to buy. The term 1:1 computing in education is now redefined to a situation where students have access to a device per individual that is used in the teaching as a tool for learning. Historically, the programs have centered around the following devices:
A digital textbook is a digital book or e-book intended to serve as the text for a class. Digital textbooks may also be known as e-textbooks or e-texts. Digital textbooks are a major component of technology-based education reform. They may serve as the texts for a traditional face-to-face class, an online course or degree, or massive open online courses (MOOCs). As with physical textbooks, digital textbooks can be either rented for a term or purchased for lifetime access. While accessible, digital textbooks can be downloaded, printed, or accessed online via a compatible device. To access content online, users must often use a 3rd party hosting provider or "digital bookshelf" through which digital textbooks can be served.
ChromeOS, sometimes styled as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is a Linux-based operating system developed and designed by Google. It is derived from the open-source ChromiumOS and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user interface.
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in the United States, with only the New York City Department of Education having a larger student population. During the 2022–2023 school year, LAUSD served 565,479 students, including 11,795 early childhood education students and 27,740 adult students. During the same school year, it had 24,769 teachers and 49,231 other employees. It is the second largest employer in Los Angeles County after the county government. The school district's budget for the 2021–2022 school year was $10.7 billion, increasing to $12.6 billion for the 2022–2023 school year.
Lightspeed Systems is an educational software company based in Austin, Texas that builds and sells SaaS content-control software, mobile device management, alert software, and classroom management software to K–12 schools.
Chromebook is a line of laptop and tablet computers that run ChromeOS, an operating system developed by Google.
A Chromebox is a small form-factor PC that runs Google's ChromeOS operating system. The first device debuted in May 2012.
Securly, Inc. is an educational software company based in San Jose, California and incorporated in Delaware. It develops and sells internet filters, and other technologies which primary and secondary schools use to monitor students' web browsing, web searches, video watching, social media posts, emails, online documents, and drives. It was founded in 2013.
Google Classroom is a free blended learning platform developed by Google for educational institutions that aims to simplify creating, distributing, and grading assignments. The primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students. As of 2021, approximately 150 million users use Google Classroom.
The use of mobile phones in schools has become a controversial topic debated by students, parents, teachers and authorities.
ConnectEd is a United States Federal Government Initiative that aims to increase internet connectivity and technology in all public schools to enhance learning. The ConnectEd initiative is funded through Title IV Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which designates specific monies for the effective use of technology in schools. The 2016 National Education Technology Plan aligns with ConnectEd as a published action plan to meet these goals of technology integration and connectivity.
Collabora Online is an open source online office suite built on LibreOffice Technology, enabling web-based collaborative real-time editing of word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and vector graphics. Optional apps are available for desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and Chromebooks.
Innovations for Learning is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the literacy of children attending under-resourced schools. It has stated it is grounded in the belief that learning to read is a basic civil right with the power to transform lives. Founded by Seth Weinberger in 1993, the philanthropically supported initiative has focused on beginning reading among the poorest children.
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