In the classroom - as in the rest of life - technology giveth, and technology taketh away. So how can schools ensure that they get the best out of connected learning environments, while minimising the downside?
With educators under growing pressure to integrate connected technology in the classroom - and students increasingly online at school, at home and everywhere in between - maintaining digital safety and wellbeing has emerged as an urgent priority for schools.
A perfect storm
The mobile explosion has added fuel to an already-blazing fire. The average Australian student now acquires a smartphone by age 10, and virtually all secondary students bring personal mobile devices to school.
The vast majority of student devices are equipped with 4G data that cannot be managed by existing firewalls. These become major “escape routes” for students seeking to bypass school filtering. For the same reason, they are also widely used for hotspotting to other devices.
It’s a perfect storm for risk - to students’ safety and wellbeing, and to the school’s ability to maintain duty of care.
Our community approach
And it’s not just a classroom problem - it’s a community problem. Tackling it requires a community response.
That’s exactly what Family Zone’s unique ecosystem approach is all about.
Our solution encourages collaboration between parents and schools to view, monitor and manage student access to online environments in any setting, on any network, and across all devices.
The aim? To establish healthy routines to support positive behaviour for learning.
At school, at home and everywhere in between
Protecting students in the classroom is critical. But protecting them in their own loungerooms and bedrooms at home is too.
And that challenge demands parent education - and parent empowerment - to ensure sensible, sustainable boundaries and open communication.
Community-focused, customisable, collaborative
Keeping children under digital lock-and-key is no longer a winning strategy, or even a feasible one.
Hence our commitment to a learning-led approach that integrates world-leading technology with ongoing educational enrichment right across the school community.
At the same time, we understand that every school faces unique challenges. We take the time to understand exactly what it is that you want to achieve as a school, then work carefully with you to tackle those challenges.
Our School Relationship Team will work closely with you to ensure our solutions help you achieve your own targets in a way that works in your school culture.
People plus technology
Put it all together and you have Family Zone’s Partner School Program: a holistic solution that delivers a powerful bundle of technology plus access to an amazing team of people.
Partner Schools get the advantage of Family Zone’s full suite of solutions ‐ School Zone, Mobile Zone and School Community Platform ‐ plus exclusive access to our School Relationship Team and Cyber Experts.
It’s a unique synthesis of world‐leading software with unparalleled expertise and educational support. And it’s your best guarantee of a digital safety solution that meets the needs of your school community.
Why become a Partner School?
Benefits to Partner Schools include:
✓ Visibility of student internet activity
Traditional filtering/firewalling solutions don’t provide data about students’ online behaviour to admins, teaching or pastoral care staff. School Community Platform solves that problem, with easy access and remarkable visibility of student activity online.
✓ Classroom internet management
Family Zone Classwize empowers teachers to view and manage student internet activity, right in their own classrooms, as it happens.
✓ Managing VPNs in school
Students may be using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass network filtering, putting the school’s duty of care at risk. Family Zone’s machine-learning technology is a world-leader at detecting and filtering VPNs.
✓ Defining Duty of Care around technology
What constitutes “acceptable use,’ and where do the school’s boundaries lie for duty of care? Family Zone cyber experts can advise schools on these critical issues.
✓ Managing hotspotting in school
Despite existing rules, students may be using their phones as hotspots, thereby avoiding the school’s current filtering and reporting systems. With Mobile Zone, the school can manage personal smartphones during school hours to put an end to hotspotting for good.
✓ Mitigating cyberbullying
When students manage to access social media throughout the school day, cyberbullying incidents increase. Family Zone’s holistic solution prevents “leakage” - and makes firm social media filtering possible.
✓ Mobile phone management
Rules around mobile phones are notoriously hard to enforce. Mobile Zone empowers the school to manage student mobile devices during school hours, and gives parents the option to do so at other times.
✓ Supporting digital citizenship and wellbeing
Sustainable protection for student users needs to go beyond monitoring and filtering. Family Zone’s education-rich solution focuses on developing understanding and responsibility in young users, and creating open dialogue between teachers, parents and students.
Family Zone’s Partner School Program. Your best-in-class solution for student internet management that puts education at the centre.
Why not book a demo and learn more? Visit familyzone.com/schools/for-schools today.