As educators prepare for the upcoming school year, students’ physical safety will surely be top of mind. Between social distancing, mask requirements, and frequent cleaning sessions, keeping the physical environment as safe as possible in the time of COVID-19 is no easy task. But as we all know, student safety doesn’t end with the physical world. Whether your district is reopening school buildings for in-person learning, continuing with distance learning, or launching a hybrid model, digital safety should also be strongly considered.
While teachers review assignments and materials they give to students, students generally store much more than required assignments in their virtual classroom drives. With so many docs, images, emails, and other content being added every single day, it can be difficult for educators to know exactly what’s being stored on the network. A student safety platform like Gaggle can analyze and review this content through a combination of machine learning and safety experts.
This combined approach helped uncover a situation that could have easily been missed at Wichita Falls Independent School District in Texas. After receiving an alert about a seemingly blank document, the district reached out to Gaggle to ask if it was a mistake. They were instructed to highlight the document and immediately understood the reason behind the alert: a struggling student who had written about their issues in white font.
“We take care of students, and Gaggle helps us do that.”
Michael Kuhrt, Superintendent, Wichita Falls Independent School District
When coupled with review by a human safety expert, alerts flagged by Gaggle’s algorithm can be further assessed for context. Our in-house team of trained safety professionals work 24/7/365 to evaluate content and categorize incidents. This helps to more accurately determine the level of severity so district leaders may be immediately notified when serious situations arise. Gaggle offers school districts both support and peace of mind when it comes to student safety and well-being.