YouTube will be out of the picture on district-provided devices for Riverside School District 96 students this school year.
It’s part of technology changes for the K-8 district outlined by director of technology Molly Marquardt at the Aug. 5 board of education meeting.
YouTube access will be blocked on devices inside and outside of school, Marquardt told the board. If a resource is needed in the classroom, a teacher will need to show it on their own device to the class.
“It’s something a lot of school districts are having discussions about or have in place,” Marquardt said Monday. “There are different types of YouTube access. There are some school districts that don’t let it happen at all. Everybody does it a little differently.”
Karla Altmayer is a District 96 parent and co-organizer of Riverside for Balanced Learning, which is a coalition of parents created in response to concerns about the use of personal devices in the classroom. She thinks it’s a good move.
“We’re glad the district is taking this step,” Altmayer said. “The banning of YouTube is a step that’s long overdue.”
Stephanie Shaw, another parent, spoke at the Aug. 5 board meeting on behalf of Riverside for Balanced Learning.
‘What concerns many families is that while student technology use has expanded dramatically over the past decade, there has been seemingly little district-wide evaluation of whether current practices are achieving the educational outcomes we want for our children,” Shaw said.
Marquardt is in her second year, and emphasized the collaboration fostered between the district, its teachers, staff and administration and groups like Riverside for Balanced Learning that resulted in the upcoming changes. She also told the board that a technology committee comprised of parents and staff members will start this school year.
Another big change: Student devices will “lock” at 10:30 p.m. and “unlock” at 6:30 a.m. the next day. Timing cannot be changed nor can other Wi-Fi networks be accessed.
“This is a way to make sure we know kids are safe at home and not using a device when they shouldn’t be,” Marquardt said Monday.
She added that K-2 students will not be able to take devices home at all this school year district-wide. Grades 3-5 will not be able to take devices home unless students have been given specific teacher direction, such as finishing an assignment not completed in class. Grades 6-8 are allowed to take their devices home.
Though not new, the district also employs Securly Classroom for K-2 students that allows teachers to monitor student iPads throughout the day in real time, with screen monitoring, screen locking and site blocking. Likewise, grades 3-8 teachers have a program called GoGuardian that allows them to monitor student Chromebooks throughout the day in real-time.
It doesn’t stop there. All student devices have Securly filtering software that monitors all web activity, with real-time blocking of websites that should not be accessed. Securly Home allows parents to see student activities on their district device while at home, with parental controls and locks while on a home network.
Marquardt also told the board a parent webpage is forthcoming, a topic of high interest since she started, which will “increase the transparency between parents and community members in a place that’s easy to get to and get any questions they need to have answered.”
Altmayer said, “the district needs to take into consideration the future of technology, how fast it is moving and the dangers of AI in our children’s development.”
Marquardt said that’s happening.
“I know tech changes rapidly, but something important to the district and the leaders in the district is we’re watching that,” she said. “We’re having the conversations about AI and what it looks like for use and not using and taking those things into consideration. We’re making sure we know when things are happening (to) keep pace with how fast things change.”