How to make the most of your school’s internet filtering

I’ve watched the internet grow and change for 29 years now. Humans are innovative and we keep finding new ways to create and share interesting content. The internet and being online are integral to teaching and learning in the 21st century.

What controls do schools have for what comes in, and goes out, online?

Who looks after this, and whose responsibility is it?

What tools do we have for internet filtering?  

There are a few protections available to schools to help keep ākonga safe online. These include:

1. N4L internet filtering

What is N4L?

N4L is the crown agency tasked with:

Nearly all schools across New Zealand use N4L for their internet connection. This allows schools to access safer, high speed internet to support teaching and learning.

The filtering that N4L does is domain based. That means that it’s the whole website that’s blocked. This means that R18 websites are easily categorised and blocked. But, websites that have some R18 content (like Netflix) can’t be partially blocked. In some instances it may be the settings (and access) within a site that control what students can access.

If you’re concerned about a particular video on YouTube, for example, N4L can’t block just that video. They can only block all of YouTube. Similar for game sites, media and news.

A couple of websites that I consider very useful need to come with a warning label. Wikipedia and YouTube are two of my go-to’s if I personally want to learn something. Wikipedia is more accurate than most resources and usually has a balanced point of view. YouTube is great for simple explanations, however, it’s less reliable.

Both websites contain a lot of content that should be age restricted. Both should be used sparingly in the classroom.

Through N4L, ākonga and kaiako can have different rules for what websites they can access. For instance, many kura allow Facebook for kaiako, but not for ākonga. This means that there can be some differentiation of access.

N4L can block a certain category or domain school-wide (or for particular user groups in many cases). They generally take a day or so to do that. This is good for games (like Roblox) or messaging apps (like Discord).

To change N4L settings you have to go to N4L directly or through your IT Support provider to make these requests. N4L on its own, however, does not provide the fullness of protection schools require.

2. Google Workspace for Education admin settings

Make the most of settings by user

The settings for YouTube in Google Admin are pretty good. I have tested them and they were fairly effective at filtering what can been viewed on YouTube. You can:

You can also override these settings by allowing full access to a channel for ākonga. I strongly recommend taking the time to set this up correctly. Here’s what I suggest:  

How user filters work:

I searched “Blurred Lines” in YouTube using two different accounts. The first search was done from a teacher account which shows quite a different set of results than the second search done from a student account.

As you can see in the screenshots below, I could find the clean version of this explicit music video as a teacher but there’s no sign of any music video for this song as a student.  

Teacher view

Student view

Additional settings within Google include ensuring safe search at schools. This is provided in part by N4L, but the security settings in Google should still be checked. I would also recommend to check: 

3. Third party, school-funded internet filtering and monitoring services

What are some of the school-funded services available in New Zealand? 

Hāpara and Linewize are the two examples of internet filtering and monitoring products most used by New Zealand schools. Internet filtering is a technology that stops users from viewing certain URLs or websites by preventing their browsers from loading pages from these sites.  

Hāpara is primarily for Chromebooks. If ākonga bring their own device it will need to be enrolled and managed by the school systems for this to work, but Hāpara now enables whānau to manage internet usage at home, too.  

Linewize is better for schools with BYOD, and which have more complex systems and policies.  

Both products have live monitoring and filtering – kaiako can see what students are doing right now and intervene immediately.

Where Linewize and Hāpara differ and enhance N4L is:

These tools cost a school and require training for teachers to ensure they are used effectively. Even when all the tools are used, nothing is 100% certain.  

4. Good pedagogy and sound classroom management

So, how does this affect my practice?

Sometimes I see kaiako ask ākonga to “find 5 interesting facts…” about an inquiry topic. Frankly, this is a bit lazy and not well thought-through.   

When we ask ākonga to “research” a topic, we need to be aware that anything could come up. Searching for a word like “mouth” can bring up some very concerning content. I don’t support this type of learning task, and it certainly isn’t research. What I do support is asking students to search for specific answers to specific questions.

When ākonga are engaged in a learning task like the one above, the top priority for kaiako should be monitoring what students are finding. Yes, it’s classroom management  

Conclusion and action points

There are so many moving parts to this. There will be new apps and websites, new trends and concerns.  

The most effective way to keep ākonga safe is good teaching practice and good task design. Teaching intentionally, with a clear idea of what you want ākonga to produce. This, alongside ensuring the settings and restrictions your school manage are managed, will provide your students the best and safest online experience.

Four key messages to consider

Are your school systems set-up to keep your learners safe online?

Our team can help. Get in touch to chat with an expert who can help you understand what flaws to look for in your internet filtering or set up a time to talk through good teaching practice and task design with a professional.

 

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