Montgomery County Public Schools recently announced that the digital monitoring system teachers use to see student computer use has been changed from GoGuardian to Lightspeed.
GoGuardian was used to monitor students’ online activities. MCPS stopped using it due to budgetary issues. MCPS also found that teachers’ usage of GoGuardian had decreased. “We have about 14 to 15,000 teachers. In this school year alone, our records show 6,000 teachers have used GoGuardian at least once,” Stephanie Sharon, MCPS Chief of Strategic Initiatives, said at the January 2023 Board of Education meeting.
Lightspeed is a new tool MCPS is adopting as it offers a safer approach to online monitoring. It guarantees enhanced privacy protection while also allowing schools to oversee their students’ digital interactions. The goal is to respect students’ privacy and provide educators with a helpful tool to maintain an online environment without feeling like they are overstepping boundaries.
Lightspeed helps maintain off-task behaviors from students and empowers teachers with more useful tools regarding managing digital devices. “With live screen recording and real-time alerts, Lightspeed Classroom Management™ software can notify educators and district administrators of unusual or inappropriate online behavior for effective intervention,” according to The Lightspeed System website.
Teachers have already started using Lightspeed and find that it’s similar to GoGuardian. Teachers noticed that Lightspeed offers more tools that give them a wider range of access to their students’ screens. “GoGuardian was easier. Lightspeed appears to have practical applications but I haven’t utilized all of them. I still like GoGuardian better,” English teacher Catherine Boswell said.
Without access to students’ computer screens, teachers fear that it could create a decrease in the productiveness and success rate of their classes’ academics. Students would result in being off task during class and abuse their privileges with school or personal devices.
Students have been informed of the switch and have opinions toward the new system. “I don’t like it because I don’t like that my teachers can see what I’m doing the whole time,” senior Shivani Jain said.
Students may feel that their privacy is being invaded if teachers are able to see what they are doing on their screen. GoGuardian wasn’t able to see students’ screens if they had a personal computer. With Lightspeed, they may be troubled by the fact their screens can be seen, regardless of the device they are using. “I feel that my privacy is being violated because it’s my personal computer and I use the actual Chromebooks for my assessments,” junior Addison Purvis said.
MCPS said that while students may not like this system, it creates better habits for them, as they correctly learn how to use their devices. “As much as students hate it, GoGuardian actually helps prevent cheating and encourages academic honesty,” sophomore Kathleen Nie said in an interview for The Sentinel Newspaper.
Lightspeed provides improved reporting skills and has an improved system that shows students usage patterns and detailed analytics. “Educators can safely message a distracted student or the entire class, redirect a student’s browser, close windows and tabs, and enable screen sharing for in-classroom collaboration,” according to the Lightspeed Systems website.
