The Cheltenham School District recently launched a pilot program with GoGuardian Teacher, a classroom management tool designed for teachers to monitor and guide students during online or digital learning sessions.

GoGuardian Teacher and other similar products, such as Classwize, Hapara, Lightspeed Classroom and LanSchool, are being used in at least 14 Montgomery County schools, the district said.

“GoGuardian Teacher enables real-time monitoring of websites visited, screen locking to prevent distractions, website monitoring to allow for better control over which sites students can access, and collaboration,” the district said in a statement to Glenside Local. “GoGuardian helps maintain classroom focus in digital learning environments; fosters a more engaged and organized learning experience by keeping students on task; and improves teacher oversight in 1:1 device programs, especially in online or hybrid classrooms.”

“As recognized leaders in student data privacy, GoGuardian is independently certified as FERPA compliant and is a proud signatory of the 2020 Student Privacy Pledge,” the statement said. “Its dedicated privacy team works across all divisions of the company to implement proactive privacy protections. GoGuardian Teacher only collects directory information and does not share it with any external entity.”

For a different take, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published an article titled “How GoGuardian Invades Student Privacy” in October 2023.

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