The prevalence of new technologies in schools is creating a generation of engaged and inspired pupils, learning in ways they’re most comfortable with.
Cheap and durable devices have created a wealth of opportunities for learning to be extended beyond the school gates as pupils can now take devices home and continue their learning, working online in collaborative environments. This changing role of devices, coupled with the growth of cloud computing tools such as G Suite for Education and Office 365, are creating more collaborative and engaging online learning environments.
However, these exciting cloud-based devices and tools can also present safeguarding issues and schools must constantly be ahead of the curve. How do you ensure that encouraging the use of these new technologies doesn’t put your students or their data at risk online?
Can you confidently answer these ten questions about your online safety and security?
- How do we protect devices?
- How do we protect identities?
- How do we protect data?
- Do we have a safeguarding policy in place which includes online safety? How often are these reviewed and updated?
- Do we record online safety issues in a manner which allows us to identify patterns, and put appropriate interventions in place?
- Do we have clear, and regularly updated, Acceptable User Policies (AUP) for all school community members to review?
- What training is offered to staff, students and the wider school community to support online safety issues?
- How do we currently monitor online behaviour?
- Is there a clear method that staff, students and parents can go through to report issues to the right people within the school?
- Does your internet filtering enable you to differentiate filter rules for different users?
We have helped hundreds of schools move to the Cloud and review their online safety, based on this experience we have put together a bundle of products and services to give you peace of mind that your safety and security are completely covered.
Additional information
If you’d like to know anything more about what we’ve spoken about in this blog post, please contact us at networks@rm.com or visit www.rm.com/cloud to read more.