A few weeks ago, after school, a district wide meeting with teachers and adults, the district showed teachers how to use Go Guardian and students are not happy with it.

So here’s what I think, if teachers can access what you are doing on your technology all the time, who says they won’t invade your privacy or steal personal info. But I don’t think any teachers in Casper, Wyoming would do that, but there is a possibility. A friend of mine said, “A teacher closed all my tabs at lunch, I wasn’t even in their class on that day.”

There are some pros with GoGuardian. “GoGuardian gives you the ability to easily manage your Chromebooks in the classroom. It allows our teachers the freedom to teach instead of walking around classes and monitoring devices.” Capterra.com said on their website. 

But with every pro, there has to be a con. “GoGuardian is downright disturbing and overpoweringly invasive even after school hours.” thedeclarationatcoloniahigh.com said in a post in 2018.  

I interviewed Heather Rankin, one of the principals at Centennial Junior High. I asked three questions. Why do we have GoGuardian? Who bought GoGuardian for the schools in Casper? Do you think GoGuardian is positive or negative? 

“GoGuardian acts like a filter to make sure kids are looking at appropriate websites and being appropriate on their devices. Teachers can monitor kids and make sure they are on the right website.” Mrs. Rankin then stated, “It was purchased by the district.  GoGuardian is positive because students are protected and monitored.” Administrators get notified right away when you search or are on an inappropriate websites.

We then talked about more things about the website, how it is sort of an invasion of privacy.  But Rankin had a different opinion, “It’s not really an invasion. The school owns your computer, not the students own the district’s computers.” She then led me to this crazy fact, “Even though teachers see what you are doing live on your computer, principals and administrators of their school can view your entire search history.” As you can tell, GoGuardian is good and bad but mostly positive because it helps kids.