Keeping Kids Safe Online

October is Keeping Kids Safe Online month. Here are some resources for educators related to student online safety:

• Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction: Internet Safety
• Copyrights and Plagiarism
• Cyberbullying
• Digital Citizenship
• Digital Footprint
• Digital Relationships
• Identity Theft
• Information and Technology Literacy
• Privacy and Security
• Safe Gaming
• Social Media
• Wisconsin Department of Justice: Protect Kids Online Podcast
• Common Sense Media: Internet Safety
• Common Sense Media: Digital Citizenship
• Google: Be Internet Awesome Resources and Curriculum
• Google Online Safety Game: Interland

Approve YouTube Videos for Students

Videos can be great instructional resources and YouTube hosts one of the most extensive video libraries. As a Google Suite for Education district, we place account restrictions on our end users for safety. As staff members, you have "unrestricted" access to YouTube with the exception of what our Securly filter blocks for content. Our elementary students have "strict" access to YouTube and middle school and high school students receive "moderate" access to YouTube content.

These restrictions sometimes block videos that are educationally appropriate. To have videos unblocked in the past, teachers would have to contact our technology department to approve the videos. This year, we have made a change in our management console to allow verified Google Classroom teachers to approve videos for student access to minimize any delays in access to resources.

To approve videos, follow the steps below. If you already use Google Classroom, you may skip the first step.

1. Join Google Classroom by following the prompts here. The technology department will have to verify you as a teacher, so they may be a short delay after this step.
2. Open YouTube signed into your district account.
3. Under the video there will be a blue bar that either says the video is "approved" or "not approved" for msd.k12.wi.us. There is also a button that allows you to "Approve" or "Remove" the video for students. Once a video is approved, it is viewable by ALL students. 

If you've started your own YouTube Channel to share instructional resources or have an educational channel that your trust and use as a common resource, you may want to approve an entire channel for students.

To approve an entire channel follow these steps.

1. Click on the channel's icon below the video. This will take you to the channel's homepage.
   
2. A blue bar will appear on the channel's page, click "Approve" to grant access to ALL videos on this channel.
   

If a video is still blocked for students after you approve it, it is most likely being overridden by our Securly web filter. In these rare cases, you will need to reach out to the tech department by submitting a tech ticket with a direct link to the video.

Securly Parent Portal Access

Our school uses Securly, a cloud-based Internet filter, to help keep students safe on their school issued devices.Beginning this week parents and guardians of students in grades 6-12 will have the ability to receive and review their students' home Internet activity. All parents with emails on file with the district will receive a weekly email from Securly.com that will show a preview of their child’s online activity at home.

The Parent Portal contains three categories for guardians to view:
1. Activity (shows an audit trail of  the student's online activity)
2. Flagged (shows posts made on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ that have been flagged by Securly as potentially related to self-harm or bullying)
3. Settings (allows parents to control content on the device at home only)

Here is an overview of the parent portal:

Parent Portal by Securly from Securly on Vimeo.


Here is a walkthrough of the Securly access for parents:
Parent Portal by Securly from Securly on Vimeo.