Online Student Behavior Tracking
Pros and Cons of Online Student Behavior Tracking
The internet is just so vast and filled with all types of content. Students today have access to all of these content on the internet their whole lives. The problem, however, is that no one has ever taught them how to behave online. There isn’t much taught given to their education and guidance which can lead to them going from one content to another until they reach things that are not for their eyes. While it isn’t always a popular opinion, sometimes the best way to ensure safety is through online student behavior tracking.
Establishing and enforcing rules on internet use can lead to rebellious attitudes. So in order to provide proper education while keeping them safe, online student behavior tracking is an option that can be used by schools. It is able to restrict student access from potentially unsafe or disruptive content through the use of real-time content analysis and web filtering. While this helps in removing certain content from the reach of students, there is always a debate among educators about its effectiveness. Can it be too restrictive? Does it do more harm than good? Others even feel that it disrupts a student's autonomy and chance to learn on their own.
With that, here are the different pros and cons of online student behavior tracking and filtering.
Pros of Online Student Behavior Tracking
Educators, teachers, and administrators point to the many incentives of using web filtering and online student behavior tracking within the school premises. It ranges from the moral to even the financial. Simply put, they point out that web filtering can help keep students focused on the task at hand and keep them safe. Pros of this approach include:
- The ability to block access to any graphic content which includes violent images and pornography.
- Removing potentially distracting websites and content such as entertainment and gaming websites.
- It can help early detection and prevention of cyberbullying which is becoming a rampant issue all over the country.
- Online student behavior tracking can help in protecting students from predators online which includes hackers, scammers, and other people who try to mine personal information through malicious means.
The Children’s Internet Protection Act, or CIPA, states that schools who use filtering of content based on the guidelines of the Act qualify for discounts on broadband internet. This law provides monetary benefit for relatively keeping children safe while they are online. This can be a huge benefit for schools.
Cons of Online Student Behavior Tracking
While there are many upsides and advantages to using online student behavior tracking, there are those who seek to prevent this. This is because web filtering potentially deprives students to become digitally literate. Those against web filtering use the analogy of how can a child learn how to ride a bike if they do not take the training wheels off? Additionally, there are filtering that can have too many restrictions which basically renders the internet useless while in school.
All in all, proponents of anti-web filtering say that:
- It discourages student decision-making and autonomy
- It prevents learning digital literacy
- It can impede learning
Why Website Blocking Works
It is the moral obligation of schools and educators to keep children safe. This means from physical harm in school and any type of harm that can happen while they are online. It is a legal obligation for schools. While it is acknowledged that there may be drawbacks from online student behavior tracking, the safety of the students should not be compromised.
And on top of that, smart filtering systems such as the one used by NuEDUSEC provide intuitive content-monitoring and web-filtering features. What this means is that it can help remove the cons on online student behavior tracking while maintaining the protection of blocking content.
NuEDUSEC aims to provide a complete platform for online student safety. If you want to learn more about how this can help your school, contact us today for a demo.