“Teachers need choice on when they’re ready to unblock as they teach students to use technology appropriately.”
– Tanya Avrith, Google Certified Teacher.

We see two “classroom-level” issues come up time and again in post-deployment scenarios:

Classroom Management

While this was a solved problem in a Windows-only world with applications like LanSchool, the product that we see used most often for a Chrome-heavy classroom is Hapara’s Teacher Dashboard.

Web Filtering Policy

The advent of Common Core State Standards has meant that teachers have a great deal of control over the tools and websites that they use for classroom instruction. However, we believe that schools’ web filtering policies (which are decided at the district level) have not kept pace with this trend. More often than not, teachers who find an interesting resource during lesson planning end up finding that resource is blocked during classroom instruction. The only recourse is to file a helpdesk ticket.

We believe that where possible, teachers should be allowed (and indeed encouraged) to tweak the district’s web filtering policy to suit the needs of their classroom. This is particularly important with YouTube, by far one of the most-used resources by classroom teachers everywhere. While well-intentioned, solutions like YouTube for Education and YouTube Safety Mode don’t allow teachers instant access to content added to their channel. In line with our philosophy of making teachers the “IT Admin of their own classroom”, we designed a better YouTube feature that allows teachers to approve individual videos or entire YouTube channels.

Have ideas about what other features would make for a better YouTube experience in schools? Reply to this post and let us know!