New monitoring continues to develop inside the district, starting at Fremont.

Students and teachers are interested about a new type of software on the student Chromebooks called Blocksi. Essentially, this new program is a screen monitoring system that allows teachers, as well as parents, access to view the current active screen of the students’ chromebooks.

The opinion on the advancement from students seems to be negative overall. To some it might feel like all our privacy we had left is being stripped away, and can make us feel untrusted by our teachers.

Kenna Brown, Fremont’s education technology specialist, explains, “From a student perspective this can seem like a teacher is just spying on you or judging what you are doing on your Chromebook. However, the main purpose is to not only keep students on track and engaged in their learning while also keeping them safe from harmful online behavior.  

According to Kenna, Blocksi is a platform that helps monitor the students and assert control over what content is being consumed during their active screen time. Teachers may only monitor when connected to school wifi, though guardians at home also have access to this hardware and may use it at any time when home.

Mrs. Stokes sees the positive outcomes for the students and school, she commented,“It benefits teachers because it helps ensure students are doing their own work. It helps students also feel accountable that everyone is being treated fairly. I am super excited about it and I only use it on test day to ensure integrity within the classroom.”

Teachers are still dipping their toe in the works and controls of the program and developing their own opinion, and how they want to utilize this program for their criteria. While most have not even experimented with Blocksi quite yet, some of the staff are loving and on board with this new tech.

Mr. Floyd expressed, “I like it? I use it for flex, as well as any test days. My first hour just took a test today. I put it up in the front of the room. There was someone in a game and I was able to see it and block her from the game during the test.”

The district has been advancing astronomically in safety precautions and protocols the last few years. Surveillance is now higher than it ever has been with each new development installed here at Fremont.