Impero Software is committed to supporting schools and multi-academy trusts in their efforts to create a safer digital environment. Keeping students safe in a digital world, where schools must establish robust policies and practices for digital safeguarding, is complex but a top priority. As a result, we created a practical framework that includes technology, staff support and training, and education programs for students on online etiquette and digital dangers.
Design and Implement Improved Safeguarding Strategies
Start by understanding the current digital landscape and students’ online behaviour. Implementing various strategies, including technology, education, and training, will help ensure a safer online environment that meets your requirements. Comprehensive policies and practices are crucial, encompassing an overarching safeguarding policy and specific guidelines on social media use, digital safeguarding, codes of conduct, reporting processes, and incident recording. Importantly, policies need to be tailored to suit the specific needs and age groups and should be communicated to staff, students, and parents. This will ensure they understand their rights and responsibilities regarding online safety. Additionally, schools must prioritize infrastructure and technology measures to safeguard their networks. Sam Heiney, Impero SVP of Strategy and Product, outlines the components your strategy should have.
Educate, Engage and Empower
While technology plays a significant role, fostering a culture of responsible digital citizenship through education, support, and open communication is equally critical. Teaching students that digital behaviour is as important as in-person social interactions will establish positive and productive online habits.
We’ve created a checklist to help you cover all the bases:
Integrate a structured digital citizenship curriculum into the educational program for teaching digital etiquette, online safety, and responsible technology use.
Provide ongoing training and professional development opportunities for teachers and staff.
Engage parents and students in discussions and workshops about digital safety. We recently asked students what they thought of digital safeguarding and received fascinating responses.
Empower students with peer mentoring programs or student-led initiatives focused on digital citizenship.
Adopt appropriate tools for monitoring and filtering with policy control and offline tracking abilities. But this also includes understanding what apps or websites students are currently using. Your EdTech solution should be able to see and block current apps and websites students use that are harmful to them and the school’s network. Review our Top 10 Most Popular & Dangerous Apps guide for more information on harmful apps.
Perform regular reviews and updates of policies and practices to adapt to changing technologies and risks. This includes some investigation into current and popular apps the students are using so that they can be included in the age-appropriate policies. Some EdTech can also illustrate when a student is at risk outside the classroom, which could offer the ability to build chronologies of individual students who may be at risk.
Impero offers the most effective tools for safeguarding and wellbeing with full visibility for educators into what students do and how they act online, as well as giving IT teams more control. In many cases, Impero’s approach has intercepted harmful behaviour while keeping students focused on a positive and successful learning journey.
Impero has You Covered!
Impero promotes safer Internet year-round, working with schools, parents, and students to facilitate safety, wellbeing, and successful learning.
The Impero product portfolio includes:
On-premise solutions
- ContentKeeper-Powerful web filter
- EducationPro- Classroom management
Cloud solutions
- ContentKeeper-Powerful web filter
- Wellbeing-Online monitoring
- Safeguard-Classroom monitoring
Impero ContentKeeper is a powerful web filtering tool that allows IT staff to control website access and so much more. Add in App Defender, and you have greater circumvention protection against apps and websites the students currently use. ContentKeeper allows blocking certain websites while permitting access to good educational content. Blocked content will display a warning message to students instead of the website. This feature ensures students are aware of the potential harm associated with their online searches, promoting better habits both in school and at home.
Impero Education Pro is an on-premises classroom management solution that combines learner wellbeing and device management to enhance digital learning.
Impero Wellbeing is a classroom-level tool that provides a comprehensive view of student activity using a robust keyword library, allowing educators to identify and respond to potential issues before they become more serious. Wellbeing offers a wealth of data that enables teachers to create and implement more effective prevention and intervention strategies. With a detailed analysis of student activity, Wellbeing helps better understand and support students, providing a comprehensive and powerful tool to enhance safety, wellbeing, and successful learning.
To strengthen the school’s safeguarding efforts, parents are invited to use ContentKeeper Parent Portal. The beta release of the Parent Portal allows registered parents to view student web activity on school-managed devices. Reach out for more information.
Want to learn more about how ContentKeeper, Parent Portal and Wellbeing together or discuss our current promotion? Book a demo to see us in action.
If you found this post helpful, visit our blog or our new Wellbeing page for more insightful and supportive content. Stay up to date on industry trends and product news by following us on; LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.