GoGuardian Teacher vs. Lightspeed Filter

We use GoGuardian daily for monitoring students to ensure they are not off task, accessing inappropriate material at school, monitoring students during an assignment and more easily being able to help them if noticing they are struggling or in need of intervention on their work. It has also been used very well during times when schooling has been virtual as it has allowed us to more easily work with students who are not physically on campus.

Incentivized

Lightspeed Filter is software that helps us work more efficiently and quickly.This platform helps us protect our access to suspicious content, unsafe websites, etc. In addition, it is recommended to implement it because it helps reduce bandwidth consumption and improves network performance. It is very easy to use, works very well in learning environments, giving educators full control and a positive experience over students. Although it does not offer direct integrations with other LMS platforms, it is really good and affordable.

Incentivized

• Cloud-based. Teachers do not have to monitor from just one device - they can do it from any device.
• GoGuardian allows teachers to lock a student's screen when he/she needs the students attention.
• GoGuardian allows the teacher to view all students' devices simultaneously.

Incentivized

• Reduces bandwidth consumption.
• Improves network performance.
• It is compatible with a variety of operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
• It can be implemented in both wired and wireless networks.
• It can be installed in minutes and you can configure its settings with a few clicks.
• Learning environments work.

Incentivized

• The initial learning curve of the program took some time, but then was easy to follow.
• We were only able to start using it after our IT department sent our classes to us.

Incentivized

• In my experience, it is not intuitive and not as flexible as GoGuardian.
• Worst of all, in my experience, there are ridiculous glitches. When I tried to update a block list that I created, I received a message that said "You can only edit lists that you created. Ask your co-teacher to update the list." Since I am the only teacher and there is no co-teacher, this message makes no sense to me.

For a technology-heavy school, it is a necessary and good tool for managing classroom use of laptops. It is easy to set up and use. Helps track time on task and internet usage. Another source of data when speaking to parents about student work and activity. Can help plan and manage work time when you have limited devices.

Incentivized

It is unreliable and does not function as it is supposed to do so. As previously mentioned, there is a glitch when creating a block list.

The support is great. On the rare occasion that I've had to reach out to support they have been very quick to respond and extremely helpful. I've also had teachers reach out directly to support themselves. Most of the time I don't even know that a teacher has reached out to support until after the fact. They always seem satisfied.

Incentivized

At the time we purchased GoGuardian there were no other alternatives that came even close to the functionality of this product. Over time I'm sure that some new products have been released. We, however, have not explored any other software suites for classroom management. We may in the future but for now, we are locked into GoGuardian Teacher.

Incentivized

Lightspeed has a long solid reputation in the EDU market for web filtering. That being said, they have the largest database of the categorized websites at the administrator's disposal during the configuration and operation. Safety Check is AI-based and Securely uses a live in-person safety monitoring system. Securely can send local authorities to do a welfare check on students because of self-harm-related emergencies. Securly is priced a little cheaper but not too much. Linewiz will be our new system to test.

Incentivized

• District invested a large sum into the program - but it has increased student engagement in the district.
• Teachers are more aware of how on-task students are in the classroom.
• Teachers are able to track sessions with the ease of scheduling before-hand.

Incentivized

• The ROI we measure with the filter is in student productivity
• It has reduced the time students have been on non-education sites by approximately 10% over our former filter because it does a better job with site categories (i.e., education games vs games).
• The included Safety Check feature has helped us improve our response to mental health issues.

Incentivized