In the old days, students could hide comic books or novels inside their thick Biology or English textbooks to fool the teacher into thinking they were on task; nowadays, however, teachers have an ally to help manage off-task behaviors as more and more classrooms have exchanged books for laptops: GoGuardian.

Vance County Schools is a 1:1 digital district, said Dr. Anthony Jackson, superintendent. “Every single child has a computer, whether they’re in school or not,” he said, drawing the distinction to in-person versus remote instruction. And the district has chosen GoGuardian to help teachers with classroom management.

“It’s not a teaching tool,” Jackson told WIZS News, “it’s a great tool to help our teachers manage while they teach.”

The school district piloted the program and, thanks to positive teacher feedback, Jackson said the decision is likely to be made to expand its use.

GoGuardian was launched in 2014 and is used to monitor student activity online.  Jackson said teachers can see students’ screens and can help to re-direct them if they are off-task or visiting sites that they shouldn’t. It also allows teachers to shut a computer down, he added.