Safe Search – Engaging Students vs. Protecting Students

By Guest Blogger Randy Wilhelm – CEO of netTrekker

One of the most obvious ways to engage students is to give them access INSIDE of school to all of the amazing Web 2.0 tools that engage them OUTSIDE of school. Who hasn’t tried to get through to his 15 year old with an iPod cranked in his ears and a cell phone glued to his hands?

But as students’ familiarity with and reliance on the Web 2.0 technologies grows, schools are still fighting the battle of how to incorporate these engaging tools while keeping kids safe and protecting them from inappropriate content and online activities.

Safe Search Awards

To help answer the question of whether safe search is useful search, we sponsor the Safe Search Awards program. Each year netTrekker honors the 100 top districts that encourage students to search widely and safely. The Awards Index is broken out by small-, medium- and large-sized districts.

Top Award Winners

• Large District – Forsyth County Schools in suburban Atlanta finished first for the 3rd straight year (over 7.3 million safe searches)
• Medium District – Tangipahoa Parish School System in Louisiana (1,875,328 searches)
• Small District – Austin Public Schools in Minnesota (675,485 searches)

Volume Speaks Volumes

7.3 million searches? For 32,000 students? 228 searches for every student is a lot of information access no matter how you measure it. Students are finding the information they need via safe search, and they vote with their fingers every time they access content this way.

Why are students using these tools so extensively? We provide vetted and relevant digital information (content, images and videos) that they can source, evaluate and incorporate into their learning projects.

Teachers also need ways to quickly and easily find digital resources that meet individual learning needs.

Publishers Wanted

Content provided by Educational Publishers is particularly useful in an engine like netTrekker that focuses on instructional relevance. Publishers have an opportunity to proactively deliver their digital content through netTrekker, reaching over 10 million students in thousands of schools. If you’re interested in learning more about this option contact Alan Whisman, Director of Business Development at awhisman@nettrekker.com.

netTrekker is honored to help schools with the foundation of safe search. Ten years in and we continue to develop our safe search tools into a solution that brings together educational content and web 2.0 resources to engage students in a more personalized learning experience.

It is something good for kids, and that is what we are all about.