According to Google, 50 million students and teachers use Chromebooks daily. The accelerated use of Chromebook devices for K12 schools continues to drive more interest in technology and using the cloud for learning. Chromebooks bring several vital advantages that can’t be found with traditional laptops -- they’re internet-ready, more risk-averse to malware and other software threats, and more accessible for students and teachers to get started with studies. Their prevalent use in K12 schools is driven by several key benefits only found in a Chromebook device:
- The price is affordable for schools on a budget. Chromebooks are relatively inexpensive compared to traditional laptops or Apple tablets, making them easier to procure and distribute among schools with a limited budget.
- Chromebooks require minimal installation and configuration setup, so teachers and students don’t need excessive time or technical skills to begin working with them. The only skill necessary is familiarity with the Chrome browser; most people have experience with a standard web browser.
- School technical support staff don’t have much overhead for deployments and maintenance. Software and storage are in the cloud, and Chromebook hardware is durable and made for travel.
In recent years, school districts have been issuing Chromebooks to their students and faculty to help improve equity for underprivileged students unable to afford the necessary technology for advanced learning. Underprivileged students don’t always have access to essential internet, so they cannot find homework help, leaving them behind on academics. Without extended tutoring, students with lower grades don’t have the same career opportunities as students in middle-class or upper-class households.
While there are many good reasons to deploy Chromebooks to students and teachers in any school district, it’s also good to remember that a Chromebook laptop is only a tool to help with grades and not a complete solution. It’s a tool for children to use in various ways, but not all Chromebook activities are productive. Teachers, too, can get access to technology to help students, but open-access internet browsing can also lead to inappropriate activity among faculty. Administrators must block inappropriate websites and web applications for cybersecurity protection if students and teachers connect to a school's network.
Chromebooks are Internet Devices that Need Security Controls
While a Chromebook is technically a computing device, its primary purpose is to give users access to web content. Users without a full-scale workstation can gain access to an educational application or a game app. It could be a website hosting research information or inappropriate or offensive content. Administrators provide internet access to suitable web applications in any controlled environment and block inappropriate or disallowed content.
Providing Chromebooks with internet access isn’t a recipe for success if cybersecurity is not included to protect from malware and phishing. Context and content matter, but blocking and allowing specific sites one by one isn’t a feasible solution. Schools need a system to automatically block inappropriate content, including new domains and zero-day threats.
Enforcing content browsing is especially important for children. Other industries focus solely on protecting their brand, but educational institutions must focus on protecting their students. Educational institutions for underage children have the unique responsibility of controlling access to inappropriate content but cannot train children to identify red flags. Without access controls and web filtering, students can stay connected to educational sites but seek out inappropriate content.
According to two studies, the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the Program for International Student Assessment, test scores increased for students using the internet for additional tutoring help with homework and studies. A small amount of time was proven beneficial, but at a certain point, students experienced diminishing returns on their grade success if they spent too much time using the internet. Test scores dramatically dropped for students who spent six or more hours a day on the internet. At some point, researchers observed a ceiling in which more internet activity didn’t translate into better academic performance. Too much internet activity could hurt student success and reduce motivation for studies.
Researchers observed a stark negative impact as more students had open internet access. While some parents assume that their students spent six hours on their studies, the observed results were that kids sought out content unrelated to their studies. Although the internet can be a wealth of learning opportunities, it can also cause numerous distractions to students.
Another issue for K12 schools is the responsibility of CIPA compliance for K12 institutions. School districts depend on CIPA compliance for their e-rate funding. CIPA requires districts to have an internet safety policy that blocks and filters inappropriate images and content deemed harmful to minors. Secure web browsing is necessary for school districts that offer Chromebooks to students and teachers at any scale. For compliance and safety of students, Chromebook web filtering is essential.
Internet Devices for Children Need Internet Filtering
Chromebooks are similar to standard laptops—they’re portable like a laptop, have a CPU and a small amount of storage and memory to run applications, and are vulnerable to malware and malicious web content. While traditional .exe files can’t run on a Chromebook, the devices are vulnerable to Android malware and other threats that don’t depend on computer hardware (e.g., phishing or credential theft).
The internet is the primary attack vector for Chromebook exploits because Chromebooks are designed to work in the cloud with continual web access. Chromebook functions on Android, so exploits focus on the Android operating system vulnerabilities. Phishing, social engineering, credential theft, and other types of attacks focused on human error are also primary threats to Chromebook users. Users need a Google account for their Chromebook storage and cloud access, so any threats targeting Google account users, including Gmail access, are also threats to Chromebook users.
While content filtering is a big part of ensuring a safe internet experience, the security of the organization’s digital environment is also a priority, which is why next-generation internet filtering plays a critical role in any multi-level cybersecurity strategy. Any filtering solution you implement on the network must block common web-based threats, including zero-day threats and newly created domains hosting malware. Chromebooks reduce the risks of some malware threats but don’t eliminate the risk of a compromise. Children are highly vulnerable to web-based threats, so your solution should remove the human element as much as possible and offer a low false negative rating. Children cannot be responsible for identifying threats, and a web content filter removes them from the equation.
DNS Filtering On-The-Go for Chromebook Web Filtering
To help educational institutions meet compliance demands for content filtering and security protection, we released DNS Filtering on the go for Chromebooks. Customers receive the same Chromebook security and web content filtering as Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows 11 workstations. Administrators for Chromebook technology get the same configuration options and features available for their Windows workstations, so they don’t need to learn an entirely new set of vendor settings. Web filtering is done in the cloud at the DNS level, so all traffic filters through the TitanHQ DNS content filter as users on any system browse the internet.
In the same way that districts are attracted to Chromebooks for their ease of setup and configurations, many TitanHQ DNS Filtering customers are drawn to the simplicity of the management interface. Its web-based management console makes it easy for school administrators to set up content filters and deploy them across the organization. TitanHQ also has support people ready to help administrators should they run into troubles during deployment and configurations.
TitanHQ DNS Filtering supports small and large educational institutions. Small and rural district administrators will appreciate that there is no significant learning curve and that it doesn’t involve complex deployment procedures. Our customers report that it’s easy to set up and manage Chromebook filtering using TitanHQ.
TitanHQ DNS Filtering is Designed for Anywhere Learning
In 2020, most organizations were forced to allow employees to work from home. Corporations found that a large percentage of employees can work anywhere and still stay productive. Cloud technology enabled employees to stay connected to corporate applications and run businesses without the need to be in the office.
To stay productive while working from home, employees need access to the internet but shouldn’t have unfettered web browsing. Unfettered internet access has the same effect on employees as it does on students. Employees with open-ended access to the internet can spend an inordinate amount of time distracted from work-oriented applications, impacting their productivity. Internet-based threats target organizations without web content filters and trick users into downloading malware or visiting a phishing site. Organizations need web content filters to protect employee devices and the internal environment from malware and data breaches.
Education organizations and school districts also saw changes in how students learn and study. During COVID lockdowns, school districts were forced to transfer to remote learning. Students could learn using virtualized classrooms, and teachers could deliver their lectures online. Virtual learning also requires a cloud-based environment with an internet connection and remote device. Like corporations, schools deployed laptops to teachers and students but needed a way to block inappropriate web browsing. TitanHQ DNS Filtering is designed for the “Anywhere Workforce” and “Anywhere Learning.” It is a proven solution for a remote workforce and students.
Whether your students are operating their devices on campus within a traditional classroom or at a remote location in the comfort of their homes, they and their devices are protected by the same granular internet filtering policies as corporations protecting their environment from internet-distributed malware. TitanHQ DNS Filtering blocks malware and age-restricted sites inappropriate for children and teachers.
With TitanHQ DNS Filtering, parents have the assurance that their children can safely browse the internet without setting their parental controls. Web browsing filters encourage support from parents where school districts develop programs to deploy Chromebooks to all children in the classroom. School administrators control web browsing from a centralized dashboard; parents can still monitor their children’s internet usage.
When we say that TitanHQ DNS Filtering is designed for “anywhere learning,” we aren’t just talking about the filtering policy. Our cloud-based solution allows internal IT to fully manage a school district’s web filtering system from anywhere worldwide, giving your admins the same tools and interface regardless of where they work. Administrators also need internet access, but they can control web filtering from their homes or in the office.
Managed service providers might be responsible for school system infrastructure, and TitanHQ DNS Filtering’s configuration dashboard is built to support a provider’s multi-clients. Whether you support one or one thousand customers, TitanHQ DNS Filtering makes it convenient for managed services. A managed service provider (MSP) can configure all clients to block inappropriate content within a few minutes of configuration.
Onboarding thousands of students with their Chromebooks requires massive administrative overhead, but Chromebooks lower the amount of training. Most children are familiar with technology but might need to be more familiar with Chromebooks. Deploying Chromebooks lowers training requirements because users only need to know how to use a browser rather than understand an operating system. Administrators can also deploy settings with new Chromebooks, including those from TitanHQ DNS Filtering that control web browsing. TitanHQ DNS Filtering integrates directly with your network environment without many configuration requirements, making implementation convenient for administrators.
Our developers built the browsing filter to keep the integration of web content filters convenient without complicating deployments of any remote devices, including Chromebooks. Rather than relying on on-premises or installed local client software, TitanHQ DNS Filtering redirects all DNS queries from remote devices to the TitanHQ DNS Filtering cloud system. Using DNS queries, we eliminate the risk of users turning off web filters on their local system. TitanHQ DNS Filtering identifies and compares the queried domain to several blocklisting factors, including administrator configurations. If the domain is blocklisted, the user is blocked, and a message is displayed telling the user that the domain is against content policies.
All DNS Filtering activity takes place in the cloud, giving administrators a centralized location to configure browsing filters even if they, too, are working from home. TitanHQ DNS Filtering was one of the first companies to offer a total cloud-based web filtering solution. Because no additional client software is installed, administrators don’t have the overhead of supporting a client application, malware bypassing restrictions, users disabling the software, or vulnerabilities in the client application.
Create Different Groups and Policies for Varying Students
K12 students range in age from toddlers to high school; TitanHQ DNS Filtering supports grouping users into their appropriate ages for individual permission assignments. For example, elementary students might need to open a game site for online math and reading, but it can be blocked for middle and high school. School administration may think that YouTube is inappropriate for elementary-aged children, but they can offer middle and high school students reasonably limited access.
While many schools block social media sites from students, school principals, parent coordinators, and other personnel need access to post news and events on the school’s official social media account. Internal IT needs more permissive access to technology sites, while students and staff need to be prevented from downloading admin-level tools and applications. All these preferences and configurations are available in our DNS Filtering dashboard so that administrators can create groups with granular permissions based on the type of user and their permission level.
K12 institutions are likely the most difficult to create content filtering policies. TitanHQ DNS Filtering on-the-go is a Chromebook web filter designed to accommodate the most complex of environments using a three-step process:
- Create user groups for similar users.
- Create granular filtering policies to block categories based on user groups.
- Assign policies to your groups.
Administrators can also override policies with exceptions assigned to users or groups of users. With TitanHQ DNS Filtering’s Chromebook web filtering, administrators and parents can ensure that every student is given the appropriate internet access.
Reporting for Stakeholders and Administrators
At some point, a concerned teacher or parent might ask what sites one of their students or children has been accessing. Administrators can then open TitanHQ DNS Filtering reports and get a list of sites accessed by a particular student account. TitanHQ DNS Filtering’s reporting feature can pull up a student’s internet history and summarize it for parents and administrators.
Administrators and IT personnel can also discover broad behavior patterns concerning student internet usage at the system and group level. TitanHQ DNS Filtering makes discovery into internet browsing habits more effective for all stakeholders, parents, and school faculty to separate good learning sites from inappropriate websites. Any new sites registered and found inappropriate for children can be blocked. Still, TitanHQ DNS Filtering also has threat intelligence running in the background to automatically collect and categorize new domains. TitanHQ DNS Filtering developers continually update the cloud-based software to improve features and artificial intelligence detection.
Advanced Security for Safety and Risk Management
Content filtering and reporting don’t matter if a district network environment suffers downtime from a malware event. Downloaded malware or ransomware destroys employee and student productivity, but TitanHQ DNS Filtering’s malicious detection service monitors and identifies threats in real time with artificial intelligence protection. TitanHQ DNS Filtering’s artificial intelligence technology stops users from browsing site hosts with phishing pages and zero-day threats never seen in the wild.
TitanHQ DNS Filtering has long been the solution chosen by several industries, including education and corporate organizations. It’s a proven, well-rated filtering system with a history of protecting computer devices and networks. Academic administrators can be sure that TitanHQ DNS Filtering has the features and technology to secure internet experiences for Chromebook users of any age.
Integration of TitanHQ DNS Filtering Protects Students and Your Education Environment
Chromebooks may be a newer technology preference for educational institutions, but TitanHQ DNS Filtering is still viable for network security and user protection. Any administrators unfamiliar with the TitanHQ DNS Filtering system have our full support, and TitanHQ DNS Filtering is not new to school internet filtering and security. TitanHQ is dedicated to taking our highly successful web filtering architecture and making it a beneficial tool for administrators to secure user Chromebook activity, especially with vulnerable children. While we cater to many businesses and managed service providers, we are also heavily partnered with K12 institutions across the globe to help with the evolving cybersecurity landscape.
Let us show you how TitanHQ DNS Filtering can enforce user protection and security while making it convenient for school administrators to manage with its Chromebook web filtering abilities.
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