CASE STUDY
Westwood Public Schools Massachusetts
Business Challenge:
Westwood Public Schools wanted to find a better way to manage distractions with their middle and high school 1:1 program.
As the district’s Director of Technology, Learning, and Innovation, Steve Ouellette wants the internet to provide a positive, productive, and empowering educational experience for his students.
Middle school students are naturally curious. While curiosity is usually encouraged, it can lead students to web content that is highly entertaining but non-educational. Game sites and videos of Fortnite gameplay top the list. His middle schoolers found creative ways to get past the school filter to such content. His IT team had to constantly update blacklists to block the latest game sites and gaming videos. He needed a better way to prevent distractions from inhibiting student learning.
Finding a Solution:
Westwood Public Schools discovers Deledao’s AI-powered, real-time web protection technology.
Steve decided to participate in a pilot program using Deledao Education to evaluate if it could be a solution. He discovered that “Deledao [Education] was able to prevent student access to irrelevant gaming-related content on a much more consistent basis” than competitors he’s evaluated.
His middle schoolers have met their match. Instead of searching Google for “snake game,” they would type “s n a k e g a m e.” Google is smart enough to understand what the students were looking for but the typical school filter cannot understand that these are the same search query.
The typical school filter solution references a blacklist of websites and keywords when deciding whether or not to block a webpage. IT staff can only block “s n a k e g a m e” after it’s been added to the list of keywords. Imagine the amount of variations that must be added!
However, Deledao’s real-time analysis engines read each page like a human, scanning the webpage as content loads. By detecting, blocking, and learning in real-time, the AI engines quickly catch and close loopholes.
The real-time nature of Deledao’s technology also effectively prevented the middle schoolers from distracting themselves with YouTube videos of Fortnite gameplay. There is now no need to blacklist YouTube entirely. After all, there are plenty of educational material on YouTube.
“The real-time text, image, and video analysis essentially eliminates a lot of inappropriate and distracting content in ways that are superior to other products we’ve tested,” said Steve.
Ever-expanding blacklists are a thing of the past. The simple setup and management of Deledao Education as a cloud-based software gives Steve and his team time to take care of other pressing IT needs.
“Deledao [Education] buys the peace of mind that other solutions I’ve looked at don’t necessarily have.”
The Result:
After placing students under the care of Deledao’s real-time web protection during the pilot program, Westwood Public Schools saw a significant decrease in time being spent off-task.
Students could access more of the web without running into inappropriate content or being blocked from accessing useful sites altogether. After the pilot program, Westwood Public Schools subscribed to Deledao Education to protect all its middle and high school students.
Result: Westwood rolls out Deledao Education to all their middle and high school students
Case Study: Pilot program with middle school students
District: Westwood Public Schools
Location: Massachusetts
Devices: 1:1 Chromebooks
“We found that Deledao [Education] was able to prevent student access to irrelevant gaming-related content on a much more consistent basis.”
— Steve Ouellette, Director of Technology, Learning, and Innovation
“The real-time text, image, and video analysis essentially eliminates a lot of inappropriate and distracting content in ways that are superior to other products we’ve tested. Deledao [Education] buys the peace of mind that other solutions I’ve looked at don’t necessarily have.”
— Steve Ouellette, Director of Technology, Learning, and Innovation