Finding the Best Filter in a Showdown Competition: Westminster School District Discovers Deledao at CITE
Organization: Westminster School District
Location: California
Number of Schools: 17
Grade Levels: K-8
Devices: Chromebooks, Windows, and iPads
K12 content filters aren’t usually what IT Admins in school districts primarily focus on.
However, Westminster School District stumbled upon a game-changing AI filter solution at the annual California IT in Education (CITE) conference, and the district couldn't pass up piloting Deledao to see how it worked.
The Challenge
When Michael Robbins, the Chief Technology Officer of Westminster School District, went to the annual CITE conference, he wasn't looking for a new web filter. The mentality regarding school filters usually is "set it and forget it."
However, his filter contract was up for renewal, and CITE had a "Content Filter Showdown" competition that year. Michael decided to drop in to see what other solutions were available.
After all, CITE is where he and many other IT administrators in education discover innovative EdTech solutions. So, he kept an open mind, anticipating to see something interesting.
And the event didn’t let him down. What he saw thoroughly captivated his attention.
Finding a Solution
The content filter competition was well-attended, and he could feel the excitement.
As expected, many representatives for the filter solutions showed presentation slides on their company history, a summary of product capabilities, and some screenshots of the user interface.
Then, the co-founder and CEO of Deledao, Shuang Ji, stepped on stage and did something that no other presenting company did – he pulled up the product on his laptop and gave a live demo in front of a packed room of over 100 people.
It's quite an achievement to impress a room full of technical professionals such as school district CTOs, Network Engineers, System Engineers, and Desktop Support staff.
But the demo of the Deledao ActiveScan™ filter showed them what no other K12 filter can do:
-
It blocked embedded games on Google Search and Google Sites
-
It blurred and muted inappropriate video scenes within an otherwise acceptable video
-
It blurred only the inappropriate images loading on a page while allowing acceptable images to load
Deledao ActiveScan™ captivated Michael's imagination. It seemed easy to use and the most innovative.
"I had never seen anything like the real-time AI filtering offered by Deledao in my entire career of being in K12 IT."
Michael Robbins
Chief Technology Officer
Westminster School District
Instead of using his existing filter to block everything, he could use Deledao to open up the internet. He could use Deledao to empower teachers and students with online educational resources he currently has to block due to the limitations of his old filter.
Recognizing the potential for enhanced digital safety and productivity in his district, Michael found himself compelled to reconsider his existing filter. Michael and many other K12 IT attendees who had the same thought visited the Deledao booth in the exhibit hall to ask for a pilot.
The pilot did not disappoint him. Besides living up to the expectations set by the live demo, Deledao gave Michael even stronger incentives to switch content filters.
"About halfway through the pilot, we were sold," said Michael.
"We saw how much time our IT staff was getting back because they weren't manually updating blocked lists and allowed lists. We saw a significant drop-off in students attempting to access blocked content in just several weeks."
"The Deledao filter guided our students back to learning. We saw a lot of attempts to access blocked content in the beginning, but students gradually stopped trying when they figured out that they wouldn't be able to bypass the filter. I didn't expect this positive change in student behavior, but it is great to see."
"Also, the Deledao filter integrated well with my current classroom management solution, which was a huge buy-in with teachers."
Michael was happy that Deledao integrated seamlessly with his current tech stack.
While testing the content filter, he also piloted Deledao's student wellness monitoring solution, ActivePulse™. The product worked well with his other reporting tools by offering a multi-layered safety net to catch students struggling with social-emotional distress.
"Based on the student wellness active alerts from Deledao, we could identify students early before they needed urgent support," explained Michael.
The Result
Since implementing the Deledao solution in his district, Michael has been very pleased with the impact Deledao had on Westminster School District.
"I had no plans to change my old filter, but I saw Deledao at the live content filter competition and thought Deledao was the best one! Its real-time AI is truly impressive. Now, my 25 IT staff serving our students across 17 schools can allow access to more educational resources with a superior filter."
Michael Robbins
Chief Technology Officer
Westminster School District
"I definitely recommend the Deledao filter to others. It's a robust filter and a time saver. I can allow access to more educational resources than ever before. It's easy to use, and the integrations with my current tech stack have convinced my teachers to be on board with transitioning filters. Even if you're not thinking about switching filters, you should try Deledao like I did!"