Puffin Academy vs Photon Edu

[StevieM]

We have subscriptions to ActiveLearn Abacus and Interactive-Resources that allow pupils to access the sites from home. As many children are using tablets that don't support Flash, many of the activities won't work. Interactive Resources advised me that the activities 'will require the Puffin Academy App'. I've read some of the negative posts about use of the Puffin Academy browser compromising security in school, but where do I stand on recommending it for use at home?

 

Also, has anyone had a look at Photon Edu? This is not a free app and is currently only available for iPads, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts.

[RLR]

We found Puffin Academy bypassed our filtering system. Basically it's a hosted web browser so kind of made sense. We've now blocked Puffin Academy at a firewall level.

 

We've also looked at Photon Edu. It's quite pricey but the built in web filtering is quite good. They also offer a annual subscription where you pay an extra $2 (i think that was the price) per license to manage the filtering yourself.

 

This is the email I had from Photon when I enquired:

 

My name is Ryan, and I am currently managing our Photon EDU products and client relationships. Thank you for reaching out to us. Please allow me to explain how Photon EDU and the Site License Key work.

The Photon EDU application that you download from the Appstore has the capability of running Flash content. It is officially 4+ age rated and strictly meant to serve educational needs. In order to make it appropriate for use in schools, we apply a web filter by default to all our Photon EDU applications. This filter is based on an expansive blacklist of sites that are blocked. However, very often schools like to have control over this list. In order to customize it, you need to purchase the Site License Key.

 

The Site License Key offers a bunch of useful features:

1. Primarily schools use it to independently manage their white-list (and in some cases even the blacklist).

2. In addition, you will be able to create an icon of any website on the homepage (similar to the desktop shortcuts on PCs) to allow quick access.

3. Moreover, you also get to monitor the devices in your school with the help of some basic data (such as date last used, number of times application is used).

 

The Site License Key is usually priced at $2.99/device per year. Please note that this is an additional purchase, over and above the one time cost of downloading the Photon EDU application at $4.99. So for instance, if you decide to purchase the whole package for 250 iPads:

 

Cost for Year 1: 250 iPads x (4.99 + 2.99) = $1995.00.

Cost for annual renewal Year 2 on-wards: 250 x 2.99 = $747.50

 

If you are interested in getting the Site License Key set up, do let me know!

 

In case you have any questions and concerns (budgetary or otherwise), please let me know and I'll certainly try to help out.

[StevieM]

Thanks for the info, @RLR. We don't (currently) have any iPads in school, but that is certainly useful for the future.

 

At the moment, I'm more concerned about recommending an app for parents to download and use on personal devices. Although I would always add a disclaimer to any recommendation, I'd also want to be sure that any risk to pupil safety was minimised.