Games within your School

[lfowler]

What are people's policies on games within schools? At the moment we allow them to play on games on the internet during lunch time. If we see the site during lesson it immediately gets banned.

 

We are having problems though with some students doing absolutely anything to get on games. We are thinking of having no games on the internet and perhaps hosting our own games on certain lunchtimes that we can control e.g. Minecraft Edu

 

Just wondering on how everybody manages games within their school.

Edited November 8, 2016 by lfowler

[LeMarchand]

The whole "Games" category and all of *.io + any that we learn of blocked at the school where no-one is prepared to supervise the kids. (Plus no net access for students at lunchtimes and no BYOD - it's a junior). Same school has a Minecraft server but it's currently turned off as no-one wanted to supervise the kids at lunchtime.

 

The others are quite laissez-faire, but the children only really have access during lessons when it's obviously not allowed.

[Scrambles]

It's viewed as a classroom management issue here.

We have the games category blocked on our webfilter but we don't do much beyond that. We could spend all day chasing down and blocking every single game site a student goes on but there is always a new mirror, always a new game. It's a never ending battle. Unless it comes from the safeguarding team or if it can pose a risk to the network / users in anyway then we don't interfere.

 

All teacher computers have AB Tutor installed so if someone is caught on a game they are warned, if they persist their internet connection is cut off for that lesson from the console and if they then start disrupting the lesson it is escalated through the usual disciplinary channels.

 

At lunch times we used to have a minecraft club with a server hosted internally, however i've not seen anyone logon for a long time. Don't know whats become of it. We also have a 'retro games' club where myself and a few other members of staff brought in our old gear and we have them set up one day a week.

Edited November 8, 2016 by Scrambles

[L3OUGH]

Secondary school here - we block pretty much anything we see, we were like you a little lenient, letting them play as long as it was only at break and lunch and as long there was supervision on hand. Kids went through a phase of trying absolutely anything to get on games during lessons though. So we just block the sites as soon as we see them now. Only games they can play are educational ones. MyMaths etc. They try and use .de/.us etc to bypass filter and sometimes it works but we will just add whatever they find. Finally realising they won't beat us now.

 

We do have a Minecraft Edu. It's a lunchtime club. Only the same 6ish kids go though.

[Garacesh]

I block if I'm asked to, or if I stumble across something. Even if $Website is 'legitimate' (i.e. a member of staff actually instructs their kids to use it), if it's not something 'official' (such as MathsWatch, SamLearning, etc) and it's causing disruption in other lessons, it goes on the block list. It stays there until an executive decision tells me otherwise (Hint: Nobody has ever gone to the boss and asked me to unblock a flash games website ) I also keep tabs on top domain hits/top bandwidth usage* too via Smoothwall, and if any games sites crop up in there, I'll block them too. It's also useful for picking up proxies.

 

* #1 top hit is invariably Google.co.uk, followed by our internal email server.

* Top bandwidth is usually Google, Multiple.Subdomains.llnwd.net and Multiple.Subdomains.edgesuite.net (BBC Streaming), and recently Vimeo, for some reason.

 

We have zero 'traditional' video games on our network.

[enjay]

It is considered a classroom management issue here.

 

If the students are distracting others from working, they'll be asked to stop, other than that we only block if a specific game is deemed inappropriate. We have BYOD here, so blocking online games wouldn't really achieve much, as students could be playing app-based ones on their phones.

[LeMarchand]

If it's Primary/Junior, Timez Attacks Big Brainz Multiplication Tables might be worth a look. Forgot to say that's one of the ones we have installed (free version - not sure how their purchase by Imagine will affect that). Just seen a couple of them playing it!

[kennysarmy]

As much as possible all game sites are blocked.

 

Students reported to Head of House if caught and usually network access suspended for 24 hours.

[enjay]

Students reported to Head of House if caught and usually network access suspended for 24 hours.

 

So, what if they need access in other lessons?

[kennysarmy]

So, what if they need access in other lessons?

 

Tough!

 

The students have to learn the consequences of their actions, I only enforce the rules, not make them - as I frequently tell the students.

[LeMarchand]

Tough!

The students have to learn the consequences of their actions, I only enforce the rules, not make them - as I frequently tell the students.

 

I need a transfer to your school...

[enjay]

Tough!

 

The students have to learn the consequences of their actions, I only enforce the rules, not make them - as I frequently tell the students.

 

I can imagine this having causing other teachers problems (especially in a BYOD school such as this), but it could be they feel the policy is worth it anyway. At my last school, we changed the password for offenders so teachers could log them in during lessons but they couldn't get access at lunchtime.

[NetworkNinja]

We are the same here, we block all games but there are a few sites we can't block and the pupils know we can't block them so they are the only ones they use.

 

This site for example https://sites.google.com/site/millseagles/

[clockend25]

We block games, however there are still plenty that crop up and are used in class by kids. At that point I don't generally intervene unless the content is offensive; the staff can deal with off-task students in the classroom.

[DGardiner]

The whole "Games" category and all of *.io + any that we learn of blocked at the school where no-one is prepared to supervise the kids. (Plus no net access for students at lunchtimes and no BYOD - it's a junior). Same school has a Minecraft server but it's currently turned off as no-one wanted to supervise the kids at lunchtime.

 

The others are quite laissez-faire, but the children only really have access during lessons when it's obviously not allowed.

 

We allow suitable games and run an internal minecraft edu server for the kids to play on, or rather did...

 

The old DL380 that was running it is in the it suite on a bench, some child had a meltdown the other day and pulled all the hard disks out while it was turned on... and kicked the doors off every cupboard in the room needless to say he isn't too popular right now...

[kennysarmy]

We are the same here, we block all games but there are a few sites we can't block and the pupils know we can't block them so they are the only ones they use.

 

This site for example https://sites.google.com/site/millseagles/

 

https://sites.google.com/site/millseagles/

 

Is blocked for our students!

[Disease]

We block Games using the filters but really it's a classroom management issue, we provide Lanschool to aid teachers in that. We have a Video Games Club on Tuesday where the studentst get to play things like Battlefield 2 in the IT rooms as a Lan game on an internal dedicated server, which has become very popular.

[NetworkNinja]

https://sites.google.com/site/millseagles/

 

Is blocked for our students!

 

What filtering system do you currently have, we currently use lightspeed system and we are not able to block this site without blocking google.

[kennysarmy]

What filtering system do you currently have, we currently use lightspeed system and we are not able to block this site without blocking google.

 

Smoothwall....

[enjay]

What filtering system do you currently have, we currently use lightspeed system and we are not able to block this site without blocking google.

 

We have Lightspeed too. What stops you putting that specific address into a block list but leaving the rest of Google accessible?

[ADMaster]

Educational games are allowed, games are not. However the sites.google.com variants get through. You have to SSL inspect to catch those. SSL inspection on google sites prevents sudents creating their portfolios on google sites.

We have mostly chromebooks so I've put the various sites.google.com/ unblocked games xyz in the chrome admin console url black list. I reminded them that this was whack a mole and that it was a behavior issue, not tech.

I have an Iboss web filter.

[NetworkNinja]

We have Lightspeed too. What stops you putting that specific address into a block list but leaving the rest of Google accessible?

 

We have tried blocking the specific address but it just doesn't block? have you managed to block it.

[bossman]

Only one game site that students are allowed to access here and then that is down to the Staff members in the classroom using the management tools to allow students access during the lesson as an incentive for good work produced.

 

All other game sites are blocked!

 

This site is also blocked by our Smoothwall: https://sites.google.com/site/millseagles/

Edited November 11, 2016 by bossman

[enjay]

We have tried blocking the specific address but it just doesn't block? have you managed to block it.

 

Haven't tried, to be honest, as we don't block games (and not on site today so can't test). Blocking individual elements of Google can be fiddly though, so I'm not altogether surprised if you can't. What about a redirect on the address, so it bounces the students to a different page - would that work? You could point it to a custom "you're not allowed that site" page, your school homepage, or if you're feeling mischievous the Justin Bieber fansite.

Edited November 11, 2016 by enjay

[NetworkNinja]

Haven't tried, to be honest, as we don't block games (and not on site today so can't test). Blocking individual elements of Google can be fiddly though, so I'm not altogether surprised if you can't. What about a redirect on the address, so it bounces the students to a different page - would that work? You could point it to a custom "you're not allowed that site" page, your school homepage, or if you're feeling mischievous the Justin Bieber fansite.

 

If i am honest i havent thought about trying to re-direct the page. maybe i will try that

 

You made me laugh when you mention about re-directing to the Justin Bieber Fanpage, maybe i will do just that.