Games within your School

[Griff]

Bugs me how persistent the little blighters are - see them on a website block it they instantly hit Google trying to search for the site or ways to get on-to it..coolmaths-games is the one they are obsessed with here... or another one to watch is on the Scratch site there is a FIFA type game which they all play. Looking forward to getting away from the LA so we can get some control over our filtering properly.

[tmoon-mint]

No point actively policing game since as soon as you block one site another mirror pops up. I block game sites if they are becoming a problem in lesson time or if the content of the website or ads on the page are inappropriate.

[Garacesh]

coolmaths-games is the one they are obsessed with here...

Yep, we had that, maths were appeasing the kids legitimately using it, but I had complaints from other members of staff that kids were going on it in their lessons too (and scoffing "Yeah but it won't get blocked coz Miss $Name tells us to use it.").

So I blocked it. Told her if she wanted it unblocked, the order would have to come from SLT.

That order never came

[enjay]

It seems a lot of time is being spent blocking games. Can I ask, why? Assuming PC availability is such that students who want to work still can (and that's classroom management if they can't, not technical), and bandwidth is sufficient that business operation isn't affected by the gaming, what is actually wrong with the students playing computer games?

[kennysarmy]

No point actively policing game since as soon as you block one site another mirror pops up. I block game sites if they are becoming a problem in lesson time or if the content of the website or ads on the page are inappropriate.

 

I disagree.

 

If the school rules state no gaming then surely you have to police...

[Garacesh]

It seems a lot of time is being spent blocking games. Can I ask, why? Assuming PC availability is such that students who want to work still can (and that's classroom management if they can't, not technical), and bandwidth is sufficient that business operation isn't affected by the gaming, what is actually wrong with the students playing computer games?

 

It takes about 30 seconds tops to block any url we're given. I don't actively search for games sites to block, I just keep an eye on top domains by hits/bandwidth just as a general keeping on top of things.

We block games (And other such sites) because there's a knock-on effect of disrupting lessons if we don't.

[enjay]

We block games (And other such sites) because there's a knock-on effect of disrupting lessons if we don't.

 

Are Amazon, BBC News, HowToCareForYourCat.com all blocked too, or just the games sites which can be used to impact lessons? Being facetious now, but what about students looking out the window rather than working? Is that dealt with by the teacher, or have the site team been asked to paint the windows black?

 

Do your filters permit timed policies to block games sites during lessons but make them available at lunch? There are various developmental benefits to playing games (problem solving, co-ordination, socialising, etc) plus the opportunity to include those students who can't afford / aren't permitted to play games at home.

[LeMarchand]

It seems a lot of time is being spent blocking games. Can I ask, why? Assuming PC availability is such that students who want to work still can (and that's classroom management if they can't, not technical), and bandwidth is sufficient that business operation isn't affected by the gaming, what is actually wrong with the students playing computer games?

 

What's wrong with playing games? If it's in class they should be studying/paying attention. If in break (I work in Primary/Junior) tempers get frayed.

 

Damn right it's a classroom management issue, but until SLT are prepared to make teaching staff take responsibility it will unfortunately be seen as something that IT should be able to solve.

[Garacesh]

Are Amazon, BBC News, HowToCareForYourCat.com all blocked too, or just the games sites which can be used to impact lessons?

Yes, no, and probably not. In that order.

 

Being facetious now, but what about students looking out the window rather than working? Is that dealt with by the teacher, or have the site team been asked to paint the windows black?

 

Do your filters permit timed policies to block games sites during lessons but make them available at lunch? There are various developmental benefits to playing games (problem solving, co-ordination, socialising, etc) plus the opportunity to include those students who can't afford / aren't permitted to play games at home.

I block nuisance sites when I'm asked to, because I'm asked to. There is no reason why the children should be on those websites and if they are found to be, and there's no harm in blocking them. It's not like we're cutting off legitimate educational resources. We're not blocking MyMaths for example. Yes, kids could waste time 'going for a drive' on Google Streetview, but we don't block that. But that's because there are legitimate reasons to use it. Not so much for flash games.

 

No, our filters do not permit children to play flash games over lunch/after school. None of our web policies are time-based. We are a secondary school here. If kids are using the IT infrastructure over Lunch/after school/etc it is permitted with the intention that they do work, not muck about online.

Edited November 11, 2016 by Garacesh

[Griff]

Most departments here have bought into websites for their subject which I think have games on like Spellodrome, Mathletics, Mangahigh, MyMaths etc so we point the darlings towards those instead of "Run2 the intense wall jumping game" lol

[lfowler]

Thanks for the advice all. I think we are heading in the way of if someone reports it to us we try our best to prevent access.

 

Our main issue here now, which has sprung quite recently, is kids bringing in games on a memory stick and loading them onto their profiles. Main culprits here are Counter-Strike, Soldat etc. How are you preventing these instances happening? Are you using group policy or another approach?

[Griff]

Thanks for the advice all. I think we are heading in the way of if someone reports it to us we try our best to prevent access.

 

Our main issue here now, which has sprung quite recently, is kids bringing in games on a memory stick and loading them onto their profiles. Main culprits here are Counter-Strike, Soldat etc. How are you preventing these instances happening? Are you using group policy or another approach?

 

GPO to lock down the drives so we only allow their home area and other drives etc everything else is hidden or if you have Impero you can manage USB sticks with that.

[LeMarchand]

Our main issue here now, which has sprung quite recently, is kids bringing in games on a memory stick and loading them onto their profiles. Main culprits here are Counter-Strike, Soldat etc. How are you preventing these instances happening? Are you using group policy or another approach?

 

Not had to do it, but you can block access to memory sticks via GP.

[Garacesh]

Thanks for the advice all. I think we are heading in the way of if someone reports it to us we try our best to prevent access.

 

Our main issue here now, which has sprung quite recently, is kids bringing in games on a memory stick and loading them onto their profiles. Main culprits here are Counter-Strike, Soldat etc. How are you preventing these instances happening? Are you using group policy or another approach?

 

SRP restricts executions from their user area and doesn't even allow exe files to exist there (nor BAT, CMD, etc). Doesn't catch exe's run from inside zip files though. I'm experimenting with blocking those (I think I'm going to end up with kids having an SRP whitelist rather than a blacklist)

 

I've gone full-militant here, since kids have Office365, kids aren't able to use removable storage at all any more. Nobody has complained. YMWPV

 

Edit: Also, back on the subject of Flash games, kids can download .swf's inside zips and run them with Internet Explorer. Literally zero we can do about that Could block flash files, but the Computer Studies course has a flash section, so that's a no-go

Edited November 11, 2016 by Garacesh

[ITGURU]

This is a catch 22 in our school. Games are blocked, but they want to use Google Translate, so they just use that to bypass the filter in other languages.

[NetworkNinja]

Another Problem we have is pupils always seem to find sites to watch films on. we block them straight away, every time. Technology is so good the students are starting to save films on there cloud storage and playing them through there.

 

Has anyone else had this problem?

[Oaktech]

As we're a primary, most of the kids aren't that creative in their circumvention of the rules. We allow coolmathgames and CBeebies/CBBC. Anything else is going to last about a minute after I see it. They aren't into video watching particularly, but we block all the usual streaming/proxy sites for students. We have file screens set up on storage which don't allow the storing of flash games or the usual executables and srp/applocker stops them running executables. I also have the word for 'games' blocked in about 15 languages in the filter.

 

Our biggest problem is scratch as it's virtually impossible to block using lightspeed. I've just set an impero policy which can be turned on and off by staff to allow access to the website.

[Bagpuss66]

Scratch a total pain in the neck! As ICT use it in lessons students have the excuse that they are doing their homework in other classes. Teachers believe them and they play games usually Fifa17 FUT!

Also Coolmathgames is being used by teachers all the time as a reward....

[Garacesh]

Also Coolmathgames is being used by teachers all the time as a reward....

We had that, but I took the stance that mitigating the disruption of other lessons takes precedence over a reward and nobody has complained

[Bagpuss66]

Another Problem we have is pupils always seem to find sites to watch films on. we block them straight away, every time. Technology is so good the students are starting to save films on there cloud storage and playing them through there.

 

Has anyone else had this problem?

We had students using icloud and google drive to download movies and music , both blocked through our firewall now.

[NetworkNinja]

We had students using icloud and google drive to download movies and music , both blocked through our firewall now.

 

Did you block icloud and google drive? this can be done easily but a problem we have is sixth form save there work in the cloud and need to be able to access the files. We do use onedrive as a school but they could easily do the same with this?