How to Avoid Distraction During FIFA: Part 1

Every four years the FIFA Soccer World Cup is a highly viewed event that brings millions of supporters together from all over the world.

It is no secret that both students and employees will be eager to watch the World Cup while at school or at work. Over the next 2 weeks leading up to World Cup, we will be addressing the concerns affiliated with employee and student distraction during the World Cup. This week we will be focusing on students and how to avoid productivity concerns that may arise.

With the increased use of technology within the education sphere, students now have more access to online networks while in school than ever before. The growth of utilizing e-learning strategies in the classroom certainly has had its benefits, however, it can also encourage negative, distracting habits amongst students. In addition to students being unfocused by easily accessible technology, this also opens the door to potentially malicious cyber threats if a school does not have proper web filtering in place. With the popular FIFA World Cup coming up, educators need to ensure they have proper online monitoring to prevent students not only from running into cyber attacks but to avoid distractions in the classroom as well.

A recent study was conducted by the London School of Economics revealed that high school student’s grades were 6.4% higher after the ban of mobile devices within the school was created.

A recent study was conducted by the London School of Economics revealed that high school student’s grades were 6.4% higher after the ban on mobile devices within the school was created. Though this is certainly a positive result in terms of classroom productivity, it is unrealistic to ban technology during the World Cup, as students will manage to find their way around it. Nonetheless, educators are aware students will be distracted by the World Cup, therefore it is not realistic to ban any and all uses of technology, but there are ways to customize the access students do have to these devices. What educators need is a policy that can restrict students from accessing certain sites at certain times of the day, and Netsweeper is able to do exactly that.

In order to increase classroom productivity, deploying Netsweeper’s secure web filtering solution will allow schools to filter out specific sport related URLs specifically during school hours. Not only can teachers set specific times during the day to allow access to sites but teachers can also warn students of potential dangers using our client filter software and also the network-based implementation, giving the students the ability make their own decisions. Netsweeper’s web filtering solution provides real-time analysis of content that is often missed by other security products, therefore we can ensure students are protected from malicious content at all times. Finding a happy medium between keeping students focused during school hours while allowing some flexibility to view the World Cup can only successfully work with proper web filtering in place. With the help of Netsweeper, we can ensure the positives of utilizing digital devices in the classroom while giving teachers and educators peace of mind by allowing easily customizable monitoring capabilities.

Finding a happy medium between keeping students focused during school hours while allowing some flexibility to view the World Cup can only successfully work with proper web filtering in place.

Without proper web filtering in place, teachers and educators are unable to prevent students from accessing any potentially harmful streaming sites that have the ability to make the whole school vulnerable to a cyber attack. By deploying Netsweeper, educators can monitor every student’s online activity during school hours in order to combat the risk of any cybersecurity threats, in addition to classroom productivity.