Lenovo LanSchool vs. Lightspeed Filter

I have recommended it across campus and would not hesitate to do so again. It has been great in our lab environments and would like to continue using it for years to come. In the future as we move away from physical labs I will be investigating to purchase for BYOD devices, however I know that I will face pushback from students on this. However we must weigh privacy & security vs. using BYOD devices and integrity on exams.

Incentivized

Lightspeed Filter is software that helps us work more efficiently and quickly.This platform helps us protect our access to suspicious content, unsafe websites, etc. In addition, it is recommended to implement it because it helps reduce bandwidth consumption and improves network performance. It is very easy to use, works very well in learning environments, giving educators full control and a positive experience over students. Although it does not offer direct integrations with other LMS platforms, it is really good and affordable.

Incentivized

• Ease of use
• Multiple functions
• classroom management

Incentivized

• Reduces bandwidth consumption.
• Improves network performance.
• It is compatible with a variety of operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
• It can be implemented in both wired and wireless networks.
• It can be installed in minutes and you can configure its settings with a few clicks.
• Learning environments work.

Incentivized

• Updating of application connecting directly (if licensed) instead of forcing me to go to website, sign in to download. This is not teacher oriented.

Incentivized

• In my experience, it is not intuitive and not as flexible as GoGuardian.
• Worst of all, in my experience, there are ridiculous glitches. When I tried to update a block list that I created, I received a message that said "You can only edit lists that you created. Ask your co-teacher to update the list." Since I am the only teacher and there is no co-teacher, this message makes no sense to me.

It is unreliable and does not function as it is supposed to do so. As previously mentioned, there is a glitch when creating a block list.

In terms of competition, there is no real competition that we have used at the school or find on the market. We use tools such as REMIND, MOODLE, and KAHOOT, but none of them would be a replacement for LanSchool. On the contrary, all of those tools would support what we do with LanSchool because it gets students in the comfort level of using different technology tools to communicate and be successful. Apple has a Remote Desktop tool, similar to LanSchool in most ways. The key difference between Apple's Remote Desktop and LanSchool is that Lenovo's LanSchool has a student app and a stronger teacher platform to use on non-Mac devices. Our school focuses on LanSchool because using it on a PC and on a MAC, it is the same interface with the same fluidity. Teaching students on MACs to use Remote Desktop and on PC's or Chromebooks to use LanSchool would be a misuse of resources and confusing for educators and students. The best system for engagement and student use would be via LanSchool on all operating systems.

Incentivized

Lightspeed has a long solid reputation in the EDU market for web filtering. That being said, they have the largest database of the categorized websites at the administrator's disposal during the configuration and operation. Safety Check is AI-based and Securely uses a live in-person safety monitoring system. Securely can send local authorities to do a welfare check on students because of self-harm-related emergencies. Securly is priced a little cheaper but not too much. Linewiz will be our new system to test.

Incentivized

• Speed in accessing workstations.
• Security of knowing all students are where they are supposed to be.
• Price is great.

Incentivized

• The ROI we measure with the filter is in student productivity
• It has reduced the time students have been on non-education sites by approximately 10% over our former filter because it does a better job with site categories (i.e., education games vs games).
• The included Safety Check feature has helped us improve our response to mental health issues.

Incentivized