GoGuardian is a pain. It gets in the way of making menial and extremely boring assignments go by fast without having to pay attention to the concept that’s being taught. 

That has to sound at least a little ridiculous to even those who agree with the sentiment. While GoGuardian may feel to be an invasion of privacy, the only privacy students desire is to do tasks unrelated to school work or indulge in forms of academic dishonesty.

Although being forced to stay honest may be annoying, students should do the work and learn the material. GoGuardian isn’t used as a weapon to catch dishonest students; its purpose is to keep students on track with the curriculum as well as be honest.

Because GoGuardian might feel like an invasion of privacy, it’s important to ask what purpose privacy serves in class. Privacy isn’t something that should be needed when students are expected to be doing classwork. 

While privacy is important and everyone has a right to their own personal space, I don’t think privacy is necessary when simply doing schoolwork. Because plainly put, who cares if your teacher knows you’re on task?

According to Harvard, a survey conducted in 2015 found that students check their devices for non-classroom purposes 11.7 times per day, taking up an average of 21% of class time. 

In addition to this, a survey conducted by Tindell and Bohlander in 2011 found that 92% of college students reported using their phones to send text messages during class. 

I believe that if college students abuse their devices to this degree, as early as 2011 when devices were substantially less advanced, then high school students in 2023 will be just as distracted if not more. GoGuardian helps fight these distractions.

However distracted students aren’t the only issue, some have speculated how applications such as GoGuardian can be seen as a breach of student trust as well as jeopardizing student-teacher relations/trust. Contrary to this, I believe GoGuardian was implemented because students broke this trust initially. 

If students truly don’t want to be monitored during class then that trust has to be reestablished through student academic honesty and productivity. Unless every student uses devices responsibly, then GoGuardian should stay implemented for the sake of keeping easily distracted students on task.

GoGuardian serves its purpose well: keeping students on task and honest. It’s a tool that has served well to support both teachers and students with their education.