Big changes are coming to WHB students’ Google Access. Due to Google’s inability to comply with New York State data privacy laws, some important Google services and sites are being blocked.
One of them is Youtube, a tool often used for students’ education and also as a mental break when not working on school work. Beginning last week, students were surprised to find an error pop up on their screen when they tried to access YouTube stating, “Sorry, you can’t access YouTube with your Google Account. Your access is restricted by your administrator.”
The reasoning behind the block is because the district must comply with state laws protecting student data. Students can use Google Core Services such as Google Forms, Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Sheets. However, students can not use youtube, Google Translate, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Arts and Culture, and Gemini.
Students will no longer be able to search for videos or view them directly on YouTube. However, teachers will still retain full access. This means they can still use YouTube during whole-class instruction and add specific videos into Google Classroom, Google Slides, or other platforms students are able to use.
Mr. Rupertus uses YouTube for his edpuzzle videos and said the block hasn’t been that big of a problem because he is able to post the videos through Edpuzzle or Google Classroom so students can still see it.
Although the block doesn’t exactly affect his Edpuzzle Mr. Rupertus says, “Next year it will probably be an issue because I have a lot of projects with Google Maps and Google Earth and I don’t know how to replace those activities.”
Some teachers assign links for YouTube and students find that they are unable to watch them when they are not assigned through Google Classroom. Sophomore Nico Arena says, “When teachers assign videos to watch on YouTube I’m unable to watch them.” In order for students to be able to watch the videos they need to be through a Google source that they have access to by the teacher such as Google Classroom, they can not just click through a link.
Overall there have been varying opinions on this new Google Block but the District is doing it for the students’ good and protection of data.
