Learning Zones

The Global Chalkboard offers the Learning Zones as a method of customizing the amount of Internet access needed. Selecting a Learning Zone is easy to do. It can be accomplished globally for a school, or it can be set while creating a lesson. The Global Chalkboard is flexible. It gives customers the ability to access as much or as little of the Internet as required.

Lesson Zone

Starting at the core, the Lesson Zone enables students to access only the Web sites chosen by the teacher for that lesson. For example, a teacher conducting a lesson about the Civil War can pre-select four Web sites for use in the lesson. When students log on to that lesson, they will only be able to access those Web sites chosen by the teacher and nothing else. With the Lesson Zone, the students remain "on task" as they use the Internet. This zone is especially useful when creating lessons for At-Risk students that benefit from having their lessons focused on specific content. (For additional information on using the Global Chalkboard for Academic Intervention Services, click here.)

School Zone

This is the default option when creating a lesson. The School Zone contains the Web Library, an online catalog of focused, educational Web resources for educators and students. The K-12, education-specific portal contains Web sites organized by essential curriculum categories (e.g. Math, ELA, The Arts, Science). The Web Library serves as a starting point, making Internet research easier for beginners and faster for experienced users.

The Web Library is available only to authorized subscribers of the system. Clicking on any category provides a lengthy list of associated sites, along with a basic summary, a site rating of A+, A or B, and a grade level (E, M or H).

New sites are added continually and configured as part of the customer's "allowed" community of Web sites. By continually updating the Web Library, BASCOM delivers thousands of pre-selected, educational Web sites reviewed by educators and organized by curriculum categories. The School Zone provides a "safe harbor" of focused, educational content to students.

Research Zone

This zone provides teachers the option to let students access the entire Internet, except for a list of "blocked" sites. Students can explore and research at greater depth with greater safety. Educators may override aspects of the filter to allow sites that would normally be blocked by this function or they may add sites to be filtered out instantly. This means no waiting for "the filter company" to review and respond to requests for changes in the list. For added protection the Global Chalkboard also offers the option of blocking all uncategorized sites to prevent new objectionable sites from bypassing the filter.

The Global Chalkboard delivers a filter that offers both in depth customization with thorough filtering. Categories are color-coded and grouped under three major headings to deliver more granular organization. And, for more refined customization, sites can now appear in multiple categories for more thorough control. Therefore, whenever a category is blocked, all sites in that category are blocked, even if a site appears in another category that is allowed.

To give you even more options some categories offer a trust setting. Just like it sounds… a category that is trusted trumps all other categories. So, a trusted category is like a "super allow." This means all sites in the category are allowed even if the site is blocked in another category… just another way the Global Chalkboard delivers more flexibility for optimal results.

Click here for a definition of the contents of each filter category in the Research Zone. (220 KB PDF)

Internet Zone

This zone gives schools the choice of offering users full and unrestricted Internet access. With a quick change of the Learning Zone setting, complete, unrestricted Internet access is provided to selected users.