Kids Are Back in Classrooms and Laptops Are Still Spying on Them

This is what high school teachers see when they open GoGuardian, a popular software application used to monitor student activity: The interface is familiar, like the gallery view of a large Zoom call. But instead of seeing teenaged faces in each frame, the teacher sees thumbnail images showing the screens of each student's laptop. They watch as students' cursors skim across the lines of a sonnet or the word "chlorofluorocarbon" appears, painstakingly typed into a search bar. If a student is enticed by a distraction--an online game, a stunt video--the teacher can see that too and can remind the student to stay on task via a private message sent through GoGuardian. If this student has veered away from the assignment a few too many times, the teacher can take remote control of the device and zap the tab themselves.