The Internet is quite a mixed bag with inspirational resources, binders of unsavory things, and everything in between. School IT admins fight a daily battle with filtering the growing dark underbelly of the web without restricting access to valuable learning content.
Since its graduation from Imagine K12 in October 2012, Securly has been helping IT administrators at over 200 K-12 schools in the U.S., Canada and U.K. do exactly that. It currently charges schools $3/student/year for the service, and $10/user/year at home.
Today, the Santa Clara, CA-based startup announced it has raised over $1 million led by Michael Baum (Chairman & CEO, FOUNDER.org), with NewSchools Venture Fund, Geoff Ralston (co-founder, Imagine K12) and professors from the UPenn Wharton School of Business participating. The company is still finalizing the round and accepting strategic investments.
In addition, the company is introducing a version for teachers that put web filtering controls normally reserved for IT administrators into their hands. Despite the best efforts of IT admins, says co-founder Bharath Madhusudan, filters will still block sites that teachers and students want to access. "Previously the only recourse is to file a request to IT to unblock the site. This takes time and leads to a loss of productivity in class time," he shares.
In addition to being able to white-list websites, teachers will also be able to blacklist websites and lock student browsers into a designated website for specific assignments.
"Teachers know what is good or bad for their classroom, and they should be allowed to make that decision," says Madhusudan.
