Teachers are searching for a way to give their students safe access to the wealth of information on the Internet. EdView™ is the solution that offers the SAFEST and MOST AFFORDABLE access to the BEST educational sites the Internet has to offer.

The EdView Channel Lock, a small piece of password-protected software installed on your computer, locks students into the EdView Smart Zone and away from inappropriate material such as violence and pornography. And because sites in the EdView Smart Zone are selected and reviewed by teachers, students can still access quality sites dealing with sensitive topics such as breast cancer or sexual harassment–sites that may be blocked when using other solutions.

After entering the password, teachers can customize the EdView Channel Lock to suit their own needs. Teachers can:

1. Enable or disable EdView Channel Lock. (When EdView Channel Lock is enabled, students can access only the sites in the EdView Smart Zone. When EdView Channel Lock is disabled, teachers and students can access the entire Internet.)
2. Decide whether or not students can access services such as e-mail, File Transfer Protocol (ftp), and Telnet.
3. Allow students to access teacher-selected sites that are not part of the EdView Smart Zone.

Installing EdView™ Channel Lock Version 1.1 for Macintosh

Hardware and Software Requirements
Installation Instructions

Installing EdView™ Channel Lock 1.1 for Windows 95/NT

Hardware and Software Requirements
Installation Instructions

General Information

Classroom Use of the Internet
Finding the Good, Keeping out the Bad

The EdView™ Smart Zone and the EdView Channel Lock

Using the EdView Smart Zone

Search Text Examples and Results
Suggest a Site

Customizable Features
Getting Started
General Tab
Changing the Password
Services Tab
Adding a port
Sites Tab
Adding a site
Servers Tab
Restricting Students to Teacher-Selected Sites
Copying the Configuration to All Computers in a Lab
Lost Password
Removing EdView Channel Lock
Troubleshooting and Support

Tips for Effective Usage

Appendix A: EdView Guidelines for Evaluating Sites

Appendix B: FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

∑ Any Macintosh computer capable of browsing the Internet

∑ 1MB or more of unused RAM

∑ 400K or more of free hard disk space

∑ Netscape Navigator 2.0 (or newer) or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 (or newer)

∑ System 7.1 (or newer)

∑ MacTCP or Open Transport 1.1.2 (or newer)

• Look in the control panels folder to determine whether you are using MacTCP or TCP/IP.
• If you are using TCP/IP, find the Open Transport version number by highlighting TCP/IP in the Control Panels folder and then selecting Get Info from the File menu. If your version of Open Transport is older than 1.1.2, you need to install a newer version. You can find Open Transport Version 1.1.2 on the EdView CD-ROM or at http://www.apple.com/macos/opentransport/sdk.html

Installing EdView™ Channel Lock Version 1.1 for Windows 95/NT

∑ PC computer that is capable of browsing the Internet

∑ 16MB or more of RAM (recommended)

∑ 2MB of free hard disk space

∑ Netscape Navigator 2.0 (or newer) or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 (or newer)

∑ Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0

Quality educational experiences engage the learner. They make the learner ask questions and use resources to find answers. Many quality experiences also involve elements of mystery, challenge and fantasy. For decades, students have used the computer in engaging educational experiences as they have honed their writing skills, solved problems, explored concepts and expressed their creativity. In the 1990s, school computers took on a new role; they became the gateway to the wealth of information on the Internet where students and teachers can:

• access information from locations throughout the world
• access information that may be changing on a daily basis
• communicate directly with experts and newsmakers

• contribute to expanding knowledge by sharing their data and publishing original work

As a learning resource, the Internet weaves the media and information used by students and teachers into a single medium. It has history and late-breaking news; the best of prose and classical symphonies; and the newest science and oldest discoveries.

The opportunity to have Internet access in the classroom has attracted nationwide attention, resulting in the national goal of providing Internet access to all classrooms by the year 2000. And the private sector has shown its support by instituting NetDay, an all-volunteer effort to wire K-12 schools with network cable.

Once the network cable has been installed, a teacher faces a two-part challenge: to find the best resources on the Internet, and to protect students from inappropriate and harmful materials. As the Internet grows, finding the best resources becomes more difficult. Students can use search engines to find information about almost any topic, but a search can yield thousands of results: some are excellent, some are not relevant, some are of questionable accuracy, and some may even be harmful. Students can spend hours sifting through the results trying to find the specific information they need.

The second part of the challenge, protecting students from inappropriate and harmful material, has received much attention; because while students are finding wonderful educational materials, they can also encounter pornographic, hateful, and violent text and images.

Schools have taken different approaches to meeting the two-part challenge, most focusing on protecting students from the Internet’s dark side. Some schools have instituted acceptable-use policies where students sign a contract agreeing to follow rules of usage. Others have installed filtering or blocking software to keep students from inappropriate materials. Unfortunately, there are still problems. Students who follow acceptable-use rules may accidentally encounter offensive material. Filtering and blocking solutions find it impossible to outrun the bad sites, and in trying to do so, may prevent access to valuable information. For example, sites dealing with breast cancer may be blocked because they contain the word breast. And neither acceptable-use policies nor filtering/blocking software can help students find the Internet’s best resources.

EdView’s proactive approach meets both parts of the challenge: it keeps out the bad by identifying the good. EdView has two components, the EdView™ Smart Zone and the EdView Channel Lock. The EdView Smart Zone, which resides on the Internet, is a dynamic database providing access to tens of thousands of the best safe educational sites on the World Wide Web. The EdView Channel Lock is a small piece of password-protected software that resides on each individual student computer. When the EdView Channel Lock is enabled, students are locked into the wealth of Internet resources in the EdView Smart Zone and are locked out of violent, pornographic or other inappropriate sites. The teacher controls the lock.

The EdView Smart Zone and EdView Channel Lock work together to give students a secure and smart Internet experience.

Become familiar with the EdView Smart Zone by taking a guided tour. Start your browser, go to http://school.edview.com, and follow along to find middle-school materials dealing with Mark Twain and his work!

The results are divided into pages of ten. Scroll through the selections. Use the page-number bar to access different pages of the results list. Click a site that interests you and explore the content you find. Bookmark the site if you wish. Explore the links; they have all been reviewed for educational value and safety. When you have finished, click the Back button as many times as needed to return to your search results. Explore other sites.

You can show relationships among multiple terms in a search by using the words: and, or, and near; the phrase and not; as well as parentheses, quotes, a single asterisk (*), and a double asterisk. The table below shows examples.

For additional information about searching, click the Tips for Searching link shown near the search-text area.

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This section describes customizing the EdView Channel Lock for both Macintosh and Windows 95/NT computers. Most screen shots shown are for the Macintosh version, but the Windows 95/NT screens have essentially the same content. Procedures that differ by platform are shown in adjoining boxes. Small differences between platforms are shown in [brackets].

Customizable features include:

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[On the Macintosh version, you can enable or disable Channel Lock by positioning your mouse over the EV icon on the task bar, holding down the mouse button, and selecting Enable Channel Lock or Disable Channel Lock from the menu that is displayed. If you choose Disable Channel Lock, you will be prompted for your password.]

Note: To improve performance, most browsers cache (temporarily store) pages you have visited. When you request a page that is in cache, the browser displays the cached version rather than reloading the page. If you visit an unapproved site with the EdView Channel Lock off, pages from the unapproved site may still be in your cache when you turn Channel Lock on. Therefore, you should empty your cache whenever you turn on the EdView Channel Lock. Check your browser's user manual to learn how to empty the cache.

Check Always Enable Channel Lock at Startup to ensure that the Channel Lock will be enabled when your students turn on the computer—even if Channel Lock was disabled when the computer was shut down.

Click the Change Password button to change your password. The procedure for changing a password is shown below.

Enabling/disabling e-mail: Use the Services tab to determine whether or not your students can access

e-mail. Different types of e-mail use different ports/services. Check your e-mail documentation to determine what ports/services you need. If you cannot find any information, you can usually guarantee access to e-mail by enabling all of the following services: SMTP, POP2, POP3, IMAP2, and IMAP3. If you access your e-mail by visiting a specific site (sometimes called "hotmail"), refer to the section on the Sites Tab. (See page 11 of this manual.)

Restricting access to chat rooms: By default, EdView Channel Lock does not allow access to ports that are associated with Internet Relay Chat (IRC). However, some websites include chat rooms. EdView reviewers approve only carefully monitored chat rooms that are sponsored by reputable organizations such as NASA. Teachers who access the Internet through services such as America Online should know that their students do have access to the service-sponsored chat rooms, whether or not EdView Channel Lock is enabled. Your service provider may offer controls that limit or prevent access to chat rooms.

Using America Online (AOL): To use AOL, you must enable port 5190. You may need to use the arrows or scroll bar to see this port.

Click the Add Service/Port button. Enter the port number and a description of your choosing (no descriptions are required for the Windows 95/NT version). There are no fixed rules for assigning services to ports, but general conventions are listed in the following table.

When the EdView Channel Lock is enabled, students can visit only the sites in the EdView Smart Zone. To give students access to other sites, you can:

1. Suggest a Site. Use this option for sites that would be of interest to many students. To suggest a site, go to the EdView Smart Zone+, click the Suggest A Site link, and recommend the site. (See page 7 for more information.)
2. Turn off EdView Channel Lock (see page 9) and visit sites with your students. Use this option when you need immediate access to a site, or when you plan to visit many sites outside the EdView Smart Zone.
3. Use the Sites tab. Use this option to give your students immediate access to sites outside the EdView Smart Zone. You are responsible for determining the appropriateness of the content of the sites you add.

To add a site, you need its Internet Protocol (IP) address. The NSLookup utility at http://security.edview.com/nslookup provides IP addresses for URLs (addresses).

[On the Macintosh version, you can access NSLookup by clicking the Go To NSLookUp link on the Sites tab.]

For a very structured classroom activity where you want students to access only a few selected sites, do the following:

• Add the sites using the Sites tab. If the addresses are complicated, you may want to bookmark them in the browser.
• Under the Servers tab, remove the check from all server check boxes.

When you have completed these steps, the only sites that students can access are the ones available under the Sites tab; students cannot even access the EdView Smart Zone at http://school.edview.com. Therefore, when the activity has been completed, it is very important to go back to the Servers tab and enable all appropriate servers.

If your school computer lab has a utility that supports sending files from one computer to another, you can send configuration options to all computers in the lab. To use this feature, all computers in the lab must have the same EdView Channel Lock password. The configuration options are stored in the files listed below. Choose the one that is appropriate for your platform and operating system.

To send the configuration to all computers in your lab, do the following:

1. Configure the EdView Channel Lock on the "master" computer, enabling appropriate ports/services, adding sites, and so forth.
2. Use your lab's utility to send the appropriate preferences file to the other computers in the lab.

[In a Macintosh lab, student computers are updated immediately.]

Being able to share configurations is particularly helpful when you have added sites through the Sites tab.

If the password is lost, e-mail support@edview.com or call the EdView Support Line at 1-888-949-9905.

For documentation, a list of known problems and workarounds, updates, and FAQs, visit www.edview.com. For additional help, e-mail us at support@edview.com or call us at 1-888-949-9905.

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The vision of EdView is to provide kids with safe, smart, and fun access to the Internet. In that context, EdView strongly embraces the philosophy of inclusion.

EdView's Reviewers seek proactively to include the best educational websites on the Internet. At the same time, EdView recognizes, as have libraries over the years, the incongruous nature of having Playboy as easily accessible as Plato. Thus, EdView has applied certain standards to the selection process that will ensure the achievement of all goals.

These CRITERIA and GUIDELINES were developed by EdView with guidance and direction from the education community. Subsequently, they have been reviewed and endorsed by the EdView Education Advisory Board. (See www.edview.com for Advisory Board members.)

To accomplish these visionary objectives, a process for site inclusion has been implemented for EdView. It is not EdView's intent to include everything. Instead, the intent is to provide a quality, selective tool that increases the ease of navigating the Internet for educational purposes. The result is a comprehensive database of excellent educator-approved websites that have been categorized according to subject matter and appropriateness for elementary, middle or high school level students.

The criteria for SMART focus on three primary areas: Content, Design and Credibility.

Information is relevant, germane and educationally sound

• Sites stimulate student interest, imagination and response
• Sites present meaningful and useful content that will educate and inform
• Sites present information in a comprehensive manner that is appropriate to elementary, middle and high school audiences
• Sites present content that is both current and relevant

Sites are stimulating, logical and user-friendly

• Sites are designed to be easily and intuitively navigated
• Sites are organized and explained in a way that is easy to understand
• Sites utilize systematic mini-lessons when the focus is skill-building
• Sites encourage critical and independent thinking

The creators, sources, and timeliness lend intrinsic value to the sites

• Sites contain information on the resources and sources of the information
• Sites include the date on which the site was last updated
• Sites include information about the author
• Sites include information that is current and up-to-date

To reassure teachers that their students will enjoy a safe and secure Internet environment, EdView has identified a number of areas and has established guidelines to address them. These GUIDELINES were developed by EdView with significant input from the Education Community. Subsequently, they have been reviewed and endorsed by the EdView Education Advisory Board.

• Exclude all sites that contain pictures of the human form in a state of full or partial nudity. Exceptions can be made for those sites that include nudes and partial nudes as examples of fine art; sites for health education; and sites that have intrinsic educational value. Such examples should be representative of the human condition; have educational benefit; and have stood the "test of time." No exceptions will be made for sites directed at Elementary Schools.
• Exclude sites that contain text or pictures that depict anyone or anything involved in explicit sexual acts or in other forms of lewd and lascivious behavior. This would include masturbation, copulation, pedophilia and bestiality. It would also include people involved in heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian or homosexual encounters; and phone sex ads, dating services, adult personals, CD-ROM's and videos.
• Exclude all sites that contain text and pictures that fail to treat contraception, family planning and sexually transmitted diseases in a clinical, informative and educational manner.

• Exclude all sites that contain profanity and obscene words and phrases. Exceptions can be made for sites that make reference to or include works of literature that have educational benefit; do not appeal to prurient interests, and have stood the literary "test of time." No exceptions will be made for sites directed at Elementary Schools.
• Exclude sites that contain crudely vulgar text and pictures; and are grossly deficient in civility and propriety. This includes representations of maiming, bloody figures and indecent depictions of bodily functions.
• Exclude sites that contain text and pictures that advocate violence; extremely aggressive and combative behavior; and unlawful political measures. This would include "how to" information on making and using weapons, ammunition and pyrotechnics materials for unlawful reasons.

• Exclude sites that contain text and pictures that advocate the use of illegal drugs or provide directions for their use. Exceptions can be made for sites in which information is presented for the purpose of educating and increasing knowledge; and for literature deemed to have educational benefit.
• Exclude sites that advocate and glamorize the use of tobacco and alcohol. The value of the information in a site that advertises tobacco and alcohol should be weighed carefully against the impact of that advertising.

• Exclude sites that contain pictures and text that advocate or proselytize specific churches, religions and religious organizations. However, sites that provide relevant educational information on churches and religions should not be excluded.
• Exclude sites that contain pictures and text that advocate devil worship; cult and gang membership; and an affinity for evil. This would include influences that could compromise free will and critical thinking.
• Exclude text and pictures that advocate questionable or illegal activities such as chain letters, copyright infringement, computer hacking, phreaking (using someone's phone lines with out permission) and software piracy. This exclusion would also include gambling-related activities such as lotteries; casinos; betting; numbers games; and on-line sports and financial betting.

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A: The database is generally updated every evening.

A: This is true. We intentionally limit the EdView Smart Zone to a manageable number of sites. Every day we refresh this database to ensure that IP addresses are current and the sites are still available. Additionally, we have a process that checks sites for major changes. When a major change is found in a site we expect to be fairly static, a human reviewer checks the site. Finally, through our Suggest a Site utility and review process we are constantly adding and deleting sites to ensure a well balanced set of sites to meet educational needs and to keep the user experience fresh.

A: We have no competitors that provide the combination of value, low maintenance, security, and an intelligent educational library. When evaluating what appears to be a similar product, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does XYZ Software allow you access a library of sites and block individual pieces, or sub sites?
• How fresh is the inclusion list or exclusion list of XYZ?
• How much user time is needed to keep the inclusion list or exclusion list current?
• What are the maintenance costs of XYZ software?
• Is XYZ software’s model for blocking – if it blocks or rates – simply a yes or no?
• Does XYZ allow age-specific blocking or separate libraries based on age?
• Does XYZ have a way to turn off all current event packages or other categories?
• Can XYZ's model be extended?
• Does XYZ allow personalization?

A: EdView Channel Lock keeps students secure from inappropriate materials on the World Wide Web. We encourage you to use our EdView Smart Zone at any time. What we provide with EdView Channel Lock is a lock to our library. This lock is low maintenance and provides personalization and access to additional future libraries that may be school or region specific. Additionally, with EdView Channel Lock, all MacTCP and TCP/IP traffic is subject to the constraints of the Channel Lock; thus email can be controlled if the educator so desires, as well as access to downloads via FTP and access to the Internet via Telnet or Gopher.

A: In lieu of advertising, we have sponsors. Having sponsors allows us to keep our prices affordable and the experience robust. Our sponsor model works much like the model for public broadcasting in that it is not action oriented. And no student information is ever captured or provided to our sponsors.

A: To improve performance, most browsers cache pages you have visited. When you request a page that is in cache, the browser displays the cached version rather than reloading the page. If you visit an unapproved site with the EdView Channel Lock off, then turn on the Channel Lock, pages from the unapproved site may still be in your cache. The best procedure is to empty your cache whenever you turn on the EdView Channel Lock. Another solution is to click the reload (refresh) button to force the browser to reload the page.

A: The EdView Smart Zone is very much like a library. Just as one book can reference other books which may or may not be part of the library’s collection, sites in our collection may link to other sites that we either have deemed to not have enough educational value, are inappropriate or that we have not yet verified. This illustrates the granularity and full security of our system.

A: Our architecture is flexible enough to have our security model change as needed. There are several pieces to our current model. One piece of the model is we have the granularity to add an entire host to our library, or just a site within the host. In the first case every site that might be on that host, and all the links between the various pages on that host, are in the EdView Smart Zone. In general, hosts that fall into this category are media sites, such as USA Today where the host has on it essentially the same type of material found in their standard media. Another piece of our security model is we can add only a particular site to our library. In this case, only the pages and graphics explicitly associated with the site are available. Our architecture provides additional flexibility so that we could even add a site with some graphics appearing for certain age groups and not appearing for others.

A: We have redundant systems and a scalable design.

Below are some common Internet terms and their definitions. You can find a good online source for definitions at www.whatis.com.