Gaggle Boosts Student Safety for Microsoft Office 365

BLOOMINGTON, Ill., March 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Schools today are looking to Microsoft's Live@edu and Office 365 for their students and educators, and some want additional capabilities to help meet the requirements of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). As a solution, Gaggle is excited to announce that their service can now be integrated with both Live@edu and Office 365. The same great monitoring and filtering capabilities found in Gaggle can now be applied to both of these Microsoft solutions.

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Gaggle's Human Monitoring Service (HMS) is also included as part of the integrated solution for Live@edu and Office 365, putting the monitoring of blocked messages in Gaggle's hands, and eliminating the need for teachers to review questionable communications. Memphis City Schools currently uses the HMS service, and Director of Instructional Technology, Cleon Franklin, says the additional safety feature offers peace of mind. "The HMS team keeps the job of reviewing inappropriate content off our teachers' plates," he said. "An unexpected benefit of the system is the student safety situations that Gaggle has brought to our attention, even after school hours, allowing us to intervene and avoid potential tragedies."

In addition, districts using Live@edu and Office 365 now have the option to add Gaggle's enhanced email archiving solution. This service lets school districts easily store, manage, and retrieve their data with just a few clicks of the mouse, virtually eliminating the burden of FOIA and eDiscovery requests. The Gaggle Archiving Solution makes compliance a simple task.

"We want to do everything possible to ensure our kids are safe when online and working with technology. Many of our customers rely on additional security solutions such as Gaggle to help protect their students," said Sig Behrens, General Manager, U.S. Education, Microsoft Corp. "We are pleased that Gaggle is making its security expertise available to help Microsoft customers add an additional layer of protection to improve student safety and security."

Jeff Patterson, Chief Executive Officer of Gaggle, said, "Gaggle is on the frontline protecting students against cyber bullying, offensive content and many other harmful situations. The safety we provide goes far beyond the internet and in fact increases real world student health and well-being.  It's only natural that we would want to extend our safety umbrella to cover Microsoft Live@edu and Office 365."

About Gaggle
Gaggle, founded in 1999, is the leading provider of safe online communication tools for schools. Gaggle hosts more than 3 million users in the U.S. and 23 countries. Based in Bloomington, Ill., the company is an expert in secure communications and offers proprietary technology and monitoring systems developed specifically for the school environment. Gaggle's collaboration tools have won numerous education industry awards, including a prestigious CODiE™ Award in 2011 and Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence in 2009, 2010 and 2011. For more information on Gaggle's full line of products, call 1-800-288-7750 or visit www.gaggle.net.

Contact: Susan Heykamp, Director of Marketing, P: 800.288.7750, [email protected]

SOURCE Gaggle