topic Re: Blocking Google Translate for students in Peer-Peer Topics

Blocking Google Translate for students

ddelboccio — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 12:03:15 GMT

Has anybody been directed to block students from using Google Translate lately?

The way I see it, Google Translate actually lives within three different spaces.

1). The actual website: https://translate.google.com

2). An admin workspace setting

3). A simple Google search window

We could URL block the website and disable (set to never offer) the admin workspace setting, but aside from URL blocking Google.com, the search window translation feature still exists.

Is this even a thing anymore to try to block students from using Google Translate? I know we got push-back in the past from our "Spanish" or "French" language teachers, but it seems to be pointless now.

No?

Re: Blocking Google Translate for students

JimmyR — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 12:55:29 GMT

We block the actual website Google Translate and but allow the extension for students based on groups/OU because we have a definite need for it. What we are doing probably isn't perfect but it's serving our needs for now.

Re: Blocking Google Translate for students

ddelboccio — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 13:07:03 GMT

I do not see that the Translate extension really does anything on its own anymore, other than linking to the Translate website, or advising that full page translation is now built into chrome.

Re: Blocking Google Translate for students

npl — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 15:55:26 GMT

We block the site translate.google.com via the firewall plus we also block some local ones such as translate.google.ie (Ireland), translate.google.fr (france) and translate.google.es (spain).

Re: Blocking Google Translate for students

ddelboccio — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 16:00:14 GMT

Can I ask why your district chooses to block?

Re: Blocking Google Translate for students

smackall — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 18:48:58 GMT

If you have an internet filter in place, you might have better luck preventing searches for translations by using your filter's keyword blocking options. Even if you do block Google's own translation services, there are plenty of other helpful sites out there eager to offer a translation right on the search page. For our school, we don't block these searches, but instead use them as an opportunity to start a conversation with the student as needed.

That being said, we do "block" Google's embedded translation service (as a side effect of blocking most of the other "smart" search features which there are no admin controls for). You do this by changing the setting "Omnibox Search Provider Name," under Devices > Settings. Set the dropdown arrow to the lock option, put Google (or whatever you'd like) in first two boxes, and then set the search URL to:

{google:baseURL}search?q={searchTerms}&udm=14&{google:RLZ}{google:originalQueryForSuggestion}{google:assistedQueryStats}{google:searchFieldtrialParameter}{google:searchClient}{google:sourceId}ie={inputEncoding}

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