digital tools permission sheet

8/10/2019 Digital Tools Permission Sheet

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Dear Families:

Throughout the 2013-14 school year, our class will be using technology to enhance learning andprepare students for future challenges. Many of these technologies require students to publish to

the Internet. These include the use of blogs, podcasts, and digital photography.

Blogs

A Weblog, or blog as they are commonly called, is a special type of Web page that can be

created and easily updated using a Web browser. Each new entry has its own date stamp. Each

entry has a comments section where visitors to the blog may leave comments for the author. Forexample, students in our class will respond to prompts and discuss quality literature within our

class blog.

When we start blogging, we will focus on just blogging with students from our class. As webecome more proficient as bloggers, then we will increase our audience to another class in theRegina Catholic School Division. Later we will move towards blogging with classrooms from

other parts if the world. In part of this process, students will have the opportunity to examine on-

line safety, ethical use if technology and digital citizenship.

So to begin, our Class Blog will be found at http://kidblog.org/_____________________Thissite provides secure and private safety features. This blog is a "Walled" environment that

requires passwords and user ids. Some features include:

Teachers have administrative control over all student blogs and student accounts.

Comment privacy settings block unsolicited comments from outside sources. The onlycomments permitted are those that are approved by the teacher or moderator. All audio and video

productions are uploaded by me and, as subscriber to the site, all comments must be approved

by me in order for them to be published on the blog.

Kidblog does not collect any personal information from teachers or students.

Having a real audience is one of the key components to this program. In addition to receiving

comments from their classmates, as I mentioned previously, I hope to arrange collaborative

opportunities for our class to receive comments from other classes who are invitedto visit ourweb pages, such as another class in the Regina Catholic School Division. It would also be quite

engaging for students in other parts of the country or world to visit our blogs and comment on

our writing. f there are opportunities made available to do this, you will be notified of theseopportunities.


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Podcasts

A podcast is a digital audio and/or video recording published on the Internet and available for

downloading. For example, select student presentations will be published to the class website viapodcasts. We will be using web tools such asvocaroo.com andblabberize.comas voice

recording services and embedding student mini-podcasts into our blogs.

Digital Photography

A digital photograph is a still picture that can be stored electronically and published to the

Internet. Students may post pictures of class activities, student work, and special events in their

classroom blog, which is not open to outside users of the Internet. The context of the photos will

connect only with student work, as the blog will be used as a Digital Portfolio of the studentslearning.

Security

Our use of the aforementioned technologies has been designed to minimize risk to your child. Allstudent blogs, podcasts, and any other published work will be closely monitored by me and will

be published online only after I give my approval. Students will be required to refrain from

sharing personally identifying information such as last name, address, phone number, age, etc.Students will take part in Digital Citizenship lessons to further educate them in using digital

technology appropriately and safely. Lessons as well as additional home resources can be

accessed at commonsensemedia.org. Or feel free to visit the Regina Catholic School website for

links on tools to teach Digital Citizenship at: http://elementarydigitalcitizenship.weebly.com/

Permission

Before your child may start blogging, podcasting, or using these collaborative digital tools, I am

asking for you and your child to discuss and sign this form. Please keep the second copy for your

future reference and return the form to ________________________ as soon as possible.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact ______________________ at

___________________ School or by email at [email protected].

Sincerely,

_____________________________
http://vocaroo.com/http://vocaroo.com/http://blabberize.com/http://blabberize.com/http://blabberize.com/http://blabberize.com/http://vocaroo.com/


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Student Blogging Guidelines/Podcast Consent

1. Students using blogs are expected to act safely by keeping personal information out of theirposts. You agree not to post or give out your family name, password, user name, email address,

home address, city, country or other information that could help someone locate or contact you

in person. You may share your interests, ideas and preferences, although most posts will relatespecifically to a writing task (Keep in mind that most of our blogging will be predominantly

within the confines of our classroom. If there are opportunities to blog with another classroom,

further information will be sent home)

2. Students agree to never log in as another student.

3. Students using blogs are expected to treat blog spaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is

inappropriate for class is not appropriate for your blog. While I encourage students to have

discussions with other bloggers, I also expect that they will be respectful and represent ourschool in a positive way. Keep in mind all posts come to your teacher first, so if inappropriate

language or content is shared, it will be moderated.

4. Blogs are to be a place for students to give their opinions. However, they are first and

foremost, a tool for learning, and students will be expected to follow the same rules we have for

classroom discussions.

5. Blogs are a way for students to share their writing with real audiences. Classroom peers who

visit your blog will leave comments or respectful, helpful messages. The idea is that students areable to give each other feedback and collaborate.

6. Students who do not follow these guidelines may lose their opportunity to take part in the

blogging activities. And in these situations, students will do alternate assignments using more"pen and paper traditional means".

Please sign and return one copy of this letter and keep the other for your information.

I have read and understood these blogging guidelines. I agree to follow them.

Students Signature:_____________________________ Date: ________________

Parents Signature: _____________________________ Date: ________________

digital tools permission sheet

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