Thanks John. Have a great weekend!!!
________________________________ From: info-tech-ow...@aea8.k12.ia.us [mailto:info-tech-ow...@aea8.k12.ia.us] Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 7:11 PM To: Pearson, Jeremy Subject: RE: [info-tech] Same Questions, different year... See notes embedded in your questions below. (It is interesting reading. Really.) John Kidney Director of Technology Webster City Schools 825 Beach Street Webster City, IA 50595 515-832-9210 515-832-9219 voice mail 515-832-9215 fax jkid...@webster-city.k12.ia.us ________________________________ From: info-tech-ow...@aea8.k12.ia.us on behalf of Pearson, Jeremy Sent: Thu 2/4/2010 3:37 PM To: info-tech@aea8.k12.ia.us Subject: [info-tech] Same Questions, different year... Everyone- I have a few questions I would like to pose to the group for input. 1 - At what grade do you start giving students Internet access? Our elementaries would like to not have to log in to computers as "special" internet accounts, they just want the Internet to work for them. Our current practice would require someone to log the computer in with an account that would have Internet access. I assume that whatever your situation is, you expect the teacher to still supervise their use. ALL students PK-12 have internet access. No special login. No special permission. However, PK-4 have a grade section common login. All elementary students use the internet at the directions and supervision of a teacher. No personal, unsupervised exploring. 2 - At what grade do you start giving kids their own personal login, with a home directory and internet access. We are doing home directories at 5th grade, and Internet access at 7th grade. Each student receives a personal login and password grade 5-12. 3 - Facebook. We have 3 interested groups ready and wanting to create a Facebook group or a Facebook Page for their specific group. We have talked about privacy, and what kids post about themselves there and how we as District employees are mandatory reporters. From my limited playing of Facebook, I cannot limit access to specific facebook site, it is either give them (staff only, not students) access to Facebook or not. All or none. Their thinking in wanting to create a Facebook page is because that is what the kids are doing, when they aren't at school. My concern is the privacy and lost work time with people maintaining their personal Facebook, Mafia War or Farm Town creation. Give me your thought, the discussions you have had, and we can kind of go from there. Facebook - no way, never. I have had teachers invite students to become friends of their personal site and then wish they didn't. I would suggest Google Groups. It is free. It requires a login and password. You can upload documents to share. Teacher and students can post threaded conversations and reply to posted questions. A teacher would setup the group as the group administrator. No perfect, but free. Saywire is a great social networking/web 2.o website, but is expensive. One final note. If a teacher wants a web site unblocked, they must make the request in writing or by email. I review it and in most cases I will unblock it. However, I inform the teacher that they will be held responsible for anyone (their students and all other students) who get in trouble using it. If an administrator directs me (has not happened) to unblock or stop blocking web sites, I will do so ONLY after they give me a signed written statement that will release me of any possible harm or liability and that they accept full responsibility for student or staff inappropriate use. Thanks for your time and help. Jeremy _______________________________________________ Jeremy Pearson Supervisor of Information Technology Fort Dodge Community School District 104 South 17th Street Fort Dodge, Iowa 50501 http://www.fort-dodge.k12.ia.us <http://www.fort-dodge.k12.ia.us/> (515)574-5676 voice (515)574-5324 fax
