Digital Citizenship

This recent posting Getting Proper Permission for Posting Student Pictures Online

http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/6132 makes reflect back at the discussion that took place year ago at MACUL15. The expert panel of George Couros, Theresa Stager, Erin Klein, Ben Gilpin, and Dr. Brad Gustafson had this particular question posted to them and the sharing of their responses where similar.

Since our district had not produced a Social Media Release form and I really wanted to get moving on this for some time, I gathered some examples from other school districts and developed one myself. I then had our Manager of Information Services and our Communications and Community Relations Supervisor review the form. They both agreed the key stakeholder in the process was getting the student’ permission.

It took some time getting the school community to sign off, document on the school data base, and file the form in the OSR (Ontario Student Record). However, the communication of our learning that has taken place in our school has been tremendous through the use of Twitter, Remind, and Blogs.

We encourage this permission seeking with all of our stakeholders and continue to ask our students if we can post their learning and it has become common practice. When we model this practice of Digital Citizenship it has becomes part of the school’s culture. I have witness this both by our students and teachers and now some of parents are interacting with the same mindset @StPhilipCS.

Are We Amplifying Learning?

To put innovative technology in our schools today is to amplify learning.  Innovating through the lens of the learner means fundamentally changing the way we think about schools and classrooms, not just layering on technology. We need to provide a few new methods of technology that we know are required for that type of deep learning to take place. Our focus on learning and not on teaching is changing. Learning does occur without technology, however, we have to change our learning in our schools and better prepare out students for the next generation. This will only happen if we amplify our own learning.