Blog AUPs and Digital PDs

Part 1

In our small district, which includes students in grades K-8, we have several
different AUPs depending on the age of the student. Primary students and their
parents are asked to sign a contract that allows them to use the computers in the
lab with their school-assigned log-on information. These students only use the
computers when their teacher takes them to the lab with a specific purpose, and
their exposure in school is limited to very supervised activities. Students in the
middle grades are issued a school email address and password. They sign a
contract that stresses responsible use of email and the internet, which gives some
specific examples of dos and don'ts. Early in the year in both 4th and 5th grades,
classroom teachers, the librarian, and the technology teacher all conduct lessons
both in the classroom and the lab to make students aware of the risks of abusing
technology. Although certain students (with IEPs) are issued personal devices such
as laptops or iPads, most students still mainly use the computers in the lab, as well
as any classroom computers that are available. Middle school students are
assigned to a chromebook (formerly laptops), and have access to 2 chromebook
carts, which are used when a teacher signs up to use them in a specific period. It is
common to see middle schoolers walking around the school with their chromebooks.
With the exception of 6 8th graders who take a Chinese class each morning at the
nearby high school, students are not allowed to bring their devices out of the
building. Although students and parents sign a fairly explicit AUP contract, in the
middle school there are the inevitable, typical problems such as email abuse,
students stealing other students' passwords, and problems in social media.

In our school students are not allowed to have personal devices such as cell phones
or iPods visible. They are allowed to have them on the bus, but they must be
stowed in their backpacks out of sight as soon as they disembark. If teachers see
these devices, we are supposed to take them away. Most often we will simply ask
the students to put them away, and they do. Occasionally students are blatantly
disregarding the rule, and the device is confiscated and brought to the office, where
it must be picked up by a parent. Students are allowed to bring other devices such
as iPads, tablets, e-readers, or laptops at the discretion of the teacher. In my
classroom, I allow readers to bring their devices for independent reading, but they
are not allowed to hook into the school wireless service. Occasionally a student will
bring a tablet in to work on a project, but it is rare that they need to in my classes.

Our school has a Technology Plan that was developed several years ago as a Board
of Education Initiative. Although it has been revamped several times, it is not a
totally up-to-date plan, and we have some fairly big problems to deal with. Most
teachers are working on laptops that are 5+ years old. The wireless connectivity,
although better this year after some much needed wiring updates were installed, is
still spotty at best in several parts of the school. This year the school has applied
for a technology grant which required that a new plan be created, and a team was
assembled to do so. If we get the grant, it will be transformational to the school. In
the creation of the plan, the team did an audit, and also conducted a survey asking
teachers to make a "wish list." The team then prioritized the items in the list and
created a plan that would be the most useful to the whole school.

In the middle school there has been trouble especially this year with plagiarism,
which is becoming frustrating for the teachers. At the beginning of the year it was
fairly common, and many students were plagiarizing. Although most of them have
learned the lesson, there is a small group of kids who continually plagiarize, and
even when they face tough disciplinary action including parental involvement, the
behavior persists. The middle school teachers are enforcing the policy, but some
still ignore the rules.

I think the biggest weakness in our school digital citizenship policies is inconsistent
implementation. Some teachers are totally fine with students using their e-readers
at any time, and others do not want them in their classrooms. Some teachers allow
kids to play games on their chromebooks if their work is done, and others prefer
students to only work on assignments for school. Some teachers encourage kids to
find new ways to challenge themselves with presentations or other technological
tools and others require that they follow the scripted lesson exactly every time.
Students come away confused and in some cases irritated, which causes some of
them to deliberately break or bend the rules.

As we plan to expand our digital capabilities as a school, we need to also plan for
professional development and training. It does not do any good to get a school full
of devices if nobody knows how to use them properly and there are inconsistent use
policies from room to room and teacher to teacher. In addition, we have the need
for an IT person who could be in the building on a regular basis during school hours
to help troubleshoot both hardware and software problems, rather than one guy
who comes one afternoon a week after school hours to address a list of problems.

Part 2

As I read many of the suggestions for professional development in chapter 4 of

Ribble's book, I thought that most of them would not apply to my school. However,
I think that the idea of an Appreciation Blog would serve us well for several reasons.
First, there are a lot of teachers who do not have any idea how to blog, or even what
a blog is. Second, a blog created for the purpose of celebrating the
accomplishments of our colleagues would serve to raise the morale of the school
and let the different departments see what is happening elsewhere. It would not
take a long time at a PD meeting to demonstrate how to add a post or comment to
a blog that had already been set up for that purpose. In fact, some of our PDs are
held in the computer lab, and would allow each teacher to see the blog at his/her
own terminal, and practice commenting or posting. In our school, there is a pretty
serious division regarding the administration (which affects the morale of the staff),
and the lines are drawn clearly between the middle school staff and the elementary
staff. I think it would be very helpful for the teachers who are chronically unhappy
to see the many good things that happen in the elementary classrooms.
Conversely, it might raise the morale of the middle school teachers to see their hard
work recognized for their colleagues to see.