E-Learning Guidelines

Partly to encour­age you to express your­self and develop your writ­ing skills, I would like to encour­age you to keep a blog or con­tribute to our class web sites. If you would like to do this, you may wish to show your par­ents the guide­lines below:

As a part of our efforts, we try to make the best use of all avail­able e-learning resources.

How it Works
Stu­dents will be encour­aged write entries on Diigo, on class sites like this or on their own blogs, which are cur­ricu­lum based.  They may choose a cur­ricu­lum related topic and make use of the skills taught in the les­son to help craft their writ­ing.  The empha­sis is on the qual­ity, not the quan­tity of what they write.  When stu­dents are done pol­ish­ing their writ­ing, they can be reviewed by a teacher before it is pub­lished to the web.

One of the advan­tages of this approach is that stu­dents may work from home, and/or they may work ahead of the rest of the class.  All that is required is an inter­net con­nec­tion.

Hav­ing a real audi­ence is one of the key com­po­nents to this effort.  In addi­tion to receiv­ing com­ments from their class­mates, stu­dents will some­times be able to read com­ments from stu­dents of other classes who view their posts.  We may also arrange for stu­dents in other parts of the world to visit our sites and com­ment on stu­dents’ work.

Secu­rity

Our approach to blog­ging is designed to min­i­mize risk to your child.  The only per­son­ally iden­ti­fy­ing infor­ma­tion included in the blog will be their first name.  There will be no men­tion of our school name or our loca­tion.  Stu­dents are allowed to post their inter­ests and opin­ions, but not their ages, e-mail addresses, pho­tographs of them­selves, or other sen­si­tive information.

Assess­ment

Online assign­ments will con­sti­tute part of your child’s class par­tic­i­pa­tion, class­work and grades.  As with other projects they have com­pleted this year, stu­dents will receive a scor­ing rubric that explains the expec­ta­tion for these assign­ments.  The rubric will include a sec­tion for the com­ments they leave in other stu­dents’ blogs.

Online Work Terms and Conditions

• Stu­dents post­ing online are expected to act safely by keep­ing per­sonal infor­ma­tion out of their posts.  You agree to not post or give out your fam­ily name, pass­word, user name, e-mail address, home address, school name, city, coun­try or other infor­ma­tion that could help some­one locate or con­tact you in per­son.  You may share your inter­est, ideas, and preferences.

• Stu­dents using web-based tools agree to not share their user name or pass­word with any­one besides their teach­ers and par­ents.  You agree to never log in as another student.

• Stu­dents using blogs and forums are expected to treat these as class­room spaces.  Speech that is inap­pro­pri­ate for class is not appro­pri­ate for online.  While we encour­age you to engage in debate and con­ver­sa­tion with oth­ers online, we also expect that you will con­duct your­self in a respect­ful man­ner reflec­tive of a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of this school.

• Stu­dent posts are to be a forum for stu­dent expres­sion.  How­ever, they are first and fore­most a tool for learn­ing, and as such will some­times be con­strained by the var­i­ous require­ments and rules of class­rooms teach­ers.  Stu­dents are wel­come to post on any school appro­pri­ate subject.

• Students who do not abide by these terms and con­di­tions may lose their oppor­tu­nity to take part in these projects.

Post­ing online is in no way manda­tory or nec­es­sary for your child to achieve a top grade in the course. It is 100% optional. How­ever, our past expe­ri­ences show that this kind of effort can enhance stu­dents’ under­stand­ing of con­tent considerably.

For more infor­ma­tion, or for any rea­son at all, please feel free to con­tact me directly.