Edge Tips for School Policies

TeachersFirst Edge reviews include information about web 2.0 tool features that require some planning to meet school policies, obtain parent permissions, or maintain student online safety. Other features will help you learn new skills as a teacher. Find strategies for specific tool features below so you and your students can use these tools safely and within school acceptable use policies. See broader tips about school policies and web 2.0 tools in the classroom in the TeachersFirst Edge Tips.

Tips from Thinking Teachers:

Specific tool features:

Requires download/installation of software

  • If your school computers are “locked down,” or school policies prohibit downloading or installing software, create a demonstration project using the tool at home, then email the link to a principal or department head to show why this free tool is worth installing on teacher or student computers. Make learning drive technology, not the reverse.

Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students

  • Bulk registration saves time. Read the details and test it out. Keep a copy of the spreadsheet you use for registrations so you can keep an accurate list of student passwords. Some students “forget” passwords just in time for project due dates.
  • Teacher-friendly administrative features make a huge difference. Make sure your students KNOW that you can see what they do. This will deter inappropriate use of the tool.
  • Use this feature to demonstrate to administrators why the tool should be accessible (if it is not). Show how you can monitor student work.

Multiple users can collaborate on the same project

  • Explore how collaboration tools work and whether they require individual accounts. Have some student help with this. Also explore whether there is a way to determine who did which work (or “vandalized” the work of others). Tell students how you will hold them accountable and what consequences are for any destructive behavior.

Products can be shared by URL

  • Keep an electronic record of URLs to locate and share student projects. Collect the URLs in a class wiki, Google Doc, or Word document. Be sure to accompany each URL with a title or meaningful identifier, such as “How Waves Work by Andy T., Samantha R., and Jabar M.” Since many URLs will be hard to find later, you will want students to submit them before closing their project. Copy/paste! Consider emailing the URLs home to parents, too. If you want to know more about wikis check out the Wiki Walk-Through.

Products can be embedded

  • When copying embed codes and using them to share projects in a central location, such as a class web page, blog, or wiki, be sure to label the embedded products so you remember who did them. If you create whole class projects, be sure to share the link to the class blog or wiki with parents and grandparents, especially in elementary and middle school. If you want to know more about wikis check out the Wiki Walk-Through.

Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage

  • After your classes use a tool successfully for a LONG period of time, you may want to explore ways to fund a teacher or class membership. Get to know which features you really need before spending any money—if ever!
  • Download completed projects to clear out space, if this is an option. Then delete the online version.
  • • Take screenshots of past projects so you can remove them and create more space. Windows: PrtScrn key takes a COPY of the computer screen. PASTE it into a document or PowerPoint slide and save the file.
  • Mac: Command+shift +4 gives you a tool to select and save an image area from your screen. Rename the screenshot with a meaningful file name and keep it somewhere you can find it.

Safety/security:

Requires registration/log in (NO email)

  • Setting up an account without required email makes it easier and quicker to get started. Check school policy about students setting up individual accounts to online sites, even if email is not used.
  • Create a single class account, so you can monitor and submit student work safely. (Applies especially to elementary, where a teacher has fewer students and they are under 13).
  • • Use the same profile: With many sites to “join,” it is easy to forget your usernames and passwords. Create a generic, anonymous "profile" you can use for ALL such tools, using a single username and password for all of them. Make the username, password, and email something you can easily re-use and remember. Perhaps have one you use for teacher-only accounts and another for whole-class accounts to be used by students. If email is required, use a special email account for all your “memberships.”
  • Students should submit their work without identifiable names or location, according to your school policy. Have them initial work so you know who did it.
  • TAG it to know who did the work. Many of these tools offer "tagging,” a way to label projects. You can use tags as a way to sort out individual student's projects from within the whole class account. Have each student use a "code" tag, such as his/her class period and initials: e.g. per1BE for Brian Enders in period 1. Have each student use his/her SAME tag for every tool or project he/she does.

Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)

  • Use a single class account for elementary students or if your school prohibits access to student email.
  • Rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. This video shows how to make the Gmail subaccounts and to sort out mail sent to each subaccount.
  • Use the same profile: With many sites to “join,” it is easy to forget your usernames and passwords. Create a generic, anonymous "profile" you can use for ALL such tools, using a single email address, username, and password for all of them. The email address should be one you keep JUST for site memberships (but can receive emails at school). You need to have a REAL email account for verifying memberships. Make the username, password, and email something you can easily re-use and remember. Perhaps have one you use for teacher-only accounts and another for whole-class accounts to be used by students.
  • TAG it to know who did the work. Many of these tools offer "tagging,” a way to label projects. You can use tags as a way to sort out individual student's projects from within the whole class account. Have each student use a "code" tag, such as his/her class period and initials: e.g. per1BE for Brian Enders in period 1. Have each student use his/her SAME tag for every tool or project he/she does.

Includes social features, such as “friends,” comments, ratings by others

  • Check your school’s policies and/or obtain parent permission before allowing students to interact with those outside your class. You may want to submit comments as a whole class, using a whole class account/email address. If you permit students to comment, spell out permissible use and consequences in advance.
  • If your students submit their own content (according to school policies, of course), take the time to teach safe ways to submit without personal information, voting/ranking etiquette, and the potential for cruelty or rude behavior by anonymous viewers. Help stamp out cyberbullying.

Includes Interaction with the general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content

  • Be sure to preview for content inappropriate for your classroom. You may want to limit use to whole-class activities or prohibit accessing specific portions of the site.
  • Spell out consequences for visiting prohibited areas. Remember that you can look at the computer’s “history” to see where the student has been browsing. Clever students know how to clear the history, however. It is easier to build responsibility by assigning challenging tasks than by punishment.

Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool

  • Know school policies. It never hurts to make parents aware of what students are doing. They might even “buy in” and look at or comment on student work.

Includes an education-only area for teachers and students

  • Make sure you know the distinct URL for the education area and direct students to THAT URL.
  • Get to know the education only area and take advantage of its safety features, especially if they are free. These often include a tool for registering all your students. Keep a separate record of student user names and passwords, saved somewhere secure.
  • Find out how to monitor student activity, view incomplete and completed work, and any commenting features to use when grading student work.
  • Look for ways—if any--to revert work accidentally “ruined” by students.