A student is using Google Drive as a writing and collaborative tool for peer reviewing. Juan and Jeremy have used the platform instead to exchange comments that involve name-calling and racial slurs. Jeremy’s parents object when his account is suspended claiming it will negatively impact his academic progress.
I hope the district that Juan and Jeremy are in has a district technology policy and that it was given to parents and students in the beginning of the year to read and sign. The teacher should meet with the principal to discuss the situation and refer to the p0licy when meeting the Juan and Jeremy's families. During the meeting, they should explain that the boys have broken the district policy by name calling and using racial slurs. Making sure the boys understand that technology is a privilege and can be suspended when it is abused. The district policy should have consequences stated for each offense and the teacher and principal can use this information to talk to the parents.
Scenario 7:
Ms. Jansen, a special ed. teacher, has been using screencasting in her class to post review screencasts of her lessons and study materials. These screencasts have been heavily used by students and she has received glowing emails from parents thanking her for going this extra distance. Ms. Jansen decides it’s time to have her students create their own screencasts. She struggles with how best to post and share their screencasts and decides to use a class YouTube account/channel. Because some students want to do screencasting from home, she provides students with the class YouTube username and password so they can upload their videos from home. Two disasters ensue: 1.) Students post more than just their screencasts including inappropriate random YouTube videos as well as change the privacy settings of the account. 2.) Students post video content of themselves and their peers and the teacher discovers that some of these students have “no photo” stipulations on file in the office. Before Ms. Jansen can even blink, these videos have been shared/linked to Facebook pages and have an assortment of inappropriate comments posted from outside users.
Ms. Jensen made a mistake by giving out the class username and password. I believe that she had good intentions but it should have been done in a way that followed all of the rules in the district technology policy. The first thing she should do is to close the account and remove all of the videos that the students posted. By giving the students access to the account she lost all control of it. Once the account is closed. I would meet with my principal to discuss the next steps. In the future, the students should create videos and share them with Ms. Jensen and then she can post them on Youtube.
Yes that was my thought on the first scenario as well Robin, the students and families should clearly understand they were in the wrong for what they posted, and that consequences are necessary. Hopefully a first offense is only a few days suspension, so the academic objection is temporary and some alternative must be offered. Perhaps the boys can stay after school to comment on posts manually, so they appreciate the privilege and won't transgress again.
ReplyDeleteThere will always be some students who will be tempted to post something inappropriate. The teacher needs to be in control and monitor what is being posted. Is there another way that students can show they met the standard without having to use technology?
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