Saturday, September 7, 2013

2013/14 On-Line Permission Form


Throughout the previous school year I felt I did a pretty good job at keeping my students' families in the loop with what we were doing on-line. We did a lot of learning on-line and I feel it was extremely beneficial for the overall grade one program I ran. But it came to my attention how strict BC Privacy laws are and I realized that I failed to inform my families that some of the work we did on-line was stored in places outside of Canada.  It was something I wanted to address in my 2013/14 permission form.  Thankfully my school district as a whole also tackled this use of Social Media in the classroom  and created some excellent resources for us to use, modify, and share.  Recently my Deputy Superintendent, Jordan Tinney, blogged about these resources which he shared here.  
With the information provided by my school district, and my previous permission slip, I have created a new permission slip for the 2013/14 school  year.  I am trying to do a better job at getting informed consent regarding the specific tools we will be using that possibly store data outside of British Columbia, or Canada.  I plan to also inform parents when I discover new tools that I deem appropriate for my young learners to use, although more than likely with just a note in the planner requesting a signature for permission, once I have permission from the initial form.
Things are changing so rapidly that I'm not sure I could actually create a form on the first day of school that will list all the tools we will use throughout the year.  Even with the form I just shared with my families yesterday,  I realize I failed to mention two  on-line tools I like to use with my students.  Before we start using these tools I will be sure to inform my students' families and get their consent. 
You can find a sample of my present on line permission form here.  



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