Chapter 7 reflection

As more and more web 2.0 tools develop, school districts will need to be more diligent about monitoring online usage on and off school campus of district computers. Control is a controversial item within schools. When used appropriately, many sights currently blocked by our district could serve educational purposes. I am thinking of Youtube as this is a concern for some staff. It is such a balance act. Filter/not filter. Block/not block. When in doubt, error on the side of caution. I understand that. I liked some of the alternative suggestions at the end of the chapter for school districts such as putting tools on the intranet.
The copyright guidelines by Davidson (2005)were important to remember. This should be clear to all staff during technology staff development training. I learned about Creative Commons using Flickr. Very good. I like their saying, 'share, reuse, remix'.
I read another's blog where they said the acceptable use policy is read (we hope), signed, and filed at their school. DONE That happens at our building too. During open house or the first of the year technology night, this might be refreshed with parents. I feel most of our teachers are still in the infantile stages of using web tools and we also may need a review of those four steps (Warlick 2006b) to help understand the importance of the acceptable use policy.
Parents should be a key player in what their children do online. We can help enforce this again at a first of the year technology meeting by providing parents with guides and online sites which give ideas of how to help them with their children use the web appropriately. The news continues to share stories about cyber bullying. Such a terrible thing to have so many people wishing to harm others in such a cowardly and somewhat anonymous manner.