Parent Information - Internet Safety and Guidelines for Students

The safety of your child is paramount to the staff and community of Independence Elementary. As technology and the internet become increasingly important tools to assist learning, teachers and parents have a responsibility to set up conditions and guidelines so that students are safe when they are using online resources. "Wikis" are unique websites, in that they can often be edited and changed by people who use the site. This can pose potential problems for student use if specific guidelines for using the wiki are not stated and taught to students, with the expectation that all students will adhere to those guidelines. As the Administrator of this "wiki", it is my responsibility to set up safe conditions and guidelines for students who use this website. Here are some facts about this website you should know:

1. The purpose of our Independence Music Wiki is to:

- have a website to post student work for others (including family) to see

- be a place that Mr. McDade (and eventually students) can post resources for learning

- be a way of facilitating group projects - students in a group can use our wiki as a central location for gathering and sharing information, resources, etc.

- help facilitate discussions on music topics - for example, students can use our wiki as a "blog" to make observations about a piece of music

Our Independence Music Wiki is designed for educational use, in order to increase the depth of student learning. It is not for social chat, sending messages to friends, etc.

2. At present, Mr. McDade is the only person able to edit this website in any way. Editing this site can only be done by entering a password. Students will not receive their password until the student and his or her parents have read, signed and returned to me the "Independence Music Wiki Use Agreemement" (see below). I plan to spend the 2nd quarter of this school year showing students how our wiki works, and using our wiki together as a class. I anticipate sending home our use agreement to students and parents at the beginning of the 3rd quarter in Jan.

3. When students do begin to have access to editing our wiki, each student who is given access to the wiki will have a unique login and password. This means that the identity of any student who posts anything on our wiki will be easily identifiable. This also means that any student who violates the terms of use of our wiki will also be easily identifiable, and that student will be subject to discipline up to and including the loss of all computer privileges at Independence, and a referral for a visit with one of our principals for any further discipline.

4. Any links posted on our wiki to websites that take students away from our wiki will be reviewed by Mr. McDade before they are posted on our wiki. Mr. McDade will make every effort to ensure that all links posted on our wiki are educational in nature, are appropriate for elementary age students, and do not contain links to other sites that would be inappropriate for students.

5. Parents will always have full access to view the entire contents of our Independence Music Wiki. If parents have any concerns about anything posted on our wiki, please feel free to immediately contact Mr. McDade at this link: Contact wiki owner

Parents, you can help your child become a responsible and safe "digital citizen". Help your child be safe online by discussing internet use at home, setting guidelines, and monitoring their internet use. To learn more about how to help your child be a responsible and safe internet user, go to:

Love Our Children USA - Internet Safety

If you would like to read the Independence Music Wiki Use Agreement, you can download it and print it out at the link below (MS Word).

Indep Music Wiki Use Agrmnt.doc

This document is Copyright 2006 by Network for Instuctional TV, Inc. Retrieved from: Teachers First

All external links are intended for educational purposes only. The Francis Howell School District and its employees are not responsible for content that is objectionable outside of this site.