Social Media and Student Devices: Developing Guidelines by Henry Thiele

I am presenting tomorrow at TechForum Chicago on Social Media and Student Devices: Developing Guidelines.

We recently approved a new Acceptable Use Policy, which looks similar to the one from a few years ago. I believe this is a strong legal document, which we follow up with an email to students and staff that gives short highlights of what they should consider when following the AUP. You can read an example from the past and another in the coming weeks when I send out the updated version.

We also strengthened our website policy to include guidelines and requirements when using social media. In my opinion the most important lines in all of these documents is referring to disciplining "actions that cause a disruption in the educational process". These are the types of actions, when appropriately documented are held up in court.

We are in the process of getting a mobile phone policy approved, which we are piloting now, and I will post that policy after Board of Education approval.

I think the key to all of these documents is a strong legal document, followed by yearly communications of the expectations in clear language, and a practice of following the policies and documenting any variance from the policy - especially those that cause a disruption in learning.

cross posted at http://henrythiele.blogspot.com/