Students attending an online private school are eligible for college credit

The for-profit DeVry University has partnered with Connections Education to offer college courses at no cost to high school students attending International Connections Academy (iNaCA), an accredited, online private school serving students in grades K-12 worldwide.
Through DeVry University’s Passport2College program, juniors and seniors attending iNaCA can earn college credit while still attending high school. Students can enroll in such courses as Computer Applications for Business with Lab, Introduction to Business and Psychology.
“Passport2College is a wonderful opportunity for high school students to learn first-hand the college learning experience,” said Donna Loraine, chief academic officer and provost of DeVry University. “iNaCA students will be able to participate in the same academic learning environment that all DeVry University undergraduates encounter and obtain knowledge of how they can transition from high school to the collegiate level.”
Hannah Rinehart, director of school for iNaCA, commented, “More and more students are interested in taking college courses in high school.” In fact, the numbers topped 1.3 million students in the 2010-11 school year according to the most recent survey on the subject by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). “We are excited to bring opportunities like this to our students.”
Passport2College will launch for iNaCA students in the 2015-2016 school year.

Social media has pros and cons when the classroom is involved

When news broke last month that Newark teacher Krista Hodges used Twitter to express her desire to stab some of her students and pour hot coffee on them, the questions arose quickly: Aren’t there rules about that? Why wasn’t she fired?
The answer is that teachers who use social media are living in the Wild West: Rules are few and far between, and discipline for stepping over the line is a hit-or-miss proposition.
In Hodges’ case, she acknowledged receiving a written reprimand from her school district. After this newspaper’s disclosure of her tweets, local police initiated an investigation into the matter. In other cases, teachers have been fired for much less.
“We’re not given any guidelines, really,” said Carissa Weintraub, a science teacher at Ygnacio Valley High in Concord and a Twitter user. “At this point, it’s sort of a free-for-all and we’re learning as we go along. I’ve heard horror stories across the country about people losing their jobs after posting stuff on Twitter or on Facebook.”

Weintraub added that teachers need to be trained how to use social media “the same way students need to be taught how to use it.”
Newark Unified School District Interim Superintendent Tim Erwin said the district, like many others, has no policy on teacher use of social media nor does it have written guidelines for dealing with teachers who go too far.
Eric Goldman, a law professor and co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law, said the drafting of policies is not easy.
“Some school districts are making rules,” Goldman said. “But it requires careful thought. The policy has to navigate between legitimate use of social media and the free speech rights of employees. School districts basically have to tell their teachers not to do anything stupid online. That’s the gist of it.”
Or as Ligia Giese, a Berkeley mother of two students in public schools, put it, it’s about respect.
“I think if you’re talking about your job, whether it’s in public, on the Internet or in any other forum, I would like the teacher to have respect for the students,” Giese said. “I couldn’t pinpoint the wording of the rule, but I would expect a teacher, like any professional, would speak with a modicum of respect.”
While teachers have the protections of free speech, when they post things on the Internet, be it in blogs, emails or social media like Twitter and Facebook, they need to know they are giving administrators information about their job performance and responsibilities that they would not otherwise have, Goldman said.
“We all joke about the ways that we could maliciously behave in our jobs,” Goldman said. “That’s gallows humor. Going online gets problematic. With (Hodges) it was not just a joke, it was a running theme. At some point it crosses over from being a joke to a warning sign.”
Other teachers have been fired for posting much less offensive things than what Hodges wrote.
Just this summer, according to Goldman’s Technology & Marketing Law Blog, a judge upheld the firing of a Pennsylvania teacher who used a blog to call her students “frightfully dim” and “rat like” and said the parents were “breeding a disgusting brood of insolent, unappreciative, selfish brats.”
The court said her speech was not protected because her comments were not a matter of legitimate “public concern,” an oft-used standard in cases of free speech rights of public employees.
“When it comes to government employees, we need to believe they are exercising their discretion properly because they are acting on behalf of the public,” Goldman said.
Last year a New Jersey teacher was fired for posting on Facebook that “I’m not a teacher — I’m a warden for future criminals!” She sued, asking for her job back on free speech grounds, but was rejected.

Here in the Bay Area, school districts are grappling with the problem regularly, but none contacted for this story have established a formal social media policy.
However, the board of the Mt. Diablo Unified School District has written a draft policy that says teachers will be disciplined for posting “inappropriate threatening, harassing, racist, biased, derogatory, disparaging or bullying comments toward or about any student or employee.”
The Berkeley, Oakland and San Jose Unified school districts have not put anything in writing. Nor has the Fremont Union High School District, which runs schools in San Jose, Sunnyvale and Cupertino.
“We researched this specific issue because of questions from teachers, and the best advice we can give them is use common sense and remember you are a public sector employee,” said Cathy Campbell, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. “We also encourage them to not engage in a lot of social media with their students. There are no laws or court cases that clarify exactly what they can and can’t do. That’s the biggest challenge right now.”
Marisa Hanson, president of the East Side Teachers Association in San Jose, said the California Teachers Association counsels teachers not to have minors as Facebook friends.
But Newark Unified’s Erwin said social media, “when used appropriately, can be a very helpful tool in communicating with students, because that is where our students are a lot of times.”
The more common social media issue, Hanson said, is students posting inappropriate comments online about a teacher — a situation that may produce a conversation between district administrators and parents.
In Oakland, school district spokesman Troy Flint said he hasn’t heard of any teacher being disciplined for inappropriate social media use, and the district offers “very little guidance.”
“Right now, it’s a hodgepodge of practices that vary from school to school,” Flint said. “Creating a more universal standard that gives teachers guidance is something we should do. In the meantime, we’ve trusted teachers as professionals to use social media responsibly.”

During Connected Educator Month, do just that—connect with teachers on Twitter

It’s no secret that new teachers need lots of support, and these days, teachers often find support online and through social media. In fact, following just a few inspirational educators on Twitter can help new teachers start their classroom careers off on the right foot.
Data shows that many teachers leave the profession within their first three years of teaching, and most cite a lack of support, lack of mentoring, and feeling isolated as their top reasons for leaving.
Using professional learning networks (PLNs), educators have at their fingertips a vast array of resources, including fellow educators willing to mentor new teachers. Building a strong PLN and remaining active prompts new teachers to find the support they need to be successful.
During an edWeb webinar as part of Connected Educator Month, veteran educator and new teacher coach Shannon Holden shared 16 educators for new teachers to follow on Twitter.

PLNs–informal learning networks through which people learn via the connections they make–are popular because they let the learner control who they associate with and how much or how little they participate and interact, Holden said.
Educators can begin by joining an interactive community that lets them interact with fellow members, ask questions, and share resources.
On Twitter, teachers can start by searching hashtags to find people to follow. Many hashtags are associated with monthly chats, during which participants discuss topics and add the specific hashtag to the end of a tweet, in order to include that tweet in a hashtag search.
“You need to tweet regularly to build a following,” he said. “If you just get on Twitter and sit there, people aren’t going to be interested in what you have to say, because you’re really not saying anything.”
Tweeting resources, classroom experiences, and questions are all easy ways to accumulate regular tweets. Educators can check out Twitter4Teachers.com for more help.
“This is your way to personally interact with leaders in education,” Holden said.
Holden highlighted 16 educators for new teachers to follow and build their PLNs.
1. Tom Whitby @TomWhitby
Whitby founded #edchat, has authored several books about teaching and learning, and taught middle and high school for 34 years.
2. Dan Brown @DanBrownTeacher
Brown is executive director of the Future Educators Association, is very active on Twitter, and offers great tips for teachers.
3. Karina Barley @karinadawn
Barley is the president of Autism Australia and authored an online course series that teachers educators how to use iPads to engage students who are on the autism spectrum.
4. Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher
Davis maintains the Cool Cat Teacher blog and focuses on using new technologies in the classroom.
5. Gisele Santos @feedtheteacher
Based in Brazil, Santos tweets frequently on project-based learning and the Maker Movement. Santos also focuses on the role of technology and tech tools in education.
6. Jennifer Carey @TeacherJenCarey
As director of educational technology at the Ransom Everglades School in Florida, Carey tweets about expanding PLNs in an effort to integrate technology into the classroom.
7. Mary Beth Hertz @mbteach
Hertz is a technology integration specialist in Philadelphia and has a particular interest in addressing gender gaps in schools, as well as implementing technology at the classroom level. She is an Edcamp Foundation board member and organizer.
8. Todd Whitaker @ToddWhitaker
Whitaker focuses on leadership, teaching, and motivation, and has written more than 30 books. He is a professor at Indiana State University.
9. Eric Sheninger @E_Sheninger
Sheninger‘s influence is widely felt in education and on Twitter, and Time Magazine named his Twitter feed one of the best to follow in 2014.
10. Pernille Ripp @pernilleripp
Ripp, a 7th grade teacher, is creator of The Global Read Aloud Project, which encourages students from across the globe to collaborate and interact with one another. Ripp is the co-founder of Edcamp in Madison, Wis.
11. Josh Stumpenhorst @stumpteacher
Stumpenhorst teaches 6th grade language arts and social studies and offers an inspiring and humorous perspective on teaching tips.
12. Scott Newcomb @SNewco
Newcomb specializes in mobile learning, iPad apps, project-based learning, and mobile learning. Newcomb is the author of The Mobile Native.
13. Amy Mayer @friEdtechnology
Based in Texas, Mayer is an instructional technology guru and offers ed-tech advice, educational developments, and job openings.
14. Nicole Bucka @nbucka
Bucka focuses on autism and special education and offers RTI support for secondary schools in Rhode Island.
15. Wendy Kopp @WendyKopp
Kopp is the CEO and co-founder of Teach For All, a global network that aims to expand educational opportunity across the world. Kopp was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2010.
16. Jessica Johnson @PrincipalJ

Students are learning how to manage social media, online behavior

Like many kids her age, Bloomingdale High senior Tranae Robinson has dozens of social media applications at her fingertips and routinely logs into at least seven of them on her smartphone–Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest included.
She admits teens could be more mindful of Internet safety and how they present themselves online, especially now that she and her classmates are allowed bring their own devices to school.
“It’s very nonchalant, the way we handle it,” Robinson said. “We don’t try to filter ourselves. Not everything is as private as you think.”
This school year, Robinson, along with every other student who attends a Hillsborough County (Fla.) public school, will be trained in how to handle themselves safely and responsibly online. The initiative goes hand-in-hand with the new program that lets them bring their phones, tablets, and laptops to school.
They are learning about the dangers of cyberbullying, how to create secure passwords, how to avoid identity theft and how to leave a positive digital footprint on their devices.

“It’s very important,” Robinson said. “Students are going to have them regardless. If the school district educates us, it will be more of a positive than a negative.”
Sixty schools so far–including all 27 high schools and most middle schools–have been approved for the bring-your-own-device program. Instructional technology supervisor Troy Suarez expects all schools will be on board by the end of December. Students will use the once-forbidden devices during class, for learning.
“It’s no longer, ‘We see it, we take it,’” Suarez said. “As we are rolling this stuff out, it’s a responsibility for us to prepare our students to be safe while they’re using technology, and teachers as well.”
Throughout the school year, media specialists will use information from curriculum-providers Common Sense Media and Netsmartz to form their own lessons, said John Milburn, the district’s supervisor of elementary library media services. Some media specialists use school morning shows as a platform. They also visit classrooms and teach in school media centers.
“As a parent, we’ve always sent our kids into the world to develop, learn and grow,” Milburn said. “We taught them to be safe, who not to talk to, where to go if you get in trouble. This is just another world–it’s a digital world. But they still need to know how to be safe.”
At the middle and high school level, media specialists have to get a little more creative because students bounce from classroom to classroom throughout the day.
For them, topics like determining whether information on a website is valid is incorporated into school orientation and into the school day when possible, said Christine VanBrunt, the district’s supervisor of middle and high school library media services.
Nikki Rideout, a media specialist at Woodbridge Elementary School, said teaching students how to act online has become part of her job.
“The media specialist position has changed so much,” Rideout said. “We are no longer keepers of the books. It’s an instructional technology piece we’ve brought under our wing.”
So far this school year, Rideout has met with several classes each week and other teachers have requested that she work with their classes, too. She has the students practice their social media skills on Edsby, the district’s online gradebook and communication site.
“The students are so receptive,” Rideout said. “We need to capitalize on that. By the time they get into middle school, it’s almost too late to fix it.”
The rollout of digital citizenship lessons in September was followed by the launch of a new website that describes for parents the benefits and dangers of 17 social apps.
The site also includes resources for teachers and information about the digital citizenship curriculum, which was selected by a school district committee formed last spring.
Included in the list are Vault, which is designed to hide other apps, Kik Messenger, photo-sharing service Snapchat, and the Tinder dating app.
An example of a warning to parents on the site: “Tinder’s terms of use indicate that it can be used by anyone 13 and up, but the app’s widespread reputation as a hookup site, its use of location, and its lack of privacy settings make this a no-go for teens.”
Robinson, the Bloomingdale High student, is getting a little extra digital citizenship training this school year–she is taking Social Media 1, which is being taught for the second year by Heather Hanks. Hanks, who also teaches journalism and photography, became the first Florida teacher to offer the class last school year.
“If we’re putting devices in the hands of our students, they need to be equipped to deal with the consequences,” said Hanks, who served on the district’s digital citizenship committee. “The county has kind of shied away from dealing with it before. Now they’re embracing it.”
Last spring, Hanks’ students created videos to share with students across the district, spreading a message that they should not carry themselves differently in the online world than they do in the real world.
One video shows a teen standing in the middle of a crowded hallway at school, yelling everything she is thinking. In another, a student shares her keys with others, showing that passwords shouldn’t be shared.
This school year, a social media course is being offered at two additional high schools, Hillsborough and Robinson.
School board member Cindy Stuart said she would like to see more schools begin offering the course.
“The student message is very strong,” Stuart said during a recent school board meeting. “It’s stronger than my message when I speak to my 16-year-old.”

Regularly searching education-related Twitter hashtags can help educators expand their professional growth

Social media remains a game-changer in education. Through platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, students are able to collaborate on projects or discussions about assignments.
Educators connect with peers across their district, state, or, in many cases, across the world. This ability to stay connected has led to the development of professional learning networks, sometimes called professional learning communities, in which educators build networks of peers they admire, those they share common interests with, and those they hope to learn from.
Much of this connecting occurs on Twitter. Many states have regular Twitter chats focusing on general education or highlighting specific education topics.

Below, you’ll find five hashtags that offer engaging and thought-provoking tweets from educators across the planet.
To access the most recent tweets categorized under any of these hashtags, simply enter the hashtag in the Twitter search field, or click on it within any Tweet that contains it.
#edtech
The #edtech category contains, as you probably guessed, tweets about education technology, technology in schools, and reasons why classrooms and students benefit from teachers who correctly implement and use technology during instruction.
Recent tweets cover critical thinking and The Maker Movement.

School leaders share social media strategies that successfully support district efforts

As the fight to get voter approval for bonds becomes more challenging, school district leaders and their supporters are tapping into Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media to win their campaigns.
“Schools that don’t use social media are missing out on one of the most effective forms of communication to large audiences and stakeholders,” said Rick Kaufman, executive director of community relations and emergency management for Bloomington Public Schools in Minnesota.
Social media campaigns have become especially important as more district leaders face tight budgets and a voter base reluctant to pay more taxes to finance repairs and new equipment–even as buildings age, technology grows obsolete, and other expenses mount.
Pattonville School District, in St. Ann, Mo., launched its Facebook page in July 2013, just a few months before its Prop P tax levy went before voters. Prior to that, the district’s only social media presence was a Twitter account with about 140 followers.
“We knew social media could play an important role in spreading accurate, factual information among parents and staff,” said Mickey Schoonover, director of school-community relations for the district.

In the months following the Facebook page launch, the district heavily used the social media site to communicate facts about the tax levy. By election day, the Facebook page had more than 46,000 views and received 1,800 “Likes”. The bond passed with a 70.2 percent ‘Yes’ vote.
As more school districts and bond committees turn to social media to help publicize and/or advocate for school bond issues, here are 10 tips from district leaders and bond committee members who’ve been there:

• Incorporate social media as part of a wider plan. Use social media to support a unified message or key messages. Social media isn’t an “instead of”, but an “in addition to” tool, said Kaufman of Bloomington (Minn.) Schools. It should be an integral part of your campaign, but is still one of many strategies you will want to deploy.

• Keep your information brief and pertinent. Keep social media messages short and conversational. Dole information out in small bites. Remember, people aren’t reading; they’re scanning.

• Let your local citizens’ committee handle the “Vote Yes” campaigns. Local citizens can freely advocate for bond issues. The committee should set up a separate account to handle any information that includes openly supporting a bond. However, it’s important for the overarching messages and information between the district and the committee to be aligned. The two efforts are separate, but complementary.

• Don’t get sucked into negative online debates. Bonds are a tough sell because they often come with a tax increase. Opposition to bonds can get ugly, but as tempting as it is to fight back against naysayers or block negative comments, try to stay above the fray. Provide accurate information to clarify misconceptions.

• Have a comprehensive communication plan for the campaign. Outline what you want to accomplish in the campaign, the audiences you need to reach, and your key messages. Next, map out specific, measureable strategies targeted to those audiences, said Kaufman. Include social media in the overall plan. The local bond committee for Mooresville City Schools in North Carolina developed a media strategy that included coordinated articles, letters to the editor, print media ads, and email blasts that linked to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter posts. This allowed the committee to deliver a consistent message to several audiences. In addition, all the content was mirrored on the committee’s website.

• Use images and video. Recent studies show that social media users like and respond better to video than words, says Nora Carr of Guilford County Schools in North Carolina. If you want to show leaky roofs and broken pipes, video will do more than lots of words. Social media users also like photos and infographics. The successful Streetsboro City Schools (Ohio) bond campaign included different images of residents, students, and logos during the last few weeks of the campaign to bolster voter support. The committee also created a 10-minute video of interviews with students, parents, teachers, and administrators showing how the bond would benefit the district and posted it to YouTube and Facebook.

• Know your legal context and the existing parameters for your district and schools. Make sure you understand the legal framework for your state and/or local school district. School districts are not allowed, by federal law, to promote bond issues, but can use social media and websites to provide information and facts about a bond. What the local bond committee does separately should be clearly labeled with disclaimers such as “Paid for by Citizens for ABC School Bonds.” Carr said district leaders also should check school board policies. In general, publicly funded organizations, like public school districts, have a duty to keep the public informed about matters of importance, including how tax dollars are being used.

• Match your message and medium to your audience. Don’t treat all social media outlets as the same. While there’s some overlap, people tend to gravitate to different social media outlets. The demographics on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube tend to fit the audiences most schools and districts need. Most parents of school-aged children use Facebook, Twitter, and sometimes Instagram. Teachers and moms also use Pinterest.

• Time social media posts to when people are on social media or to occur with frequency. Posts timed early in the morning, or in the evenings, tend to get the most traffic, said Lisa Gill of the Mooresville Schools bond committee. “You want posts to be somewhat high on fans’ timelines,” she said. Even having one post timed at higher traffic times on Facebook gets people to your page, where they will usually scroll down and read more. Nicole Lawrence, communications coordinator for Waukee Schools in Iowa, suggests using Hootsuite to write and schedule posts ahead of time so you can plan accordingly and not be overwhelmed.

• Create a timeline for your communications and social media campaign. Plot when you will post social media content week by week. Starting early will build a large following. Roll out different aspects of the bond and the voting process at strategic times. Lawrence of Waukee Schools started her district’s campaign for its bond 16 weeks before election, but started using social media nine weeks prior to the election, with each week focused on specific information such as a “Save the Date”, absentee ballot information, etc. Feeds were posted to Twitter and Facebook with links to the districts website and its Frequently Asked Questions section.

Students would need teacher permission to take selfies in school

Whether by design or not, a proposed Wake County (N.C.) school policy change could ban students from taking pictures of themselves and others in school.
One of the revisions to the school district’s technology policy would prohibit students “from taking pictures or videos with any device unless directed by a teacher.” The wording comes at a time when “selfies,” self-portraits usually taken by cellphones with cameras or webcams, have become a staple of youth-driven social media.
Several Wake school board members questioned the wording on taking photographs when the changes to the technology policy were discussed last week by the policy committee.
“We know that kids have phones in school and are using them,” school board member Monika Johnson-Hostler said in an interview. “We need to be clear and cautious about what we say about using personal devices.”

School administrators repeatedly told board members that they will speak with the board attorney who drafted the wording to see if more changes were needed.
Administrators said district policy should be updated to reflect the way technology is used today, compared to practices when the wording was last revised in 2010. This includes acknowledging that North Carolina’s largest district is piloting a bring-your-own-device program that would allow students at 13 schools to use their smartphones, tablets and laptops in class.
Teachers must approve
One of the changes, which would affect all 171 schools, is the requirement that teachers give permission for pictures and videos. It’s part of a section against inappropriate use of technology, which warns against things such as producing, posting and sending inappropriate or offensive material.
School board member Jim Martin, chairman of the policy committee, said it makes sense that Wake could require students to get a teacher’s permission before using a district-owned device to take photographs and video. But he questioned how it could be applied to a student’s personal device.
“I don’t think we can say you can’t take pictures with your personal phone,” Martin said. “Kids are taking selfies in the lunchroom all the time.”
David Neter, Wake’s chief business officer, said he thinks the intent was to restrict unauthorized photos and videos in classrooms as opposed to lunchrooms. But board members said the policy makes no distinction between the two situations.
School board member Bill Fletcher said it can be helpful when students take pictures of fights that can be used by the district to find out what happened.
But Cathy Moore, deputy superintendent for school performance, said it can be unhelpful when students post videos of fights online.
School board member Kevin Hill questioned the enforceability of the photography rule, considering how the technology policy says students must comply with it when using any district technology or personal devices on school grounds and at school-sponsored activities.
“Yeah, I’m going to be walking through the stands of a football game to see who is taking selfies,” Hill said.
Hill suggested changing the rule to apply during the school day or during instructional use.
“School-sponsored activities to me are just wide open,” said Hill, a former principal. “I don’t know how to solve it, but if I were a principal I’d be looking like, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ ”

Neter said administrators will talk with Deborah Stagner, a board attorney who drafted the language.
An ‘equity issue’
Board members had less concern about another change proposed by Stagner of how consent is handled for using school technology.
Wake assumes students have consent unless their parents say they want to opt out. But Neter said Wake plans to switch to an opt-in model where parents need to give permission before their children can use school technology.
Neter said the reason for the change is that Wake plans to use Google Apps, a suite of software tools that allow students to share content. Neter said most districts that use Google Apps use an opt-in model.
This means parents of all of Wake’s 155,000 students would likely be asked to give consent next year. Neter said it would be a one-time process for each student, with permission assumed to continue annually.
Martin, the board member, said Wake needs to check with parents who don’t give consent. He called it an “equity issue” to make sure that students aren’t denied technology access because their parents forgot to fill out the paperwork.
Martin said some parents may feel strongly about their children not having access to a device, which could be used to reach inappropriate material. The downside to requiring parents to opt in, however, could arise if some parents simply fail to take steps that would allow their children increased opportunities for learning, he said.