Guidance Using New Technologies

[Sylv3r]

Please feel free to have a look at the attached policy and let me know your thoughts.

I hope its useful for some of you also - it was based on a DCSF article which I have adapted quite a bit.

Cheers

[enjay]

Personally, I would tone that down before giving it to staff, as it could be misintpreted as saying "giving out your phone number means you're grooming" when there are other much more reasonable times this might happen.

You might want to consider revising the 'no students on your Facebook' to say add them, but on a restricted basis - a number of our ex-pupils want to stay in touch with staff, and this should be permitted. Current students is (perhaps) a different matter, but I would instruct appropriate use rather than banning use, just as we do with the students in their e-safety lessons.

I'm interested by the line which says all web sites used in class must be pre-approved by, among others, the network manager. I wouldn't want to be spending my time vetting web sites for colleagues, and if I did have to say "yes this is okay" I would want to see every page, link and banner advert first, which is clearly not practical.

I'm not sure I agree with the instruction to only use school equipment to take photos, by the way - students often take their own cameras on school trips and it can be nice to use their images too, as they capture the events from a different viewpoint to teachers.

I don't mean to come across overly-critical; I like the principle behind the document, and agree that from both child protection and school protection points of view, it should be given out, but I think it needs a bit of work before becoming policy.

[Sylv3r]

Personally, I would tone that down before giving it to staff, as it could be misintpreted as saying "giving out your phone number means you're grooming" when there are other much more reasonable times this might happen.

You might want to consider revising the 'no students on your Facebook' to say add them, but on a restricted basis - a number of our ex-pupils want to stay in touch with staff, and this should be permitted. Current students is (perhaps) a different matter, but I would instruct appropriate use rather than banning use, just as we do with the students in their e-safety lessons.

I'm interested by the line which says all web sites used in class must be pre-approved by, among others, the network manager. I wouldn't want to be spending my time vetting web sites for colleagues, and if I did have to say "yes this is okay" I would want to see every page, link and banner advert first, which is clearly not practical.

I'm not sure I agree with the instruction to only use school equipment to take photos, by the way - students often take their own cameras on school trips and it can be nice to use their images too, as they capture the events from a different viewpoint to teachers.

I don't mean to come across overly-critical; I like the principle behind the document, and agree that from both child protection and school protection points of view, it should be given out, but I think it needs a bit of work before becoming policy.

Some great feedback, all noted.