Brownsburg Community School Corporation Staff Electronic and Social Media Guidelines

Brownsburg Community School Corporation Staff Electronic and Social Media Guidelines This policy and guidelines are provided for your information and will be updated periodically. The official, current version can be found on the BCSC Intranet at any time at http://intranet.brownsburg.k12.in.us 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS Staff Social Media Policy 3 Staff Social Media Guidelines 4 Personal Responsibility 4 Disclaimers 4 Copyright and Fair Use 4 Profiles and Identity 4 Use of Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) 5 Microblogging 5 Requests for Social Media Sites 6 Creating and Maintaining BCSC Websites and Social Networking Sites 6 Best Practices for Teachers Using Social Networks 7 BCSC Website Creation Options 9 Social Media Participation Policy 10 2

BCSC STAFF SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY Social media shall be defined as internet-based applications that turn communication into interactive dialogue between users. The Board authorizes the instructional staff to access social media from the Corporation s network, provided such access has an educational purpose for which the instructional staff member has prior approval (see Guidelines, p. ) Brownsburg Community School Corporation (BCSC) employees are personally responsible for the content they publish online. By virtue of identifying yourself as a BCSC employee online, you are now connected to colleagues, students, parents and the school community. The lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred in the digital world. Be mindful that what you publish electronically is never really private. These policies are established for your protection. Your online behavior should reflect the same standards of honesty, respect, and consideration that you use face-to-face. Take steps to ensure that any social media content associated with you is consistent with you work at BCSC: A. An employee should not make statements that would violate any BCSC policy, including its policies concerning discrimination or harassment. B. The employee must uphold the district s value of respect for the individual and avoid making defamatory statements about the school district or any member of the school community. C. An employee may not disclose any confidential information of the BCSC or confidential information obtained during the course of his/her employment, about any individuals or organizations, including students and/or their families. D. An employee should not friend or follow a current student that is not a family member on a personal site. Friending parents of students is discouraged as it blurs the line between the personal and professional life. Rather, staff is encouraged to create alternative ways to communicate classroom activities with parents, such as a blog, a classroom webpage, a Facebook fan page, etc., specifically for that purpose. E. BCSC Employees must include disclaimers within their personal blogs that the views are their own and do not reflect on their employer. For example, The postings on this site are my own and don t necessarily represent BCSC s positions, strategies, opinions, or policies. F. If the BCSC believes that an employee s activity on a social networking site, blog, cell phone, or personal website may violate BCSC policies, the BCSC may request that the employee cease such activity. G. Depending on the severity of the incident, the employee may be subject to disciplinary action. Staff Signature: 3

Personal Responsibility BCSC STAFF SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDELINES The lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred in the digital world. By virtue of identifying yourself as a BCSC employee online, you are now connected to colleagues, students, parents and the school community. When posting to your personal blog, website, or social media site, be sure you note that the information is representative of your views and opinions and not necessarily the views and opinions of BCSC. Remember that blogs, wikis, and podcasts are an extension of your classroom. What is inappropriate in your classroom should be deemed inappropriate online. Disclaimers BCSC employees must include disclaimers within their personal blogs that the views are their own and do not reflect on their employer. For example, The postings on this site are my own and don t necessarily represent BCSC s positions, strategies, opinions, or policies. The standard disclaimer does not by itself exempt BCSC employees from a special responsibility when blogging. Classroom blogs do not require a disclaimer, but teachers are encouraged to moderate content contributed by students. Copyright and Fair Use Respect copyright and fair use guidelines. See U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use A hyperlink to outside sources is recommended. Be sure not to plagiarize and give credit where it is due. When using a hyperlink, be sure that the content is appropriate and adheres to the BCSC AUP. It is recommended that blogs be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Profiles and Identity Remember your association and responsibility with the BCSC in online social environments. If you identify yourself as a BCSC employee, ensure your profile and related content is consistent with how you wish to present yourself with colleagues, parents, and students. How you represent yourself online should be comparable to how you represent yourself in person. No last names, school names, addresses or phone numbers should appear on blogs or wikis. 4

Be cautious how you setup your profile, bio, avatar, etc. When uploading digital pictures or avatars that represent yourself make sure you select a school appropriate image. Adhere to Employee Handbook guidelines as well as your AUP. Also remember not to utilize protected images. Images should be available under Creative Commons or your own. Use of Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. BCSC employees are personally responsible for all comments/information they publish online. Be mindful that what you publish will be public for a long time protect your privacy. Your online behavior should reflect the same standards of honesty, respect, and consideration that you use face-to-face, and be in accordance with the highest professional standards. By posting your comments, having online conversations, etc. on social media sites, you are broadcasting to the world. Be aware that even with the strictest privacy settings, what you say online should be within the bounds of professional discretion. Comments expressed via social networking pages under the impression of a private conversation may still end up being shared into a more public domain, even with privacy settings on maximum. Comments related to the school should always meet the highest standards of professional discretion. When posting, even on the strictest settings, staff should act on the assumption that all postings are in the public domain. Before posting photographs and videos, permission should be sought from the subject where possible. This is especially the case where photographs of professional colleagues and/or students are concerned. Before posting personal photographs, thought should be given as to whether the images reflect on your professionalism. Photographs relating to alcohol or tobacco use may be deemed inappropriate. Remember, your social networking site is an extension of your personality, and in that same vain an extension of your professional life and your classroom. If it would seem inappropriate to put a certain photograph on the classroom/office wall, is it really correct to put it online? Please also take into account photographs from someone else s site in which you may be tagged. Texting and Microblogging (Twitter, etc.) Comments made using such media are not protected by privacy settings as witnessed by recent high profile cases. Employees should be aware of the public and widespread nature of such media and again refrain from any comment that could be deemed unprofessional. 5

Requests for Social Media Sites BCSC understands that 21 st century learning is constantly changing technology and that many sites that are currently blocked buy the BCSC s internet filter may have pedagogical significance for teacher and student use. BCSC provides its users the privilege of access to the Internet, including websites, resources, content, and online tools. Access to the internet will be restricted as required to comply with CIPA regulations and school policies. Web browsing may be monitored and web activity records may be retained indefinitely. All users must utilize the BCSC internet for web browsing while on campus. Personal mobile hotspots and tethering are not permitted while users are on campus. Users are expected to respect the web filter as a safety precaution, and shall not attempt to circumvent the web filter when browsing the Internet. The determination of whether material is appropriate or inappropriate is based solely on the content of the material and the intended use of the material, not on whether a website has been blocked or not. If a user believes a site is unnecessarily blocked, the user should submit a request for website review through the BCSC Technology Service Ticket Help Desk. (FROM BCSC AUP) Creating and Maintaining BCC SC Websites and Social Networking Sites All official BCSC web pages and social networking sites (those designed for student use and/or communication to stakeholders about BCSC classes, programs, clubs or organizations) should be approved by the BCSC webmaster and should adhere to the following standards: o o o o o The BCSC webmaster and teacher, club, organization or class sponsor must have administrative rights to the site. Logos and graphics used on the site must be consistent with the branding standards and usage guidelines of the School. Sites that accept comments or postings by anyone other than the site administrator must post the BCSC Social Media Participation policy. Sites that accept comments or postings by anyone other than the site administrator must be diligently monitored to ensure that information displayed fits within BCSC guidelines and in appropriate to the subject matter of the page. Students should not be expected to utilize the site as the only source of important information since student access to social networking sites is restricted on the BCSC network. Unauthorized pages which have not been approved by the Webmaster will be treated as personal pages, and are therefore subject to those standards. 6

BEST PRACTICES FOR TEACHERS USING SOCIAL NETWORKS Examples for Acceptable Classroom Use: Class Website a calendar of class events (including field trips, student birthdays, special events) a copy of acceptable use policy a summary of what the students are learning and what is going on in the classroom the week s spelling or vocabulary list pictures of the students at work in the classroom (without identification) hotlist of websites for students and their parents to visit place for parents to post questions and/or comments a list of upcoming deadlines assignment expectations and rubrics a summary of day s activities for absent students Class Projects Blog about a place students are studying Blog classroom discussions about literature Use a blog to post class notes Resource: TeachersFirst More blog ideas for the classroom Wikis adapting a document for a new audience brainstorming chronicle an ongoing event class practice tests class-produced exam study guide classroom learning beyond the classroom classroom websites club activities collaboration of notes collective note-taking computer program coding concept introduction content presentation discussion questions experiments exploratory projects favorite booklists frequently asked questions group collaboration on writing sentences group presentation group problem-solving help-desk training individual assessment projects instructional design plan interactive library research lab report lesson summaries newsletter open storytelling 7

organizing audience sessions for speech class peer counseling peer editing peer tutor training poem construction posting web quests presentation/paper/course development problem-solving procedural manuals proofreading role playing scenarios potential indicators student papers teacher collaborative on best practices teacher editing marks or corrections teacher posts website design what if? Examples of educational wikis Social Media Sites BCSC does not guarantee all of the content found on the following sites may not be found objectionable by any person. Parents, teachers, educators and students are urged to notify a teacher or parent of any material found that is objectionable. Blogging sites o Blogger (www.blogger.com) o WordPress (http://wordpress.com) o Edublogs (http://edublogs.org) o Class Blogmeister (http://classblogmeister.com) Micro-blogging site Twitter (http://twitter.com) Wiki sites o PBWORKS (http://pbworks.com) o Diigo (http://www.diggo.com) Podcast posting (www.mypodcast.com) Recording Programs Audacity (Windows) Computer-to-computer calling program: Skype (www.skype.com) Other Social Media Programs Ning (http://www.ning.com) Create your own social network Google Docs documents, presentations, spreadsheets and forms. Requires Gmail account. (http://docs.google.com) LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) professional networking site VoiceThread (http://voicethread.com) digital storytelling using images and voice capture online SimplyBox (http://simplybox.com) Share screencaptures, organized asyou want, with friends (requires authorization) 8

Creating a webpage from scratch: BCSC WEBSITE CREATION OPTIONS You can create your webpage(s) in any HTML editor you would like. Free ones are available on the Internet. You can also purchase a program like DreamWeaver or FrontPage, but these programs will not be provided for you. Create a folder in your G: drive called public_html (no quotes). Place ALL files (.html,.htm,.jpg,.png,.gif, etc.) related to the website in this folder Create an images file within the public_html folder and save all of your images and/or documents in this folder (photos, clip art, word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, etc. anything that is not an HTML file) Photographs should be in.jpg format and should be less than 25k. Clip Art should be in.gif format and should be less than 10k each Main Page of site must be named index.html Creating a webpage using a webpage creator from a source outside the district: Although it may seem to be a logical fix for a cumbersome url address, it presents other larger concerns. Because the address is outside of the BCSC servers it is only able to be monitored as long as it is purchased and renewed each year by BCSC. Should the renewal lapse, anyone can purchase that address and use it for any type of content. It is relatively easy to create a classroom webpage on Google or Weebly sites and they offer some customization. Please contact the BCSC webmaster if you would like help. Many of these sites contain advertising that may be distracting to or inappropriate for students. The teacher must monitor the advertising that appears on the page. Many of these sites also contain links to other web locations. The teacher is responsible for ensuring the appropriateness of each link at any given time. With any webpage, the classroom teacher is solely responsible for maintaining and monitoring all information on the website. After you create a webpage, please submit a request with the link (on the main page of the technology site is a link to submit this request. If approved by the webmaster, it automatically adds to the staff directory). 9

BROWNSBURG COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORPORATION Social Media Participation Policy Social media pages sponsored by Brownsburg Community School Corporation (BCSC) are provided to share information about our schools and the achievements of our students and staff as well as other relevant community information. All posting of comments on BCSC pages is at the discretion of the page administrators The intent of this policy is not to keep any negative or critical information from being posted, but to protect the privacy and rights of the BCSC school community. Comments to BCSC-sponsored social media sites are welcome and encouraged, and we look forward to hearing from you. To promote respectful discussion within this forum, we request that you be courteous and productive and avoid comments that are profane, obscene, offensive, sexually explicit, inappropriate, inflammatory or otherwise objectionable. Blogs and other social media forums often foster debate of an issue; users are to engage in such exchanges with mutual respect for others opinions. For the privacy of users and their families, please understand that all postings to BCSCsponsored sites will be publicly available on the Internet and therefore publicly accessible without limitation or protection of any kind. Please consider how much personal information to share, with the understanding that this information may be linked to your name and published on the Internet or utilized by the media. By posting a comment or other material to BCSC-sponsored sites as outlined above, users give BCSC the irrevocable right and license to exercise all copyright, publicity, and moral rights with respect to any content you provide, which includes using your submission for any purpose in any form and on any media, including but not limited to: displaying, modifying, reproducing, distributing, creating other works from, and publishing your submission. BCSC further reserves the right to reject or remove comments for any reason, including but not limited to: our belief that the comments violate this Participation Policy our determination that submissions do not meet BCSC qualifications for posting our determination that submissions fail to follow this Policy in any way or are otherwise irrelevant We also reserve the right to amend this Policy from time to time in our judgment to address issues that may arise and changes in our operations or the law. In posting material on BCSC-sponsored sites, you agree not to: Post material that BCSC determines is threatening, harassing, illegal, obscene, defamatory, libelous, or hostile towards any individual or entity. Post phone numbers, email addresses or other confidential information of students, faculty, staff, or any person other than yourself. If you choose to post your own contact information for any reason, please be aware that the information will be available to the public and is, therefore, subject to misuse. Post material that infringes on the rights of BCSC or any individual or entity, including privacy, intellectual property or publication rights. Post material that promotes or advertises a commercial product or solicits business or membership or financial or other support in any business, group or organization 10

except those which have an official relationship with BCSC, except in designated areas specifically marked for this purpose and pre-approved by BCSC administration. Post chain letters, post the same comment multiple times, or otherwise distribute spam via the BCSC-sponsored site. Allow any other individual or entity to use your identification for posting or viewing comments. Post comment sunder multiple names or using another person s name. BCSC reserves the right to do any of the following: Ban future posts from people who repeatedly violate this Policy. We may affect such bans by refusing posts from specific email addresses or IP addresses, or through other means as necessary. Remove or edit comments at any time, whether or not they violate this Policy. User agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Brownsburg Community School Corporation, its affiliates, directors, employees, successors and assigns against any damages, losses, liabilities, judgments, causes of action, costs or expenses (including attorneys fees and costs) arising out of any claim by a third party relating to any material user has posted on BCSC-sponsored sites. By posting a comment or material of any kind on a BCSC-sponsored site, the user hereby agrees to the Policy set forth above. You are asked to notify the BCSC webmaster (webmaster@brownsburg.k12.in.us) of objectionable material on this site. 11