Dear Families:

Throughout the 2013-14 school year, our class will be using technology to enhance learning and
prepare students for future challenges. Many of these technologies require students to publish to
the Internet. These include the use of blogs, podcasts, and digital photography.
Blogs
A Weblog, or blog as they are commonly called, is a special type of Web page that can be
created and easily updated using a Web browser. Each new entry has its own date stamp. Each
entry has a comments section where visitors to the blog may leave comments for the author. For
example, students in our class will respond to prompts and discuss quality literature within our
class blog.

When we start blogging, we will focus on just blogging with students from our class. As we
become more proficient as bloggers, then we will increase our audience to another class in the
Regina Catholic School Division. Later we will move towards blogging with classrooms from
other parts if the world. In part of this process, students will have the opportunity to examine online safety, ethical use if technology and digital citizenship.

So to begin, our Class Blog will be found at http://kidblog.org/_____________________This

site provides secure and private safety features. This blog is a "Walled" environment that
requires passwords and user ids. Some features include:
Teachers have administrative control over all student blogs and student accounts.

Comment privacy settings block unsolicited comments from outside sources. The only
comments permitted are those that are approved by the teacher or moderator. All audio and video
productions are uploaded by me and, as subscriber to the site, all comments must be approved
by me in order for them to be published on the blog.
Kidblog does not collect any personal information from teachers or students.
Having a real audience is one of the key components to this program. In addition to receiving
comments from their classmates, as I mentioned previously, I hope to arrange collaborative
opportunities for our class to receive comments from other classes who are invited to visit our
web pages, such as another class in the Regina Catholic School Division. It would also be quite
engaging for students in other parts of the country or world to visit our blogs and comment on
our writing. f there are opportunities made available to do this, you will be notified of these
opportunities.

Podcasts
A podcast is a digital audio and/or video recording published on the Internet and available for
downloading. For example, select student presentations will be published to the class website via
podcasts. We will be using web tools such as vocaroo.com and blabberize.com as voice
recording services and embedding student mini-podcasts into our blogs.
Digital Photography
A digital photograph is a still picture that can be stored electronically and published to the
Internet. Students may post pictures of class activities, student work, and special events in their
classroom blog, which is not open to outside users of the Internet. The context of the photos will
connect only with student work, as the blog will be used as a Digital Portfolio of the students
learning.
Security
Our use of the aforementioned technologies has been designed to minimize risk to your child. All
student blogs, podcasts, and any other published work will be closely monitored by me and will
be published online only after I give my approval. Students will be required to refrain from
sharing personally identifying information such as last name, address, phone number, age, etc.
Students will take part in Digital Citizenship lessons to further educate them in using digital
technology appropriately and safely. Lessons as well as additional home resources can be
accessed at commonsensemedia.org. Or feel free to visit the Regina Catholic School website for
links on tools to teach Digital Citizenship at: http://elementarydigitalcitizenship.weebly.com/
Permission
Before your child may start blogging, podcasting, or using these collaborative digital tools, I am
asking for you and your child to discuss and sign this form. Please keep the second copy for your
future reference and return the form to ________________________ as soon as possible.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact ______________________ at

___________________ School or by email at ________________________@rcsd.ca.
Sincerely,
_____________________________

Student Blogging Guidelines/Podcast Consent

1. Students using blogs are expected to act safely by keeping personal information out of their
posts. You agree not to post or give out your family name, password, user name, email address,
home address, city, country or other information that could help someone locate or contact you
in person. You may share your interests, ideas and preferences, although most posts will relate
specifically to a writing task (Keep in mind that most of our blogging will be predominantly
within the confines of our classroom. If there are opportunities to blog with another classroom,
further information will be sent home)
2. Students agree to never log in as another student.
3. Students using blogs are expected to treat blog spaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is
inappropriate for class is not appropriate for your blog. While I encourage students to have
discussions with other bloggers, I also expect that they will be respectful and represent our
school in a positive way. Keep in mind all posts come to your teacher first, so if inappropriate
language or content is shared, it will be moderated.
4. Blogs are to be a place for students to give their opinions. However, they are first and
foremost, a tool for learning, and students will be expected to follow the same rules we have for
classroom discussions.
5. Blogs are a way for students to share their writing with real audiences. Classroom peers who
visit your blog will leave comments or respectful, helpful messages. The idea is that students are
able to give each other feedback and collaborate.
6. Students who do not follow these guidelines may lose their opportunity to take part in the
blogging activities. And in these situations, students will do alternate assignments using more
"pen and paper traditional means".

Please sign and return one copy of this letter and keep the other for your information.
I have read and understood these blogging guidelines. I agree to follow them.

Students Signature: _____________________________ Date: ________________

Parents Signature: _____________________________ Date: ________________