TWEETING FOR A's: Students in the Tri-Creek Community School Corp. in Northwest Indiana will have to demonstrate good behavior and academic progress if they want access to Twitter and Pinterest on their school-issued laptops. At least that's the word from a newly minted policy to address online safety. The NWI Times reports that students' access will be assigned across four tiers with each student initially defaulting to the second tier. Unsatisfactory behavior or grades can nix take-home privileges (tier 1) while parent and teacher recommendations can unlock access to some social media (tier 3) and email (tier 4).
The online safety program was developed by teachers and administrations throughout the district making it difficult to critique from a bird's eye view. That said, we'd love to see what curriculum and class activities teachers are planning to explore with the laptops. It seems a bit tricky to deliver digital assignments when students don't have equal access -- it's the BYOD argument all over again except every student actually has a device (the district website hints that the laptops are of the MacBook Air variety). Still some action is better than inaction and we commend the district for taking bold steps to move to a 1:1 environment. How does your district's online safety policy look?
