Source: http://www.ondisruption.com/photos/uncategorized/tdg_flower_in_cement.jpg

A short time ago, a blog reader wrote and asked me what my advice was. That advice had to do with teachers who decided to host their own classroom web site–with student work–outside of the sphere of a school district’s control. My advice in a blog entry entitled Be a Part of the Conversation at that time was:

Remember, what you do IN school with students, what you use to further the ends of a K-12 education for the students entrusted to your care MUST be under the control of your school district. That is, if they want to provide a boring grey interface that fails to engage students, that makes them jump through 20 hoops to get the job done, then that is what must be.

Why? The reason is simple…you work for them and unless you’ve received special dispensation, you have to use/do what they tell you.

Ok, that adherence to policy reminder aside, work to change the rules.

However, I recently received this email and it made want to throw all that out:

I run the [NAME OF PROGRAM] at [HIGH SCHOOL NAME]. We had a nice section of the school website a few years ago but it became outdated so I asked our webmaster to remove it. It had been developed by my husband and myself and was well received. I’d get e-mails from all over the country. I found it difficult to keep it current when I had no access to the site.

Our new webmaster is very busy, so recently, my husband bought me a website that we’re developing using [CONTENT MGMT SYSTEM-PROPRIETARY] software. I used the original one as a base, then added new items. What I want is a site that the students can work on directly.

1. Does the district allow me to run my own website about my program separate from the school website?

2. Can I use student images with their permission?

3. Should I not use their full names?

4. Can I have the students write in a blog or forum?

5. Can students have links to their personal facebook or Etsy pages ( site for selling crafts and clothing)?

6. Is there another way to do this and connect to the school website eventually?

7. Is there anything else I should know?

Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer. Here’s the link for you to cut and paste. Presently, all student images are of graduates.

The site that was linked was MUCH better than what a school district could support without a dedicated webmaster, better than the cookie-cutter approach to web-site development. I regret that some sacrifices have had to be made for consistency, uniformity, and maintenance purposes.

The response to this teacher was as follows…how would you have responded better?

First of all, allow me to congratulate you, your husband, and students for a beautiful web site. As you can see, this is the kind of web site that is possible when a content management system (e.g. Joomla) is used. You can easily drop in video, images, and text and enable students.

Please note that that while the rest of this email raises concerns, I want you to know that you may have violated procedure inadvertently and there are some possible alternatives, although none so elegant given the constraints the District must work within.

Second, I do have to share some concerns with you regarding the web site. In brief, these concerns are outlined below and, in some cases, reflect violation of several District Administrative Procedures:

* Use of student images (even graduates of the program) without signed permission forms
* Use of students’ full names (even graduates of the program) instead of the student first name and first initial of the last name.
* Creation of a web site–with domain name–that is outside the District, and hosts student/teacher content.

Since each of these concerns is a violation of the District’s Administrative Procedures, the site should be taken down immediately. There may also be copyright concerns if this work was developed by individuals who were previously students but then their work was kept online. In such cases, a signed release form granting specific use beyond the normal timeline (approximately 1-2 years after leaving the class) is needed.

In response to your specific questions about linking to student web sites (e.g. MySpace, Facebook), it is important to distinguish between professional use of these social networking sites and social use. To protect the District from liability, these types of sites are not linked from District web pages. The District can accommodate student blogs within a course management system known as Moodle.

Please call me so that we can discuss how we can setup your own course management system– A Classroom Moodle–on the District server and address the issue of students blogging, account management, etc.

Some Plurk users may have noticed me asking about managing student blogs within a Moodle implementation. At this time, it seems the easiest approach–although not the best–is to manage student blogs within a Moodle. This is done instead of trying to setup multiple custom setups that would quickly overcome a small team of developers at the District level.

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