One thing that stood out to me very quickly was that their students were visible in photos and videos that were posted on the blog. Having worked with the Yearbook and PR, this was a big flag for me. I would imagine that all the parents of these students have signed a media release form to allow the school to publicly post these images and videos on the internet.
Aside from this, it’s exciting to see how much these teachers and students posted to their blog. From pictures of their classroom to audio files of the students reading. It was also neat to see how some of the classes tagged their posts. Room 1 Little Einstein’s blog had their post tagged by competency. For example, these include Managing Self, Relating to others, and the various subjects being taught. I also liked they tagged the students’ name with each post. While I personally feel this information shouldn’t be public, it makes it easier for their parent to view posts of their child. Overall, this is a fun type of class blogging as it allows the students to share what they've learned with the world.
I was thinking the same thing about the students pictures. I imagine the parents have to sign a media release as well. I know the school I work at does and if parents don't sign we can post pictures of them. It can be nerve racking to worry about accidentally posting their picture.
ReplyDeleteIt can definitely be nerve-racking. At one point, I was a photographer for our city information center, and one of our rules was not to take photos of minors. Primarily for the reason of not having their parent's permission to use their photo.
DeleteI agree that it was fun to see the different classroom activities and ways that the posts were organized. I wonder how the School Stream app looks as a phone or tablet app, and if it is more visually appealing in that format? Also, I wonder if it is more accessible to families on their phone rather than as a website?
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point. I did a quick search on the Apple App Store, and it looks to have the same layout on iPhone and iPad. That would be interesting to find out their preference. I would imagine on their phone since they can enable push notifications. It'll save them a few steps from having to login on the website.
DeleteI assumed taking a picture for a Yearbook was a requirement and not an option. I didn't know you needed permission from a student or parent.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough during picture day all students were supposed to take the picture. So we did have their photo on file. It was once we began organizing the photos for each grade level that we would remove any student that didn't have a release form.
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