Hello everybody, welcome to our laptop take-home presentation.
My name is Jeremy Hammer, and I am the Technology Education Specialist here at MSAD 72; which
means I help teach students, teachers, and even you parents how to make the most of the
technology we provide.
Our whole technology team, Jim LaPlante, Eric Wood, and Kelly Bowles, keep all the laptops,
networks, student information systems, and all the other related technology running in
this district.
If you ever have any questions about anything technology related in the schools, please
email "technology@msad72.org" and we will do our best to help you.
Thank you for taking a few minutes to watch this video.
Ever since we started doing formal laptop take-home presentations, we have found the
increase in communication about the MLTI program has greatly helped parents and students to
more clearly understand how to care for their laptops, how technology is used by students
in our district, and how important parent participation is to keeping students safe
online.
Damage to laptops has been lower than it was before we took the time to do this with you,
and we find less inappropriate Internet traffic on student devices.
We know it's a little repetitive for 8th grade parents but once a year this allows
us to deliver a lot of information in an easy to consume manner, and allows you to remain
in the comfort of your own home rather than dealing with the inconvenience of driving
out to see us.
Of course, if you do have any questions or concerns at all, please feel free to request
some time to talk with us in person.
The job I do now did not exist when I went to this middle school when it opened in 1989.
I always come back to that thought when I try to imagine what jobs and learning opportunities
our kids will have 5-10 years from now.
Whatever may come, I hope you all understand a core digital literacy will be critical in
nearly all trades.
This is why we usually don't treat technology as a separate skill to learn, but rather we
include it as a component of learning, blending it with traditional teaching methods and making
working in teams through digital collaboration second nature.
To make this digital collaboration work in our classrooms our teachers must trust that
certain expectations will be met so they can comfortably move forward with lesson plans
that rely on technology for full effect.
Students must be allowed to go online, bring laptops home, and have fast Internet access
at home for this to work well.
I can't stress this enough, fast Internet access at home is something all students should
have to succeed and if your family is finding it difficult to provide this, we are happy
to consult with you about solutions that may exist to overcome financial and connectivity
barriers.
Teachers also expect students should be able to share their work digitally under a Creative
Commons license, they should use email (with their peers only), and share likeness in class
photos and movies.
We send out forms asking permission for students to be allowed to do these things and we hope
every one of you trusts that these permissions are worthwhile.
We understand that in some situations where the safety of a student is at risk if their
whereabouts are discovered online exceptions are warranted, but if that is the case please
bring this to our attention directly so we can be sure not only that your concerns are
addressed, but that we can make sure their teachers are aware of these restrictions and
the reasons behind them.
Throughout the year we are going to work really hard to make sure the hardware downtime is
minimized for your students.
We want their laptops to be well maintained and running safely - so if they have any issues
with their laptops they should bring it to the Tech Office ASAP and we'll troubleshoot
what's going on with them.
I often get chances to come into their classroom to teach them the applications on their laptops,
but if they ever have questions they are welcome to come see us one-on-one so we can help them
find the right answers as they need them.
We obviously work to keep your students as safe as we can but ultimately the only reliable
way is to teach them self awareness of their online habits and to promote digital citizenship
so they make good choices.
So, what is digital citizenship?
That is a way bigger topic than I have time to go over here but in a nutshell we emphasize
appreciation and respect for this amazing advantage they have when given access to technology.
We also highlight some of the dangers they might find on the Internet and how to avoid
them, how to ethically present who they are online and the permanent effects of their
time online, and methods on how to effectively filter the unending junk pushed on them so
they can research useful and trustworthy knowledge from the web.
Digital citizenship is a huge piece of online safety, but unfortunately we cannot rest assured
all students will make good choices all the time.
To reinforce self regulation we find that clearly telling students we monitor their
laptop usage regularly is a very effective reminder.
Students should have no expectation of privacy on district controlled technology - staff,
administration, and parents all have the right to view all activity on district systems including
laptop usage and email.
We employ a number of techniques to monitor and archive access so we can track irresponsible
activity if needed.
An application called LanSchool provides teachers the ability, while at school, to monitor a
few or all of the screens of each class so they can ensure students stay on task - though
they cannot view student screens while they are at home with this tool.
It also logs every key students press in one big continuous text file, regardless of the
application or website they are in, so that we have a digital trail to follow on systems
we have no direct control over such as social media.
This is particularly useful to help eliminate online cyber bullying.
We do record all web history on the student account of every district laptop each school
year and all email is archived for 10 years by law.
While students are on our network, we have two layers of web filtering in place - a local
Untangle firewall and a much more comprehensive filter provided by OpenDNS; this is a national
service that dynamically monitors web content and labels sites as safe or not much more
quickly than our local staff ever could.
These tools do provide very good regulation of Internet content, but they are not perfect
- no system could possibly automate filtering the whole of the Internet perfectly.
A motivated student can find ways around them to access inappropriate content, which is
why we periodically check their web traffic.
Additionally, while on any other network they are only subject to the filters in place on
that other network - at your home or on any other public network they can access anything
that is not filtered by that network, and in most cases are wide open to all traffic.
If you wish you may add OpenDNS filtering for free to your own home network, just go
to their website and follow their instructions.
Just remember, even if you do this, no filter is perfect and often there are ways around
these filters.
The very best way to protect your kids is to be involved regularly using random checks
of their web history.
I'd also like to clarify one other important point - we do not allow Facebook to be used
on district laptops, whether at school or at home.
While there are many legitimate uses for social media, at the Middle School level we believe
the distractions and dangers outweigh the benefits and technically no user under the
age of 13 is allowed to have their own Facebook account by law anyway.
If you as a parent allow your child to use Facebook, please only allow this use on personal
computers and not on school provided computers.
We do check for this traffic specifically and team leaders will limit student access
to the laptop if Facebook activity is found.
Once you have finished this video, filled out the response form, and have signed the
paperwork that goes along with it your 7th or 8th grade student will be allowed to bring
their laptops home.
To take it home, students must sign out the device from their home room teacher at the
end of the day.
Teachers may ask why the student needs it and may refuse to let it go at their discretion.
6th grade students are not allowed to use their laptops at home unless special arrangements
are made.
If it goes home it should only be used by that student or the parents of that student;
siblings or other relatives should not be allowed access to the laptop.
Parents have the right to all student passwords.
If a student is reluctant to give you their password for the laptop or Google account
please remove their access to the laptop and contact us so we can discover why.
Most of the trouble students get into on their laptops is done at night while at home.
Parents cannot assume their students are always making good choices any more than we can,
but we find a few simple steps on your part can make all the difference.
Don't let students do homework in their bedroom if there is a quiet common area available
like the dining room, home office, or kitchen table.
Don't let students use the laptop on their bed or near open food or drink.
Set a time to turn technology off at night, if they need to work past that time it can
be an exception they request from you, not the norm.
And the single most important thing you as a parent can do to is to monitor your children's
web history randomly, a few times a month - not only does this bring attention to inappropriate
use, it helps you understand the websites your kids are going to and allows you to ask
them about their good activity as well as the bad.
Part of the MLTI program was designed to also increase parent computer knowledge, let the
kids show you what they are doing and how to use applications on the laptops.
This is a great opportunity to emphasize some common sense laptop care tips.
Please never put this laptop in a backpack, even in its case - the abuse kids' backpacks
take is astronomical and is greatly minimized when everyone can see a specific laptop case
instead of a generic backpack.
Wearing it on your back can also warp the entire laptop.
Please don't attempt to clean the laptop on your own with anything other than a dry
cotton rag - students are welcome to visit us in the tech office and clean their laptops
with approved cleaner and microfiber rags any time they want to.
Keep laptops away from extremes of cold, heat, and humidity - leaving a laptop out in the
cold car or while taking a hot shower can cause condensation inside the device and moisture
is the enemy of electronics.
It is the student's responsibility to make sure their laptop is charged overnight if
they bring it home so they can use it for a full day at school.
Teachers will stop letting them take it home if this becomes a recurring problem.
When wrapping charger cords it is very important to leave a gentle loop at the base of the
transformer block before winding it around the cable wings - we discuss this in person
with all students at the beginning of the year so every one of them should know how
to do this.
When damage does occur to the laptops MSAD 72, the MLTI project, and Apple have done
a very good job keeping repair costs away from families.
All MLTI 4 MacBook Airs are covered by an excellent warranty the full 4 years of this
project, and MSAD 72 is ACMT certified to repair them in-house so turnaround is quick
and repair quality is never in question.
When damage is accidental, MSAD 72 usually covers the cost of the non-warranty repair
without fuss unless there is question about the nature of the accident - we do reserve
the right to bill the parent for malicious or negligent damage if we see fit, though
to date this has never happened.
If a laptop is lost or stolen it must be reported to use immediately so we can coordinate a
search or file a police report, in this case the MLTI project will usually cover the replacement
cost of the device.
If only the case or charger is lost we may bill the parent for the replacement cost of
that item, though again our goal is to keep this program as transparent to families as
possible provided budget allows this.
Using the JumpRope Parent Portal is really very easy, and is something all parents should
start using regularly.
It will give you a much more realistic understanding of student progress than traditional report
cards.
I will say up front that some teachers are more up-to-date than others in recording progress,
so please be patient as we all grow into this system.
I also want to point out that I used the word "progress" rather than "grades".
Standards based learning does not use the sort of "grades" we may be used to, instead
it tracks how students measure up to standards over time - if you think of it this way you
can more easily begin to accept that a 4 is not an "A" and a 1 or 2 is not necessarily
a bad indicator.
And that is it!
Thank you for your time, I hope you all now have a good understanding of our technology
use here at MSAD 72.
If anything is still unclear, send us a message so we can address your concerns.
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