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Digital Citizenship and Student Online Safety

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Welcome to Classroom 21, a support site for the SBISD 21st Century Learning Initiative!

Today's students face challenges we cannot even conceive. They will need to be flexible in their learning so they can adapt to a complex and changing environment. To be literate in the 21st century involves skills in visual and information literacies, effective communcation, organization and productivity, creativity and higher-order thinking.

Click here for information and resources on teaching Digital Citizenship to your students!

 

Blogging and Educational Networking in SBISD

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In Spring Branch, teachers have several tools from which to choose for classroom and student blogs.

Blogging

Blogger can be accessed through Google Apps. Teachers can create a classroom blog on which students comment. Additionally, secondary teachers can invite students to be co-authors on the blog and actually create posts. Currently, we are working on a solution with Google for the elementary classrooms. Teachers can also have students create their own blogs. However, this does require a great deal of teacher involvement as the classroom teacher is resposible for active monitoring of all student blogs. It is best practice to follow their blogs (receive notification when new posts are created) and to add student blogs to the classroom clog (as a blogroll) for easier management.

SBISD also has its own Wordpress server, MySBISD. Teachers can create a classroom blog and then add users to their blog manually. Students can then perform actions based upon the permissions set by the classroom teacher. Teachers can also have students create their own blogs. However, this does require a great deal of teacher involvement as the classroom teacher is resposible for active monitoring of all student blogs. It is best practice to follow their blogs (receive notification when new posts are created) and to add student blogs to the classroom clog (as a blogroll) for easier management.

More information is available at:

 

Educational Networking/Online Communities

Edmodo is a great online community tool that is available to all classrooms in SBISD. Teachers join and create groups. Then students join using the code provided by the teachers. Parents can also join in through a parent code that can be provided by the teacher. See additional infomation about Edmodo in the module below.

Facebook is another option for teachers. Teachers can create

 

Whichever tools you choose, it is best practice to inform the parents/community of your purpose for employing the tools. We have attached sample letters/forms (See the Documents listed to the left.) that can be modified to fit your specific instructional goals and sent home to inform.

Edmodo

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Edmodo, an eLearning platform, has come to Spring Branch ISD! Edmodo provides teachers and students with a secure and easy way to post classroom materials, share links and videos, access homework, grades, school notices and more! You can even provide parent access!

http://sbisd.edmodo.com

All you need to get started is an access code which can be obtained from your campus librarian or Karen Justl in Educational Technology!

Google Apps and Student eMail

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Google Apps

All SBISD students have Google Apps accounts. Google Apps provides anytime/anywhere access (provided Internet connection available) to productivity tools such as: word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, email and website creation. Google Apps also provides opportunities for student online project collaboration and storage space for a vairety of document types. 

To provide Google Apps to our students, we must also create an email account which will be used when an academic need is identified by the teacher. The email account can be accessed through Google Apps at school, at home or anywhere students have access to a computer and the Internet. Rules governing the email accounts are:

  • Pre-K through 5 - Students will be in a "walled garden" without access to email anyone outside the e.mysbisd.com domain (other Pre-K through 5 students in SBISD)  and the springbranchisd.com domain and have agreed (Acceptable Use Policy) to use the account for educational and research purposes only. 
  • 6 - 12 - Students will have full access to email anyone outside the domain and have agreed (Acceptable Use Policy) to use the account for educational and research purposes only.

 

Parents must sign and return the parental authorization form before their child's email account will be activated. When the form is signed and returned, the campus will indicate in Skyward that parental permission for student email has been obtained and then the student will have email access within 24 hours. If a parent does not grant permission for his/her child to be issued an email account, access to the email account will be removed. Access to the other Google tools that are part of the suite will still be available to the student. Student will still be able to collaborate with other students on Google documents even without acess the an email inbox.

To ensure all aspects of Google Apps is working properly, student should login through the Google Chrome browser. Google Chrome is on all student devices. If at home, you can download Chrome from http://www.google.com/chrome. 

The Acceptable Use Policy and the Email Permission Policy:

Elementary English Elementary Spanish
Secondary English

Secondary Spanish

 

 

 

 

Transitioning to Office 2007

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As part of the teacher Laptop Re-Image Project, all teachers will receive Office 2007. The transition from Office 2003 to Office 2007 is a big one! You may want to spend some time learning the new features! To help you make the transistion, here are direct links to the Atomic Learning Intro video tutorials that are available through the district! For additional information, access the Atomic Learning Getting Started Guide.

To login to Atomic Learning, https://www.atomiclearning.com/login/springbranchisd and use your network credentials! 

Introduction to Word 2007

Introduction to PowerPoint 2007

Introduction to Outlook 2007

Introduction to Excel 2007

 

Apple Logins

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When logging into a Mac device please remember to do the following:

  • A user whether student or staff has to create a profile on each Mac they use.  Once a user logs in, a profile is created and subsequent logins map the drives.   
  • If a student uses Mac #1 today and Mac #2 tomorrow the same procedure would need to be followed.
  • If students use the same Mac all the time a single login is all that’s needed after the profile is created.
  • We must also remember that they have to wait until the Mac has completed its network connections to applicable directories—usually takes 15-20 seconds after the Mac is fully booted—before logging in.

For more information and instructions, go to the Kace Knowledge Base where you will find help on many issues. Check out these recently added Apple articles:
  • Apple Proper Logon Procedures

http://kbox1.sbm1.springbranchisd.com/userui/advisory_detail?ID=66

  • Apple First Time Log on

http://kbox1.sbm1.springbranchisd.com/userui/advisory_detail?ID=64

  • Apple Manually Mapping

http://kbox1.sbm1.springbranchisd.com/userui/advisory_detail?ID=65

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