Safety

=Safety in the Classoom is a Paramount Concern.=

Below are a few sites and companies addressing the problem and offering solututions to providing the powerful uses of Web 2.0 Technologies and keeping the classroom a protected environment.

Child Friendly Social Networking Tools: []

[] [|**ConnectYard** enables schools to leverage popular social media for teaching students where they live and socialize, online. The platform offers K-12 schools their own private learning communities with controlled access that are integrated with popular social networks like Facebook, which serves to make course work more social and collaborative by keeping students involved and engaged both in and outside of the classroom. Only users approved by the school are permitted to join the community and interact with other users. This eliminates a primary concern of both parents and administrators.]



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Keeping Kids Safe Online
Educators and parents know that the Internet is a powerful learning tool for students—but making sure that kids are safe remains the most important concern. When implementing an online environment, it’s essential that your district have a way to ensure that:
 * Only members of your school community—registered administrators, teachers, other students, and parents—can interact with students via email, online discussions, and other online tools
 * Students interact with each other appropriately
 * All of the content posted on your site is inoffensive and educationally appropriate

[] ePals is a provider of K-12 eMail, blogs, wikis, and shared workspace tools, enabling students and teachers to share and access their work. ePals' social-networking tool reaches 16 million teachers and students in 200 countries and territories for project-based learning, cross-cultural exchanges, and literacy and language learning with other ePals classrooms. All tools are safe and protected, and they enable a school or district to "predetermine the user environment." Recently, Maine's Department of Education announced that it will be using ePals statewide in schools to connect students to each other, as well as to foreign classrooms, as part of the ePals social learning network.



[] Saywire is a learning environment consisting of several tools, including blogs, wikis, embeddable media, eMail, and more. Both students and teachers can log on and be a part of the community. According to Saywire, some teachers use Saywire's miniature communities within their own school's communities for professional development. Saywire does not allow for nicknames or handles, and every feature or activity that a member engages in within Saywire will be stamped with their first name, grade, and photo ID. According to Saywire, this is monitoring, not filtering, and students learn that bad behavior will be noticed, which curbs truancy.