Does your AUP address the new Web 2.0 technologies?

Does your acceptable use policy address blogs, wikis or chat rooms? If it does and you would like to share, please e-mail me a copy. I'll distribute it through the RESCs to all of their technology council members. If you're in the process of revisitng your AUP, take a look at Louisiana's Franklin Parish AUP .

MySpace To Change Child Safety Measures

January 14, 2008 - A social-networking Web site targeted by almost every state in the country agrees to new authentication and identity verification measures. MySpace.com has reached agreement with officials in nearly every state to add extensive measures aimed at combating sexual predators. Attorneys General Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Roy Cooper, D-N.C., on behalf of 49 states and the District of Columbia, announced the agreement with the huge online social networking Web site on Monday.

Nominate a creative colleague to become an American Star of Teaching

The U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative is accepting nominations for 2008 American Stars of Teaching until March 31. Parents, students, colleagues, school administrators and others can nominate an exemplary teacher who they believe has the qualities to be an American Star of Teaching.

The DOE is seeking nominations of teachers across the United States who are improving student achievement, using innovative strategies in the classroom and making a difference in the lives of their students. Teachers across all grade levels and disciplines will be honored as 2008 American Stars of Teaching this fall.
Download an application and nominate one of your colleagues!

New ICT Competency Standards for Teachers

January 8, 2008 - The ICT Competency Standards for Teachers were developed under UNESCO leadership in cooperation with ISTE, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), and corporate partners Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft. Competency standards for teachers are designed to help educational policy-makers and curriculum developers identify the skills teachers need to harness technology in the service of education.

UNESCO and its collaborators introduced the ICT Competency Standards for Teachers along with a set of three support booklets including:
1) A Policy Framework explaining the rationale, structure and approach of the ICT-CST project;
2) A Competency Standards Modules’ Structure which crosses the components of educational reform with various policy approaches to generate a matrix of skill sets for teachers;
3) Implementation Guidelines providing a detailed syllabus of the specific skills to be acquired by teachers within each skill set/module.