Not yet resolved or ratified, have your first glimpse of the

#EdTech Bill of Rights

  1. You have the right to The Internet. Well, sort of … if by The Internet you mean a censored version, subject to rolling firewalls, then yes you can have that. Educational organizations who receive federal dollars for Internet services (called E-Rate) must attest that they comply with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (“CIPA”). Really not just CIPA, but whatever the interpretation of CIPA is which your Director of Technology or friendly local firewall engineer holds.
    Learn who makes those decisions for you and lobby them for firewalls which are subject to what educators want to share on The Internet with their students – and not the other way around.
  2. You have the right to a work email account. But one which is cumbersomly (Old English – trust me) long. One which you have to publish on all your digital pages, even though everyone follows the same convention of first letter of first name, five letters of last name, and the zip code where you grew up. Maybe that is not true, but the fact that your employer can leagally search your email is highly likely.
  3. Social Media is Education’s Friend. Unless you use it like the rest of America does. Teachers have an elevated standard to meet. It’s because of all the cash money to be made in education. Educate yourself.
  4. That’s Your Computer. As in for working on work at work. It should not be somewhere else when you are at work. It should not be used to create and upload work products to Teachers-Pay-Teachers. Otherwise, yep, all yours.
  5. Everyone Smile! As long as you have the family’s consent to share those sweet faces – then go ahead and post. Do us all a favor and leave off the geotag. Better yet, focus on the over-the-shoulder, the hands holding up work products. We don’t need to document every.single.day. up to college for future candidates for President in 2040.

It feels like there are some representatives out there who have more articles for the #EdTech Bill of Rights. Add them below fellow countrymen/and teachers!

#EdTech Bill of Rights