Regarding Zoom, our tech director sent out a message about this two days
ago. We are supposed to be using Google Meet but it isn't a great interface
- Zoom is better. But it's worth keeping this in mind - I had no idea.
------
Before you decide to use Zoom, please know this: Zoom's privacy policy has
some questionable terms at best, the company actively engages in user
hostile behavior to increase lock-in, and has poorly chosen default
settings hidden away that are crucial to protect our students from harm.
For your and your students' safety, it is important that you please keep
the following in mind if you’re going to use Zoom:
- Set a meeting password
<https://it.cornell.edu/zoom/keep-zoom-meetings-private#section-1> to
only allow your students to enter the call or enable the waiting area
<https://it.cornell.edu/zoom/keep-zoom-meetings-private#section-2> to
give you control over who is allowed in. If you don’t do this, anybody on
the internet can join your Zoom call.
- Don’t use and discourage your students from using the ability to log
into Zoom with their Facebook or Google accounts. Zoom is well known to
access private data from Facebook and Google and sharing that data with
third parties. Ideally, your students shouldn’t need an account at all and
you as the host should just sign up for a regular Zoom account to host
meetings.
- Make sure that you as the host set yourself up to be the only person
allowed to share their screen
<https://it.cornell.edu/zoom/keep-zoom-meetings-private#section-4> to
the participants. There are people on the internet joining open
Zoom meetings
and then taking over control of the screen, displaying pornography or other
inappropriate content.
Cornell University has put together a comprehensive page on how to
keep Zoom meetings
private <https://it.cornell.edu/zoom/keep-zoom-meetings-private>,
-------
Cathy
--------
Cathy Rettberg, Head Librarian
Menlo School
Atherton, CA
http://library.menloschool.org
What I'm reading now:
*Every Exquisite Thing/*Quick
On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 9:20 AM Mei Yang <meiyang@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Michelle,
We're a 1:1 iPad high school and students were all asked to add the Zoom
app for instructional purposes. Teachers establish appropriate behavior and
use guidelines, as well as consequences with a reminder that the student
handbook still applies. They also let students know that sessions are
recorded.
Students are able to Zoom on their own but as far as I know it hasn't been
encouraged. Can you actually stop them from doing it, though? The only
parameter I'm aware of it that student initiated sessions are limited to 40
minutes while teachers have unlimited time. Teachers might consider setting
up breakout rooms where the teacher hosts the session and sends groups into
the breakouts.
In terms of socializing, unless the school device is the only device
students have, then I'm pretty sure that they are already interacting
plenty with their cellphones, at least in middle school. There are
workarounds using shared Google docs too. Has there been any feedback from
parents on how they're handling it with the younger ones?
- Mei
On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 2:34 PM Michelle Loomis <michelle.l@xxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hello Librarians,
Our school (K-8) is in the process of deciding whether to formally allow
students to have messaging/video access to one another via Google or Zoom
(without teacher initiation). It's not currently permitted on our school
devices, but as we recognize the need for students to do group work and
have occasional social contact, we are considering explicitly allowing them
to do so. Have any of your schools permitted "unsupervised" student
messaging/video conferencing on your devices? Do you have particular
parameters or guidelines in place for these interactions? Have you run into
any unexpected problems?
We're working on a new set of digital citizenship guidelines for this
type of student contact (it's a huge can of worms), but I thought I'd see
how some of your schools are handling this.
Thank you! I hope you're all healthy, safe, and calm.
Michelle
-
Michelle Loomis
Library and Digital Media Specialist, Upper School Librarian
<http://burkes.org>
--
Mei Yang
Librarian
Saint Francis High School
Mountain View, CA
meiyang@xxxxxxxx
