permissionform



Parent Permission Form: Student Participation in International, Collaborative Digital Projects

Parents:

This year, to help our students develop their reading and writing skills as well as cultivate our understanding of different people and cultures, our class is participating in some international collaborative projects with students in other countries via the Internet. When students are able to SAFELY share their ideas with an audience broader than just our classroom, often they can discover their VOICE and become even more motivated to learn, communicate, and share their ideas effectively with others.

Often we hear negative stories in the mainstream media about the ways young people use the Internet and social media websites. One of the reasons we are participating in some collaborative digital projects this year is to help our students learn through experiences the ways to safely use the Internet to share information and collaborate. I am writing to let you know what we are planning to do, and to obtain your permission for your child to participate.

__Planned Activities__: We are planning to use several different voice-enhanced digital tools to let our students SAFELY share their work and ideas with other students as well as with our school community. (You!) One of the websites we plan to use is VoiceThread (voicethread.com). These projects may be shared privately with other classes over the Internet and with parents, and also may be shared publicly on the Internet. To protect student privacy and ensure safety throughout these projects we:
 * 1) Will only use student first names, if names are used at all, in identifying student work and ideas
 * 2) Will share audio-only recordings of our students’ voices (no video will be shared)
 * 3) Will not use pictures of individual students, identified by name
 * 4) Will only use GROUP pictures of students which do not identify individuals by name if we share pictures of students working in class

If you have questions about our projects please let me know. I will be in contact with you via email to share links to these projects as we create them! Please complete, sign and return the bottom of this form to me as soon as possible. Thanks!

__YES, my child has my permission to participate in teacher-moderated, Internet-based collaborative projects with international students this year. My child may share recordings of his/her voice on the Internet and participate in the planned collaborative activities outlined here.__

NO, my child does not have permission to participate in these activities.

Date:

Student Name: Student Signature:

Parent Name: Parent Signature: