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This article is cross-posted from the Student Privacy Compass   and was originally published there Oct. 27, 2020 On July 22, Juliana Cotto, a policy fellow on FPF’s youth and education team, spoke with Kerry Gallagher, Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning at St. John’s Prep and Director of K-12 Education for ConnectSafely.org , about training teachers on video call platforms, how school leaders should work with teachers in adopting new tools, and important considerations for monitoring student behavior and engagement. Juliana: What are lessons learned from online learning last spring? How should they inform preparations and operations this fall? Kerry: A new privacy element is that through virtual classes, we see into students’ homes. The majority of our students participated in virtual classes from their bedrooms because that was the one place in their homes they could focus. It wasn’t ideal to teach students in their bedrooms, but we needed students in a place where they co

October is Bullying Prevention Month and I've had the tremendous opportunity to share research and strategies with audiences through a few different channels. Here are the resulting resources to share with your educator colleagues, homeschool parent network, parent-teacher organization, or just to give you peace of mind in your own classroom or with your own children at home. No matter how much time you have, there is something here for you. 1 Minute Short: Bullying vs. Cyberbullying Source: ConnectSafely Report from CBS News View this post on Instagram It’s important for parents to understand the difference between bullying and cyberbullying so they can best help their kids. Click the link in our bio for resources and more on how to talk to your kids about it. . #kids #onlinesafety #parentsofteens #parents #digitalwellbeing #kidsandtech #kidsandtechnology #bullyingprevention #bullyingawareness #stopbullying A post shared by ConnectSafely (@connectsafely) on

 Now that we are using more education technology tools than ever in order to reduce contact and reach students and families from a distance, the concern about the private information we are creating and sharing in the course of our work with young children is as much of a concern as it has ever been. In a time when teachers are eager for training and support, but have little time to dedicate to it as they learn how to plan physically distanced, hybrid, and virtual lessons;  How do we make sure they are aware and able to implement important student data privacy protection practices?  How should policy makers support schools and districts?  What can school and district leaders do in their roles to keep students safe and teachers supported? I was fortunate enough to be part of a panel of researchers, practitioners, and policy advisors last week to talk about the solutions to these very questions. You can watch our conversation below. To open the panel, new research about teacher access to

We are all learning how to "do school" differently, whether as teacher, support staff, administrator, or even parent! In partnership with Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence and ScreenBeam, and in anticipation of our upcoming webinar, I created this short video with 3 tips you can use and share with your educator colleagues. Click the image to register for the webinar!

  How do we keep our students safer in the virtual environment and in the virtual classroom? Cybersecurity is increasingly important, especially for youth and students, as more of our educational, social and work environments move on-line during this time. Watch this keynote about the basics of safety in the virtual classroom and how to work with both parents and students to increase awareness.

Click the image above to see ConnectSafely's full guide and quick guide to Creativity and Copyright. Both were co-authored by Larry Magid and Kerry Gallagher. Design work by Maureen Kochan. The article below is cross posted from the ISTE Blog . When it comes to plagiarism, teachers have no trouble identifying it and dealing with it. But copyright law is another story. It’s an area where teachers are a little less confident. But it is something they need to know, not only to stay on the right side of the law, but also to help students protect their own work, says Kerry Gallagher, assistant principal for teaching and learning at St. John’s Prep in Massachusetts. “We think of plagiarism as it’s our ethical obligation to give credit for work done for ideas that have been put down in printed form,” Gallagher said. “We do this by adding a bibliography or a work cited to any product where we use those things. … “When it comes to copyright though, the law part, this really has n