Varsity Acres School
4255 – 40 Street N.W., Calgary, AB T3A 0H7
t | 403-777-6090 f | 403-777-6093 | VarsityAcres@cbe.ab.ca
September 4, 2014
Re: Varsity Acres School Network and Personal Owned Devices (POD)
Dear Parents and Guardians,
As a result of a CBE wireless technology project, a wireless student network for
Internet access using personally owned devices is provided at Varsity Acres
School. The use of a personally owned device by students, with the guidance
of parents and teachers is to assist in addressing individual student preferences
and needs for learning.
Access to this wireless network is available to students on a voluntary basis and
places responsibility on students for appropriate use and behavior. At school,
classroom discussions on the topic of Digital Citizenship help students foster the
skills necessary for accepting such responsibility. At home, parents/guardians
are encouraged to discuss the learning opportunities and the risks with their son
or daughter.
Be assured that the content filtering that is normally used to filter inappropriate
materials on the school’s internal network is also applied to the open access
network. As with any personal belonging that a student brings to school, the
school cannot be responsible for electronic devices that are lost, stolen or
damaged.
Taking into account the responses received to the survey administered in 2012
to Varsity Acres School teachers, parents and students and current research
provided by the CBE, we have put in place the following policy:
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Students are allowed to bring personal owned devices for educational
use only with the permission and direct supervision of a teacher
Students are allowed to bring a cell phone or smart phone for
communication purposes:
o parents still need to contact the school first with any changes
that will affect their child at school (ex. bussing, pickup,
appointments)
o messages much be checked at the beginning of lunch time
(11:35 am) and/or right after school (2:35 pm)
The use of cameras (phones, iPads, iPod, etc) is only permitted in class
under the teacher’s supervision
Students are encouraged to be physically active during recess and
lunch therefore personal owned devices are not allowed during these
time
When students are connecting to the Internet with their POD they are
expected to access only the CBE network. No access to a 3G network
will be allowed
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Bussed students are expected to be ethical and responsible if using
PODs on the bus to and from school. Students are not to use their POD
camera to take pictures of other students on the bus.
In the eventuality that a student chooses to disobey the rules of this
policy, infractions will be dealt with the following way:
Minor Infractions (ex. gaming, surfing web, using POD in class or outside without
permission, etc)
- 1st offence: loss of POD for the day
- 2nd offence: loss of POD for a week and contact the parents
- 3rd offence: loss of POD for a month and a letter home to parents
- 4th offence: loss of POD for the remainder of the year and a letter home
to parents
Major infractions (ex. online bullying, taking and using student photos
inappropriately, etc.)
- will be dealt with on a case by case basis with the school administration and
may lead to loss of privileges for the remainder of the year.
This is a significant opportunity for students to personalize their learning by
choosing, with the permission of parents, teachers and school administration,
appropriate technology for their learning needs. Thank you for your attention to
this important information. For more information, visit the CBE website at
http://www.cbe.ab.ca/learninginnovation/digitalsafety-digitalcitizenshippod.asp
Please return the Varsity Acres School Digital Citizenship Agreement form to
school.
Yours sincerely,
Pierre Veilleux
Learning Leader & Digital Citizenship Designate
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