18 Ways to Secure Parent Permission to Use Technology

Child Art Aged 4.5 Person 1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Get parent permission for artwork, photographs, and
use of technology. Here are some samples to
get you started.

Many of you have asked for permission form samples, so here is a copy of a list I have compiled a list to reference as part of my upcoming book, Collaborative Writing in the Cloud from Eye on Education. As always, ask what will help you, I'm here to serve.

Remember, I'm a teacher, not a lawyer, and this is not intended to give any legal advice.

As always, check any permission forms you use with your local administrators and local counsel. I do hope this list will help dispel the myth that you can't do that.

There are teachers doing creative things all around the world and getting permission. Just search, you can find even more than this.

I will update this list in 2 places:

• Permissions and AUP Samples List [Diigo]
• My Flattening Classrooms Evernote Notebook (has all original pdfs and docs included if any of these links are broken)

18 Permission Form Samples

1. Artsonia sample permission form

This is an online art museum for student work. This permission form is used by artsonia, a student online art museum. It is a great place to participate and share artwork. Also, I like how artsonia allows parents to moderate the comments left on their child's artwork. This form also asks for parent volunteers. This is a nice way to share your student's best work.

tags: permission artwork education elemchat news

2. State of New Jersey Consent form for images

This is the photo permisison form used by the state of New Jersey schools. I'm not sure if you should be required to specifically notify parents that photo recognition software is available. I do like the different levels of permission but am not sure how they track it in photos, etc. This seems like it would be a bit of a struggle, I guess it would have to be done with the use of colored dots on field trips, etc. 

tags: news permission photographs photography bestpractices

3. Boy Scouts activity consent form
This is an activity consent form used by the Boy Scouts of America. They take students on physically challenging events for weekends and nights. This is a great organization that has worked with kids in nature environments for many years, so it would be a good sample to review.
tags: news field trips permissions bestpractices

4. NeoPets Parental Consent form

COPPA is a reason that many schools shy away from having any children under 13 participate in online sites, however, NeoPets is a website that has done this. This is a copy of their COPPA consent form. In here, you can see how they've tracked and worked with this permission. It does require the parents to fill out and fax or mail the form in to NeoPets to allow children to use the communications portion of the website. This would be a website to review if you're looking at creating a portal or service that allows kids under 13 to post and communicate in ways that tracks their data. I am wondering if Facebook would eventually do something like this or if they will continue to create an environment that encourages children to lie to get on their platform. (i.e. under 13 not allowed)

tags: education permission news coppa

5. Research Consent form for Research

This is an example of a consent form for research for a research student done at the University of Georgia. If you are a researcher, you'll want to check with your university as to the proper way to format and secure permissions, however, as students become researchers, I have questions about securing permission for research. This is an area we need to discuss and understand because students can now be viable, authentic researchers and perhaps may have links to more accurate data collection techniques than researchers. What happens when researchers partner with students to collect data? A whole new world of research is opening up, so research forms are worth collecting.

tags: research permissions researcher_thoughtleader news

6. Parental Permission for Web 2.0 Training, ONline Collaboration and Media Release (BOCES NEW YORK)

This was a downloadable doc, so I put it into my public Evernote notebook of permission forms and other things about flattening the classroom, this link links to that notecard. This is a permission form for students who are using advanced Web 2 tools, collaborating online, and a media release. If you are in a conservative district, this permission from 2009 may help you.
tags: news permissions permission

7. Technology Permission form for Catholic School system

This permission form is comprehensive and includes permission for online presentations in Blackboard Collaborate, blogging, wikis, google apps, podcasts, videos, social bookmarking and RSS as well as images. It is very comprehensive and useful. Again, I'm not a lawyer, but of the forms I've seen, I think this one is comprehensive.
tags: news permissions technology bestpractices

8. Edu Blogging 101 - Permission Slips
A collection of blogging permission forms, while these are a bit older, they do give you a start.
tags: news blogging permissions bestpractices

9. English Class Permission form
This is a fascinating permission form hybrid because it incorporates blogs, wikis, permission to read certain novels and watch certain videos ALL in one permission form. It would be one that high school literature teachers would want to look at using. I like how it discloses how students are identified. I may adapt something like this.
tags: education news permission sample blogging wiki wiki_book bestpractices

10. Social Networking Parent Permission Form
While not having a lot of legalese, this form does disclose what students will be doing and gets permission from parents.
tags: news social networking permission permissions wiki

11. Cardinal O'Hara High School - Parental Permission Form
This website discloses the apps that this school will be using and links to the permission form. It is on the Academic Affairs page. I like the face this presents to the public. Here is what we WILL do and how we WILL do it -- with your permission, of course. Parents have a choice but schools do not - we must offer 21st century tools as part of a 21st century school. There are ways to do this.
tags: permission permissions news education bestpractices

12. Permission Forms - Google Apps Support
These are the permission forms for the Beaverton School District and Google Apps with specific disclosures about how usernames and passwords will be set up and downloadable permission forms.
tags: news permission permissions sample education forms

13. Google Apps Consent Form - PASCO
Here's a google apps consent form for another district. It also references the Network Access Agreement (We call ours an AUP - or acceptable use form) which is an important practice that ensures students know they must use the network in accordance with guidelines already given.
tags: permission permissions education news google apps bestpractices

14. Google Apps for Students
Another website example of disclosures about the use of Google apps from a district in Oregon. This also references their Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and frequently asked questions about Google Apps, another good thing to include.
tags: permission permissions aup education news forms bestpractices

15. Gorman, Susan - US History/Coach / Technology User Agreement Forms
This teacher has permission forms for use of Toondoo, Edmodo, and Glogster, three excellent sites that I also use in my classroom. While I like to combine mine all into one, this is an option for those very conservative districts.
tags: education permission permissions news edmodo toondoo glogster bestpractices

16. Final Project: Political Cartoon Analysis | Web 2.0 Morton
This teacher's lesson plan fully discloses the tools that are being used, the standards, and required permissions. This is a very detailed example, but one that you may have to use for large projects to get approval in your district.
tags: education news lesson plans permission permissions sample bestpractices

17. Digital Permission Form (1).doc - Google Drive
This permission form has many different tools including weebly, Google dlocs, voicethread, YouTube, Glogster, Xtranormal, Toondoo, and others. I'm not sure that Audacity has to be included as it is a program on the local machine, however. I do like how the teacher asks for permission "I agree to allow my student's work to be used as  a positive example of published work for demonstration or promotional purposes." Some parents are afraid their child will be made to look bad in online examples, this covers that concern although it puts the onus on the teacher to make sure he/she vets examples that are published.
tags: permission sample education news bestpractices

18. Evernote, Dropbox, Edublog Consent form from Canada
Here's a sample form allowing students to use Dropbox and Evernote and Edublog services from a teacher in Canada. NOte that this includes disclosure that the site is hosted outside the country, something important for international relationships as typically websites are governed by their host country.
tags: permission aup sample news education

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.