eReaders

It appears that a popular gift for Christmas was eReaders, or electronic books.  Some received the Kindle, Kindle Fire or Nook.  I also purchased two for the school.  One to use with our legally blind student in Jelena's room (he can enlarge the print as needed) and one initially for the advanced students who need books outside of our library.  I was going to have Angie help oversee this one for awhile to try library lending, purchase and sharing and determining how much to budget for eBooks.  The District has also applied for a grant to add Kindles to our libraries.  (I wrote a grant that was not funded this year so we are looking at other possible sources.)  All this to say we don't have policy and procedures in place for this YET.

Here is my opinion on student owned eReaders.  Feel free to provide feedback or concerns as we develop our procedures which can then be added to next year's student handbook.

• Parents need to indicate that they KNOW the child is bringing the technology to school and that it is at their risk.  Labeling or engraving it would be recommended.
• The eReader can be used during teacher approved reading time.
• It should not be taken out to the playground or to other areas of the building.
• As with cell phones, it should be off and in their backpack except during specified reading times.
• Teachers should give extra effort in frequent monitoring of WHAT is being read.  Not as in censorship, but since adult members of the family may have downloaded reading materials also, they should be into student books. 
• They should not be able to access the wifi in our system, but be aware that eReaders have the capability to web browse.