33 technology to get up to half the student body to participate ,” she explained . “ We are a 1:1 school with district-issued iPads . Through their district Gmail accounts , students started sending Google forms to all four grades ’ mailing lists ( the seniors can all be reached by typing in Class of 2017 , for example ). Since students have received forms from administrators this way , those served as models and students just duplicated their process . I love that participation has increased , and I love that students tried something new .” While these surveys should be labeled as unscientific , a 50 percent participation rate should make readers take notice .
33 technology to get up to half the student body to participate ,” she explained . “ We are a 1:1 school with district-issued iPads . Through their district Gmail accounts , students started sending Google forms to all four grades ’ mailing lists ( the seniors can all be reached by typing in Class of 2017 , for example ). Since students have received forms from administrators this way , those served as models and students just duplicated their process . I love that participation has increased , and I love that students tried something new .” While these surveys should be labeled as unscientific , a 50 percent participation rate should make readers take notice .
Michael Simons , who advises the Tesserae yearbook at Corning Painted-Post High School in Corning , New York , has also seen his students use technology to make their surveys work . “ We have had tremendous success with our students loading the survey to iPads and cruising lunch periods in the cafeteria and study halls throughout the day to solicit participation ,” he said .
“ We ’ ve done ‘ Be a Smartie and take the survey ,’ where one kid distributes iPads ( three at a time in rotation ) and a wingman has a basket of Smarties candies . We shorten the links for the forms at goo . gl or tinyurl . com first so that they ’ re easy to type into Safari on the iPads , and we bookmark the link so that if we lose the tab down in the cafe , we can reload it immediately .”
LoMonte noted that journalistic responsibility does not end with the conduct of a survey . “ It really is important when dealing with sensitive information gathered about identifiable students to treat that information respectfully and professionally , which includes making sure that any promise of confidentiality is kept , he said . “ That means being judicious about storing the results of the survey in a way that protects against unwanted redistribution . You don ’ t want a confidential document sitting on the desktop screen of a shared computer . That ’ s just a good professional practice about any information you obtain in confidence .”
No one can explain why federal opt-out regulations suddenly became an issue at schools across the country in 2016 . It is a reminder , however , that everything our students do in their jobs as student journalists matters . It ’ s our job as advisers to make sure that they understand all the rules and tenets of the profession they ’ ve chosen to enter . Maybe it was just another valuable teaching moment in a year that was filled with them .
GARY CLITES
Gary Clites , MJE , advises The Patriot Press newsmagazine and WNHS-TV at Northern High School in Owings , Maryland . He holds degrees in journalism from WVU and the University of Maryland . He has been a columnist for the Dow Jones News Fund ’ s Adviser Update for 20 years . Clites has a CSPA Gold Key and was a 2004 DJNF Distinguished Adviser . He is acting president of the Maryland-D . C . Scholastic Press Association .