SNP student communications

Channels of communication There are two channels through which staff and students may communicate with each other: via the schome community website, which includes: collaboration through the wiki discussion through the forum commenting in the SLog communication in-world (initially this is likely to be limited to text chat and IM) via the schome-sl-help@open.ac.uk email account Staff and students should not know each others' personal details and should not be communicating with each other via their own email accounts or via Skype or other tools (other than the schome community website). Staff and students must adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy whenever doing anything related to the project. In particular they must: keep their personal details (particularly any sort of contact info) secret treat other people with respect (which is not the same as liking them or agreeing with them!)

Staff - Student comms Basics We are there to: support and encourage the students help them take ownership of activities within Schome Park ensure that they are safe Our communication with them should reflect this. We are there to serve their needs - within reason! Recording communications Staff should always keep a record of any communication that they have with a student within the project. This might be done automatically as part of the communication process (eg edits on the wiki and posts in the forum have the contributor's details stored automatically). The list below gives some guidance about recording communications in other circumstances: When sending messages from schome-sl-help you must always put your (avatar) name at the end of the message (sent messages are stored automatically) When using text chat and IM in-world you should keep a chat log (you can set the client to do this automatically in your preferences). Remember that you should always ask permission to do this from anyone involved in the discussion. When helping people in-world you should use the SLog to take notes about the nature of the activities (including support) that you were engaged with - and any other salient points (what worked well; what worked less well; how did people feel about it: what was learnt; etc).

Student - Student comms Basics Students should support each other and project staff as much as possible. They have a responsibility for helping to ensure that everyone on Schome Park and within the wider schome community website feels safe and is valued. Recording communications Students should be aware that one of the aims of the schome-NAGTY Teen Second Life Pilot is to explore the educational potential and pitfalls of Teen Second Life. This means that staff on the project will be collecting data about what happens within the project. If students feel unhappy with any aspect of this they should raise their concerns with a member of the project team (and with their parents or someone in their school) - students have the right to withdraw from the project at any point and to ask that their data is not used - and do not have to give any justification or explanation for their decision. We are keen to encourage students to take part in the research aspect of the project - for further details see the Research strand's wiki page and/or discussion board.