Should school districts allow their teachers to have their own blogsand podcasts hosted on the district's web site? It's a question thatmany school systems, both large and small, have grappled with.

On the one hand, these digital-age communications tools can extendstudent learning beyond the school bell, while keeping parents engagedin their child's education as never before. On the other hand, manyschool district leaders naturally are concerned that these tools couldopen their districts to potential legal liabilities if not carefullymonitored.

Florida's Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) has come up with asolution that satisfies both sides of the debate--empowering teachersto create their own web pages, blogs, and podcasts, while guardingagainst the misuse of such tools.

All OCPS teachers are encouraged to create their own web page, but onlyafter going through special training, signing an Acceptable Use Policy(AUP), and passing an end-of-training exam with a 100-percent score,says George Perreault, director of educational technology for thedistrict. The program has been so well received that about a third ofthe district's 12,000 teachers already have taken the training.

Before the program started, teachers who wanted to create their own websites often had to ask their school's instructional technologyspecialist for help. But "it was too hard to have to go through thisperson every time they wanted to update their site," says Perreault. "Iwanted teachers to be able to be autonomous--but there had to besafeguards in place."

During the training, which lasts a full day, teachers learn how tobuild their own web pages, how to create links, and how to post itemsusing HTML coding. Teachers also learn what is, and is not, appropriateto post on their personal or class web site.

For example, teacher web sites may not contain advertisements, andteachers need parents' consent before they post students' photos or usetheir last names. Teachers also can't use their web sites for personalgain and cannot use them as a soapbox.

"This is not the forum for personal views or causes," Perreault explains.

Ed-tech service provider Tech4Learning created the training program forOCPS according to the district's specifications, and the company nowoffers this training commercially to other districts. OCPS firstoffered the training to teachers through a face-to-face format, but itproved to be so popular that the district eventually created an onlineversion hosted by Angel Learning.

Teachers who pass the end-of-training exam and "sign" an electronic website agreement form are given a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) accountfor hosting their personal web site. Once they pass the online exam,the system "automatically generates an eMail message to a staff memberto create an FTP directory for them," Perreault says.