Illinois

It’s the Law!

Creates the Internet Safety Education Act to inform and protect students from inappropriate or illegal communications and solicitation and to require school districts to provide education about Internet threats and risks. Creates the Internet Safety Education Alliance under the authority of the Office of the Attorney General. Amends the State Finance Act to create the Internet Safety Education Fund. Amends the School Code to mandate the provision by every public school of instruction and discussion on effective methods by which students may recognize and report inappropriate, illegal, or threatening communications on the Internet on or before the start of the 2008-2009 school year.

http://www.ilga.gov/

  Actions

Bill Status of 2426 - The bill is in the Governor’s hands waiting to be signed…

Synopsis As Introduced
Amends the Harassing and Obscene Communications Act. Creates the Cyberbullying Law. Provides that the offense of harassment through electronic communications also includes the use of electronic communication for making a harassing statement for the purpose of alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing a specific person on at least 2 separate occasions; or creating and maintaining an Internet website or webpage, which is accessible to one or more third parties for a period of at least 24 hours, and which contains harassing statements made for the purpose of alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing a specific person. Establishes penalties. Effective immediately.

As posted by http://davidormsby.wordpress.com/2008/03/:

… Zap teen “cyberbullying” via the Internet, text messages, and e-mail. The legislation targets iHarassment, iTormenting or iTerrorizing a specific person at least twice, including posting Web site smackdowns.

The cyberbullies would be yanked from their gizzmos for up to one year in the slammer for a first offense. Yikes. Repeat iPests would be staring at 1-3 years in the pokey. Double Yikes.

Hmm… Where do educators in Illinois stand on this bill? What should the punishments of this kind of behavior be? Speak up…

Welcome to the Annual ICE Summer Workshop Series 2008!

Official Website

They listened to their members! Many of them expressed a need for additional professional development opportunities beyond the annual ICE Conference. They are offering hands-on workshops throughout the state that are presented “by members, for members” to help meet this need. You don’t have to be a member to attend as there is an additional cost for non-members.

Link to the List of Workshops

Continuing Professional Development Units (CPDUs)

ICE is an approved professional development provider through the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). We are providing 1 CPDUs per contact hour, as is mandated by ISBE. In order to receive your Evidence of Completion form, you must sign in at the beginning of your workshop, and submit a completed evaluation form (provided by the presenter) at the end of the workshop. Participants who leave sessions early will not be eligible to receive CPDUs.

ICE Members

Illinois Computing Educators (ICE) is a non-profit professional organization for teachers. The mission of ICE is to lead the educational community in enhancing learning through technology. Non-ICE Members are MORE thanks welcome to register for any of our summer workshop workshops; however, please note that there is an additional fee for Non-Members. If you would like to join ICE, you are then entitled to the ICE Member fee for attending the summer workshops. As an ICE member you receive FREE access to many resources such as Atomic Learning and STAR-Online, among others. To learn more or to join, please visit the ICE Membership webage for more information. REMEMBER, you must be an ICE Member in good standing to be eligible for the ICE Member workshop rates.