Speak Out Website Information
The data found on this website are the thoughts and opinions of Speak Out members. None of the information has been gathered in a scientific way and cannot be generalized to the entire student population in Alberta. So please, don't use this information for school projects or other research. Use this website as it was intended: good, clean fun and one way to Speak Out on education in Alberta.
Posting Guidelines and Terms of Use
Please read these Posting Guidelines and Terms of Use and Other Agreements carefully, as it describes our understanding with you regarding your participation on the Speak Out website. We reserve the right to change, modify, add or remove portions of these terms without notice and as we see fit. If you continue to use the site after changes have been made to the terms, it means you have accepted those terms. You should visit this page periodically to review this Agreement. Although our goal is to make your experience a meaningful and safe one, we would like to remind you that you are interacting on the Speak Out site at your own risk.
Alberta Education Community Forum Standards & Posting Guidelines
These comments are governed by the following set of standards that will apply to all community members and their posts. We reserve the right to remove any material that does not (in our judgment) comply with these standards and to revoke posting privileges at our sole discretion without warning or explanation. Our decisions are considered final.
By participating, you are agreeing to abide by our Community Rules and Standards. Our goal is to provide a safe and enjoyable online community where members are encouraged to treat each other with respect. Our discussion boards encourage members of the Speak Out online community to express their perspectives and experiences in an informed, thoughtful, and constructive way. While we encourage members to share a variety of viewpoints, participants of the discussion boards need to be conscious of the language they use.
By choosing to participate in the discussion boards, you are agreeing to refrain from making personal attacks on an individual or a group as such posts will not be tolerated. We must respect and appreciate the diversity of our community. Alberta Education believes that every person, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, race, religion, or sexual identity has the right to be afforded equal treatment and dignity.
Community Rules Standards
Age: You must be at least 13 years old to register and participate in our community.
Content: This is a site to talk about your educational experiences and your thoughts on learning and school.
Don’t Be Afraid to Post: If you’re new to our community, taking the step for the first time to post a message can sometimes seem intimidating. Don’t be afraid to jump into a discussion.
Keep an Open Mind: Whether you’re looking for answers or have questions about Alberta Education, our members are here to help. Keep an open mind when participating in the community.
Be Considerate: Respect what others have to say by reading and reflecting on existing posts and by giving others a chance to have their say. Refrain from dominating the discussion boards by adding multiple posts without encouraging or allowing others to share their perspectives. Also, please avoid posting your message in all CAPS (this makes it difficult to read and in online speak is considered yelling).
Avoid lengthy excerpts from other posts: Speak Out is about you and your perspectives. We want to hear your own opinions.
Agree to Disagree, Respectfully: Speak Out is a place where it’s okay (and we encourage you) to be yourself – as long as you always act with respect for your fellow members. Be respectful and civil to other members, even if you disagree with them. The objective of our community is to understand each other, not to attack others and convince them that you’re right. Name calling, insults, “flaming”, and other attacks are not appropriate and will not be tolerated. Agree to disagree respectfully.
Do Not Be Afraid To Challenge: Ask questions, avoid making judgments, focus on ideas, and refrain from making personal attacks. Stay constructive. While it’s good to challenge ideas, remember the board’s primary goals are sharing, communicating and working towards solutions for the problems we care about. Show sound reasoning behind statements. Cite personal experience and research in order to help people understand where you are coming from.
Stay on topic: Add postings that are relevant to chosen threads or boards and to the Speak Out community at large. Consider similar posts/threads on similar or same topic(s) before posting a new thread in order to reduce repetition on the discussion boards. Please avoid adding posts that are irrelevant to the topic being discussed or that contain private material. This includes personal or identifying information about yourself or others.
Keep Your Posts Clean: While there are moderators for our discussion boards, members are encouraged to be conscious of their own contributions. Any unacceptable content (posts, user names or subject lines containing profanity, implied profanity, defamatory statements, sexually graphic or offensive language, etc.) will not be posted. Similarly, any posts that solicit or offer explicit or X-rated text, GIFs, JPEGs or other graphic or video files will not be posted.
Harassment and Threats: We do not allow harassing, threatening, racist, abusive, hateful, violent or obscene language or behaviour. Any prejudicial statements, comments or remarks will not be posted. You should never attack a person's race, heritage, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Name-calling, disrespectful language, any threat of bodily harm that is clearly stated or implied as well as any other form of personal attacks (on an individual or group) will also not be tolerated.
Illegal Activities: Participation in, suggesting or encouraging any illegal activity is cause for immediate deletion and suspension of posting privileges and may be reported to the appropriate authorities.
No personal information such as e-mail addresses, phone numbers or Instant Message Identities will be permitted to be posted in the community: Posts that submit or request other members to submit personal information to another party will not be posted. This includes, but is not limited to, communications that ask for personal information submitted via e-mail, telephone, surveys and research studies. Also, please do not use any identifying personal information when creating your usernames.
Flooding and Spam: Please do not attempt to flood/spam or to post chain letters, pyramid schemes, junk mail or URLs for outside sites. These will not be posted.
Avoid Duplicate Posts: Do not post the same message more than once. Duplicate messages can be frustrating for other members, especially for those whose time and energy is limited. Weeding through the same message in multiple locations can be both frustrating and downright annoying. Duplicate messages will be deleted. Please note: Because our discussion board is moderated, it may take awhile for your post to appear. Be patient and do not attempt to repost a comment.If your post still does not appear after several hours, please read our posting guidelines. If you feel you have followed these guidelines and your post still has not appeared, please let us know by e-mailing us at speakout@gov.ab.ca.
Avoid Cross Posting: If you have a thread that may suit multiple topics, please choose the most relevant discussion board. Identical or very similar posts in multiple forums will be deleted.
Don’t Post Commercial Items: This is an advertising-free community. No commercial solicitation or advertising will be allowed. Posts containing commercial or product/service promotional messages – included but not limited to references to other internet sites or URLs, or links to other commercial Web sites will not be posted.
Don’t Post Others’ Copyrighted Material: Any article, news report or other copyrighted material included on the posts must be with the permissionof the relevant copyright owners (this includes copying and pasting excerpts from other sites without acknowledgment). If such an event occurs, the individual posting the information will be held solely responsible. Alberta Education will not be held responsible for member-posted information that may violate copyright law.
Posting links: Any links that you post to the discussion boards are subject to the same rules and standards of all other posts. In addition, posted links must not restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying the Web site, interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper workings of the site or impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the Speak Out website infrastructure. Furthermore, you must not post or transmit any material which contains a virus or other harmful component, or provides or creates computer viruses.
Please Respect the Website: As a condition of your use of the Speak Out website, you must agree not to use the Speak Out website for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices. You may not use the Speak Out website in any manner which could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the Speak Out website or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of the site. You may not obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through any means not intentionally made available or provided for through the Speak Out website.
Republishing Your Words: We know that your words can often inspire many members and we want to bring the best of our community to a larger audience. We do this by quoting your message board posts in newsletters and other promotions including, but not limited to, TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, internet, and product packaging. When republishing your quotes for wide distribution, we will identify you only by your screen name.
Reporting Problems: If you feel someone has violated these Rules & Standards or you are having problems navigating our site or finding information, please contact us at speakout@gov.ab.ca.
Reserve the Right: Alberta Education reserves the right to remove a post which does not relate to the topic being discussed. If you haven’t read the Alberta Education Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, please do so.