Running this in a school

Most of what follows is a single conversation with one person, had once, before the first session. It is worth having it early, because the answer shapes the session and every answer here has a workable version.

Accounts, and who holds them

Learners aged 13 to 17 can usually hold an account with parental permission, and what "usually" means varies by tool and changes often. Do not take this page's word for it in a year.

Three arrangements, in order of how much they need from you.

The school already provides something. Use it. An educational tenancy usually means the terms are settled, the data handling is documented, and somebody else has already had the argument you are about to have.

Learners hold their own accounts. Check the age floor, check whether your school's policy permits it, and know that you are now asking families to agree to something on a vendor's terms rather than the school's.

You drive one screen. Nobody under 18 holds anything. This is not a fallback; it is a legitimate version of the session and for some rooms the best one. Learners do the specifying and the judging, which is the part that teaches, and they watch their own imprecision come back as a generic result with nobody to blame but the request.

Devices

One device per learner is easier and is not required. Pairs work, and pairs argue about what to ask for, which is the conversation you want.

If you have one screen and a projector, run the whole session that way. Everybody writes their own card; one card gets used per round; the room reads the result together. Slower, and the judging gets better because it is public.

When the tool is blocked

A blocked domain stops more first sessions than anything else on this page, and it is not a reason to cancel.

Ask early, because the request usually goes to one person and usually takes a week. Ask for the specific domain, say which class and which weeks, and offer to show them the session plan. "Can we unblock AI" is easy to refuse; "can we unblock this domain for period four on these three Tuesdays" gets a conversation.

If the answer is no, or if it is taking weeks, run session one anyway. It is the session where the tool stays shut, so nothing about it is blocked, and by the time you need a network you will have an answer or a decision.

If the decision is permanent, the one-screen version on your own account is usually still permitted, because the account is yours and no learner data leaves the room.

Telling families

Tell them before, in one paragraph, through whatever channel already works.

Say what the learners will use, what they will make, that nothing identifying goes into it, and who to ask. A short specific note ahead of time prevents the longer conversation afterwards.

Check whether your school's existing permissions already cover this. Often they do and nobody has looked.

Attendance

A class is a roster, which makes this the easiest setting for the three-session arc.

Someone will still miss a session. Boards do the work here: a learner who missed session one fills theirs in during the first ten minutes of session two while the rest start their cards. Do not summarise the session they missed. Give them the instrument and let them catch up on paper.

When something breaks and there is no IT

Decide in advance what you do when the tool is down at the start of a session, because deciding in the moment produces a wasted period.

Have the paper version ready. A session that becomes a planning session because the network failed is still a session, and saying so out loud in front of learners models something about the difference between the tool and the work.