Forum Guidelines

Welcome to the Forum. We look forward to your participation, and we’re excited to see what you share here.

The Forum is where educators meet to connect and collaborate about teaching and learning with Apple, from asking basic questions to exploring big ideas. It’s your space to grow professionally alongside other educators and Apple experts, expanding your network of peers as you learn.

Here are some important dos and don’ts to guide you as you share Content and engage with other Forum members.

All capitalized terms found in these Forum Guidelines have the same meanings and definitions as found in the Apple Education Community Terms of Service (“Terms”). 

1. Be Yourself.
2. Create and register your account using a consumer Apple Account or an Apple Account provided by your Institution (Managed Apple Account). All Content that you post on the Site is connected to your user name and Profile so that other members can follow you and your Content. Please don’t share accounts. Encourage colleagues to join and post from their own accounts.  Visit our Get Help page for additional information on registration and use of Apple Accounts.
3. Accurately represent your role or authority in the educational Institution, school, or organization that you’re affiliated with. Follow your Institution’s guidelines and policies around what Content you’re authorized to share. In some cases, Institutions may consider Content created by their employees to be their intellectual property, and any use of such Content may require the Institution’s prior written consent.
4. Don’t impersonate anyone else or any other entity. You may not misrepresent yourself or your affiliation with a person or entity.
5. Don’t use inappropriate or offensive names or identifiers in your user name, Profile page Content, or posts. User names can’t contain full names, website or email addresses, personal information, or other contact information. Users who attempt to impersonate someone else will have their Submissions removed or may have their account deactivated.
6. Be diligent about managing your Content.
7. Managing the Content you submit
8. As a Forum member, you can manage the Submission and deletion of any Content you share — such as a Discussion, Story, or Resource — and any Content you provide in your Profile.
9.  A series of helpful guides for managing your Content are available in Forum Help Resources.
10. Understanding Review of Content
11. If the Forum is available in the country or region associated with your Apple Account, you may be able to access and post the following types of Content: quizzes, statistics, written text, graphics, lesson plans, presentations, attachments, photographs, music, images, sounds, effects, videos, messages, apps, code, and other similar materials. Apple may review such Content using Apple and third-party technologies to help ensure safety, reliability, and compliance with the Terms and these Forum Guidelines.
12. You are responsible for the Content you provide, and you should review the Terms and these Forum Guidelines, to understand clearly the scope of your obligations.
13. To understand how Apple moderates Content, please review About Content Moderation in Forum Help Resources.
14. Be collaborative and helpful. 
15. Provide Content that other educators will find useful, such as best practices for teaching and leadership, exemplary lesson ideas, student project samples, pedagogical models, and Resources for professional development or the advancement of education.
16. Share successful strategies for delivering equitable access that creates a future of opportunity for all learners. While innovative lesson ideas are great, we know that educators are eager for strategies. For example, how have you helped a student overcome a fear of fractions? Or what approaches have you successfully used to accommodate learners’ needs?
17. Advance conversations and brainstorming with thoughtful responses, and avoid posting simply “thank you,” “me too,” or “kudos” to avoid long threads and make Site participation more enjoyable.
18. Keep subject lines concise and clear so that Forum members can respond appropriately and search easily.
19. Stay on topic and keep your responses relevant, or start a new Discussion, Story, or Resource to introduce new topics or ideas.
20. For tips on how to submit content and create your profile in the Forum, a series of helpful guides are available in Forum Help Resources.
21. Be mindful of privacy and digital citizenship.
22. You are responsible for what you publish.
23. Use a secure password, update it regularly, and never share your sign-in information with anyone.
24. Never publish Content containing confidential information (including personal information) such as school IDs, passwords, sign-in screens, and security codes.
25. To understand important dos and dont’s for educators to consider when sharing information on social media, download Keep Your Students (and Yourself) Safe on Social Media: A Checklist, by Common Sense Education, available in Forum Help Resources.
26. Share only Content and information that you own, are authorized to share, or have a license to.
27. Don’t share Content that includes personally identifiable information (PII) about anyone else, especially minors (under the age of majority in their jurisdiction). As examples, this includes Content that directly or indirectly identifies, shows, or depicts an individual’s full name; face; handwriting; phone numbers; geolocation; physical, email, and/or IP addresses; birth date; or government identification numbers. No grades, no assessments, and no part of a student’s academic record should be shared.
28. When sharing any Content, review it carefully and blur faces, names, and all personally identifiable information. Be mindful of student, school, and district names on T-shirts, name tags, posters, desks, jerseys, backpacks, bulletin boards, display cases, buses, and so on.
29. Know your school’s or organization’s policy on sharing information about students, and ensure that you have explicit parental consent for sharing such information.
30. Don’t take, copy, post, provide access to, or otherwise use others’ property, image, likeness and/or materials of others without their permission.
31. Be respectful.
32. Be respectful of others and do not share Content likely to cause harm to others.
33. Don’t share personal or sensitive information about others.
34. Don’t share petitions or links to unrelated topics — for example, political causes or fundraisers.
35. Don’t post Submissions that encourage harmful, hazardous, or illegal activities. For example, Submissions that promote, incite, instruct in or depict abhorrent violent content are prohibited, as are pro-terror materials, crime and violence related materials and drug-related materials.
36. Don’t post spam messages.
37. Don’t use the Forum to advertise, sell, or market products, services, or jobs to others. For example:
38. Don’t post a Submission solely to advertise a book, service, software, or other item or product for sale.
39. Don’t post any reference, including a link, to a commercial product or service that’s not directly related to the educational topics shared in the Forum.
40. Don’t post a link to a personal or professional website or a link that results in any accrual of compensation or benefit to you.
41. Be mindful of laws.
42. Don’t post Submissions or Content, or do anything on the Forum which is unlawful in the jurisdiction in which you access the Forum.
43. Don’t post Submissions or Content or engage in activities that are unlawful, tortious, libelous, defamatory, indecent, harmful, harassing, stalking, intimidating, threatening, harmful, hateful, age inappropriate, objectionable, discriminatory, politically divisive or inflammatory, abusive, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit or otherwise sexually inappropriate, abusive or exploitative, invasive of another’s privacy, or offensive in a sexual, racial, cultural, or ethnic context, or cause injury to another individual.
44. Submissions or Content that would be classified as RC (refused classification), R18+, or X18+ in Australia are prohibited. This includes amongst other things forms of sexual exploitation material, pro-terror material, crime and violence material and drug-related material.
45. Don’t post Submissions or Content that is misleading, deceptive, unsubstantiated.
46. Don’t post, livestream, or share Content that is unconscionable or objectionable.
47. Don’t post links to other websites, posts, or pages without first checking that such sharing is authorized and that the Content is lawful.
48. Don’t remove, obscure, or alter any copyright notices, trademarks, or other proprietary rights or legal notices, documents, or hyperlinks that may appear in or be provided through the Site.
49. Don’t harass, abuse, stalk, threaten, defame, humiliate, or otherwise infringe or violate the rights of any other party, encourage or make available information concerning self-harm or suicide, or promotes or encourages feeding or eating disorder behavior. You acknowledge and agree that Apple is not in any way responsible for any such use or misuse by you.
50. Don’t plan or engage in any illegal activity using, involving, or relating to the Site or Programs.
51. Submissions should not contain Content that’s intended to promote or commit an illegal act or a potentially hazardous or dangerous activity, including:
52. Software or descriptions of processes that break or otherwise “work around” digital rights management software or hardware.
53. Conversations about “ripping” DVDs or working around digital rights management software used on Apple Music or other media sources in an effort to use copy-protected Content in your work.
54. Scanning pages of a copyright-protected book and including them in your post or Content.
55. Posting of how-to instructions related to activities that could give rise to personal injury, property damage, or death.
56. Apple may remove or delete any Content you post in the event any of the foregoing practices are exhibited or have occurred or as may be required by applicable law.

How to make a complaint about non-compliance with these Forum Guidelines:

• If you believe that any Content made available via the Forum, Site or Programs violates these Terms or the Forum Guidelines and you would like to report the violation, or make a complaint to Apple, please email education-community@apple.com.
• In Australia, you may also make a complaint to the Australian eSafety Commissioner. eSafety's reporting forms are available at https://www.esafety.gov.au/report.