Acceptable Use Policies

How do we keep students safe online while at school?  According to the National Education Association school districts need to have an effective Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) that contains six key elements, a preamble, definition section, policy statement, acceptable uses section, unacceptable uses section, and violations/sanctions section for computer uses when on the schools network.  This AUP is signed by both parents and students and defines the appropriate behavior to keep users safe from online mishaps.

When researching the Acceptable Use Policy for my district I found that it could use some updating to include all six of the key elements needed.  I also feel the need for three different AUPs, one for the elementary schools, a middle school policy and a high school policy.  My districts AUP is very generic to cover all grade levels and I feel adding age appropriate detail would be beneficial.

Preamble:

While I feel our districts preamble does a great job of explaining why the policy is needed and it’s goals they are missing how they developed this policy.  After doing my research I found that our AUP has been update in 2012 but not much was changed.  The revisions were minor and were based on CASB (Colorado Association of School Board) recommendations.  As a matter of fact, the entire AUP originated from a recommendation for CASB as a policy many years ago and hasn’t had many changes since.  There was also little to no input from administration, staff, or parents.  It was on the board agenda and anyone who attended had the opportunity to comment on the policy, otherwise it was the board members who set the policy. 

Reference to the school’s overall code of conduct is also missing in our AUP.  I feel this is important to state as it addresses bullying, appropriate language, and respect for district property.  These are all important when using district technology.  I have my own classroom expectations that address these issues and other teachers have added similar aspects to their classroom expectations.

Definition Section:

The EGSD Acceptable Use Policy does not have a separate definition section.  While it does explain some terms within the policy, creating an area that has technical terms defined makes sure that all parents and students know and understand what the expectations are more clearly when signing the document.

Policy Statement:

After reading the definition of a policy statement and the example of a “Computer Responsibility” class that goes over the AUP for better student understanding, it gave me the idea to add this to my lessons at the beginning of my classes.  I love this idea!  While I’m not sure it requires a separate class, focusing on the details before beginning projects in my class will work great for my needs.

While parts of the policy statement are spread throughout our AUP, it doesn’t have a specific section and I don’t believe it covers all services that we provide.  For instance, the AUP mentions communication skills with other students and individuals yet it doesn’t mention anything about online blogs and wikis.

Acceptable Use Section:

The EGSD Acceptable Use Policy combines the Acceptable and Unacceptable Use sections.  For the acceptable use portion it only discusses that students shall use the districts computers in a responsible, efficient, ethical, and legal matter.  I feel this could be better defined to include examples of acceptable use.

Unacceptable Use Section:

This section is done well in our AUP as it discusses examples of unacceptable use and describes them well.  It also has a disclaimer that with ever changing technologies every unacceptable use cannot be described.  This is an important part of the policy because while they try to address each issue in this section there is no way to hit on every unacceptable use and stating this leaves it to the digression of administration when other unacceptable uses occur.

Violations/Sanctions Section:

There is a section call “Student Use is a Privilege”  that talks about failure to follow the policy and what disciplinary actions may occur.  The following sentence is important for students to remember. “Student use of the Internet and electronic communications is a privilege, not a right.”  While it’s important for them to remember that it’s a privilege to use the computers, I also struggle with suspending their use because it’s important for them to learn the tools that are being taught.  I would rather see other sanctions with limited use to technology under supervision.

If I had to grade our Acceptable Use Policy I would give it a “C”.  I feel there are several areas that are missing and other that could be stronger.  While it has worked for our district over the past several years, I believe a major revision should be done to protect our staff and students.

References:

Getting Started on the Internet: Acceptable Use Policies. (n.d.). Education World. Retrieved January 23, 2014, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr093.shtml

Policies and Regulations. (n.d.). Virginia Beach City Public Schools. Retrieved January 23, 2014, from http://www.vbschools.com/policies/6-64_1r.asp

Student Use of the Internet and Electronic Communications. (n.d.). East Grand Administrative Policies. Retrieved January 23, 2014.