Acceptable Use Policy - Technology in Schools

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Comment by Mrs Kimberly Anderson on January 24, 2015 at 7:17pm: The National Education Association (NEA) recommends six key elements when creating an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for a school setting. An AUP is crucial because it states its importance in a preamble and defines it. The AUP also contains the policy statement, acceptable/unacceptable uses, and the violations with sanctions. My school district’s AUP has been updated recently because this is the first year of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) for 1:1 device use. Even though BYOD is in effect, all classrooms are still equipped with 3 or 4 PCs, there are 2 computer labs, and laptop carts available.

For the purpose of this project, I chose to focus on my district’s Responsible Use Guidelines - Students and Student Responsible Use Policy for Networked Communications. I think both are needed to see a full picture of what the students’ responsibilities are when using devices and the network. When comparing my district’s policy with NEA recommendations, I found many all six key elements although the verbiage was different. The first paragraph in each was the preamble, the explanation of why the policy and guideline is needed. In the Responsible Use Guidelines - Students, the term BYOD is defined. The policy statement, acceptable and unacceptable uses, and violations/sanctions were included when looking at both combined. I feel that my district’s AUP is clear, concise, detailed enough but still allows each school and teacher some discretion.