What about web publishing policy?

I am looking for examples of school policies that embrace use of networks, blogs, wikis, and other web-based tools for purposes of reflection, collaboration, etc. If you belong to a campus or school district that has recently refined, revised, or completely overhauled policy to reflect 21st century collaborative computer technologies, please share your story!

I have the ear of a school board member in my community who is willing to look at our district's web publishing policy, which was last revised in 2001. She wants see examples of what other systems are doing.

I am not talking about an AUP, which our district also has and, point for point, is pretty much on par with the AUPs I've seen and read here at Classroom 2.0 and elsewhere. I am talking about school board guidelines for what can and cannot be produced and published on the web. (Our current policy expressly prohibits content created by teachers and students that isn't hosted inside the school network. The policy's focus is on static, school-centered sites maintained by an individual staff member designated by the principal. There is a statement in there about classroom web pages, but they have to be within the school's web site. You can read the entire six-page document, if you are so inclined.)

One question I have in particular: Do we really need two policies? Can the publishing policy be merged with the AUP? Shouldn't "appropriate use" encompass web production activities as well as accessing and consuming web content?

I am especially interested in how large, diverse public school systems (such as mine) are adapting.

Tags: AUP, administration, policy, school board policy,

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Permalink Reply by Habiba on May 14, 2008 at 3:37pm

Hi,

Were you able to find any other publishing policies? The science curriculum I work for is developing a photo-sharing section to the website (photos that illustrate science concepts without including images of faces). It seems that with your districts current AUP, your students would not be able to participate in this section of the site, as the only content they can publish is on their school's website.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Koch Lubke on May 15, 2008 at 3:52am

That is exactly right (what you said about our system's current AUP). As it is worded now, it would prevent students from photo sharing -- file sharing of any kind -- on external sites. However, I've been told the policy will go under review this summer. So, there is hope.

I have had recent success in locating other good policies as models. Take a look at the responses in this other Classroom 2.0 thread, started in April. A couple of folks from Illinois and California submitted links to promising policies that I am currently looking into as I make recommendations for my community, here in East Tennessee.

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Permalink Reply by Erich Tusch on May 14, 2008 at 4:37pm

Hello,

I don't really see the reason for two separate policies, and it sounds like the second policy micro-manages a bit. Technology changes so rapidly, that trying to keep the languauge current when you are required to follow a process for policy changes, seems unnecessary. Your AUP is likely fashioned after the requirements of CIPA and FERPA. The use of the technology should always be driven by the learning, so I would recommend that you stick with concepts such as "appropriateness", "ethical", "safety", as well as those rules and requirements set forth by the federal government. That may still be restrictive, but likely less so.

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Permalink Reply by Wesley Fryer on February 19, 2009 at 11:17pm

Jennifer: I am sharing a session at NECC 2009 about social media policies for schools with Karen Montgomery. We've just started on the session wiki page for the session and will be adding more resources and examples there in upcoming weeks.

http://thinkingmachine.pbwiki.com/Think-Social-Media-Guidelines

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Koch Lubke on February 22, 2009 at 4:39am

Thanks for the heads up! It appears our local school board is undertaking a review of web publishing policy. I look forward to reading and sharing the resources you post.

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Permalink Reply by Wesley Fryer on February 19, 2009 at 11:28pm

Can you please provide a new link to your district's six page policy on this, Jennifer? The link you provided in this post in Sept 2007 is broken. Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Koch Lubke on February 22, 2009 at 4:22am

Thanks, Wesley, for bringing this to my attention. Our district recently moved to a new "web product," which was unveiled last fall. There is a new web page that houses links to board policy. Go to this page, scroll down and you will see a link to the policy for web pages; although, the six-page document of "guidelines" for web pages that I mentioned in my original post is now missing.

I have been in contact with my school board representative who informed me the entire policy regarding web content is now under review by the board. However slow, the wheels of change are in motion!

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Permalink Reply by meL on February 23, 2009 at 11:33am

This discussion asks a similar question - and includes a link to a draft Web 2.0 publishing policy. I have sent the link on to my tech director as I think our district needs to visit this topic soon. (http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/school-web-20-publishing)