Responsibilities & Rationales

 

Privacy/Confidentiality	Diversity	Accessibility	Health	Safety	Security
Reporting	Plagiarism	Copyright	Harassment/Cyberstalking	Virus or Malicious Code

Privacy/Confidentiality  

Protect the student's right to privacy and confidentiality while using the computer.

	Respect each student's rights to privacy, to avoid intrusion and abuse of these rights.
	Respect confidentiality of student information unless a compelling professional objective or the personal safety of the students is at risk.
	Treat confidential information with honesty and integrity.
	Inform the student of potential violations to his own privacy while using computers.

Uphold the rights of privacy for others within my sphere of influence while using school computers. 

	Access computer programs, electronic mail, voice mail or electronic files solely for compelling reasons and only with authorization and approval from the administration.
	Inform and educate those within my sphere of influence that privacy while using computers is to be preserved to the greatest extent possible, but use is at one's own risk. System administrators may see contents of papers, email, and sites visited during routine checks, addressing errors, or system flaws.
	Respect privacy rights unless individuals are using programs that cause disruption to the network and those programs are in violation of the school policies.
	Protect the right to privacy, professional reputation and career prospects of colleagues from malicious damage when accessing a computer.

Rationale

Within the Constitution of the United States are rights upholding the individual’s prerogative to a reasonable life of privacy.  The Fourth Amendment offers protection against unjustified search and seizure.  The Fifth Amendment upholds the right to refuse to testify against oneself. Privacy of family, marriage, and education, are protected through Supreme Court cases.  Violations of privacy are also protected under tort laws when people are falsely depicted, when private facts are disclosed, when using a person’s face for profit, or when personal space is intruded upon.  Through the Constitution, we are allowed the rights and privacy to make decisions about our own lives.  There are exceptions to the right to privacy, which include recording of (group) conversations without consent of all parties and the monitoring of email or voice mail. 

Because of the Internet, the privacy of individuals is often challenged in that personal information, including addresses, credit card numbers, phone numbers, age, sex, browsing patterns, and personal preferences may be circulated without consent.  As educators using the networks, it is our responsibility to inform students of these violations and protect them to the best of our abilities whenever we are made aware of infringements on their rights.  Furthermore, it is our duty to teach responsible computer use in order to prevent invasion of privacy or the breach of confidentiality through the use of computers. 

Consent 

Be responsible to parents/guardians of students in relation to use of computers.      

	Gain consent in writing from parents for the use of school computers, in order to access research sites through the Internet, learn computer and communication skills, and computer programs.
	Consider parents' perspective in making decisions regarding the education of their children gained through information on the Internet.
	Educate parents in relevant school computer rules, regulations, and procedures that affect their children.

Rationale

Parental consent is a necessary part of a child's education.  When using the Internet, each parent and student must read and agree to the school's Acceptable Use Policy, which has basic user guidelines.  A signed consent form is mandatory for the use of the Internet.

 Diversity 

Follow Federal and State Laws concerning discrimination and diversity.

Protect and promote the welfare of students whose race, creed, nationality or gender may bias their ability to reach their full potential. 

	Be aware of differences in students that may impede educational growth.
	Develop an understanding of students from diversified backgrounds in order to address their technological needs.
	Create a learning environment that addresses needs by gender, nationality, creed, and race in order to better engage students in gaining computer-related skills.
	Never, on the basis of gender, nationality, creed, or race, unfairly exclude any student from participation in any program or deny learning opportunities to any student.

Rationale

The rationale for including diversity in the code of ethics is a legal and moral one. Legally, the laws concerning diversity, in the Bill of Rights and the United States Constitution, bind teachers.  There are many state laws that also must be upheld. 

In the last half-century there have been many needed inclusions under these laws and rights.  Special education, and gender equality have been stressed in legislation and rules.  Business and many groups have put forward the need for improvement in the area of how economic diversity is handled, especially in the areas of technology and computer skills.

Accessibility  

Protect and promote the welfare of persons with disabilities for the purpose of aiding them to achieve their full potential in the educational setting.

	Initiate the call for the resources to provide the proper accommodation.
	Contact those experts in the field of assistive technology in order to fulfill the needs of the student with special needs.
	Utilize the resources that provide assistive technology. The teacher with suitable training will support the use of assisitive technology in the classroom.

Rationale

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires effective communication with individuals with disabilities, unless doing so would result in a fundamental alteration to the program or service or in an undue burden. This means that an institution must provide documents in an alternate format in order to remove communication barriers regardless of its original format.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 require equal access to programs and activities unless doing so would be an undue burden. This applies to the structure of the program, no matter if it is physical or technological. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 requires federal agencies to ensure that information technology purchased and developed must be accessible to individuals with disabilities. While Section 508 does not apply specifically to postsecondary institutions, it appears to indicate an increased focus on accessible information technology by the federal government. However, state institutions, too, are required to comply with Section 508, because all states receive money under the Assistive Technology Act, which was written to support programs of grants to States to address the assistive technology needs of individuals with disabilities, in addition to other purposes. 

Two recent actions further support this idea: (1) a national center focused on accessible education information technology is being created and (2) additional funding is being provided to regional Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers specifically targeted for training on accessible information technology in educational settings.

Health

Remain vigilant about the possible health issues that may result with increasing computer usage. 

	Be aware of repetitive strain injuries (RSI) and eye strain from prolonged computer usage.
	Monitor continually the health agencies warning on computer use.
	Teach proper posture and finger positioning.
	Provide timeouts for stretching and physical activities.

Rationale

Research in "Children, Learning and Computers" notes, “if children spend excessive leisure time in front of the computer screen they may risk obesity due to inactivity, repetitive motion injuries, hampered social development, depression and loneliness."  The organization, The Future of Children, recommends that parents monitor what children are doing on the computer and how much time they're spending there. The report concludes that "too little is known about the effects of computers on children's long-term physical, cognitive and social development and further research is needed in this area.”

Safety  

Enlighten students regarding the dangers of cyberspace communication.

	Warn students not to give out personal information such as full name, address, telephone number, and never reveal their password to anyone online.
	Tell students not to “meet” any online friends without their parents’ knowledge and permission.
	Encourage students not to send nor post their picture on the web without their parent’s permission.
	Educate the students about sending pranks and threats over the Internet, making them aware of the consequences and ability to trace them.

Rationale 

Security

Safeguard the school district’s information.  

	Consider local, state, and federal reporting and auditing requirements.
	Eliminate, as far as is feasible, the incidence of theft, fraud, destruction, or other abuses of the school computer resources.
	Instruct students on the legality of obtaining unauthorized copies of computer software, computer data and/or software manuals.
	Emphasize that accepting or using information obtained by illegal means is a violation of others’ rights and subject to disciplinary action.
	Understand any person authorized access to any information is not to remove any official record or report (or copy) from the office where it is kept except in performance of job responsibilities.

Maintain hardware and password security  

	Understand no individuals are allowed in the school’s central server room or the operator's room unless they are under the close and immediate supervision of a computer center staff member.
	Understand passwords should be chosen by and known only to the individual user responsible for the ID.  Never share passwords/PINs; never tape passwords/PINs to a wall, under a keyboard or in other accessible areas.

Regulate system privileges

	Use only the computers, computer accounts, and computer files for which they are authorized; users are individually responsible for all use of resources assigned them.
	Not access restricted portions of the operating system, security software, or accounting software unless authorized by the administrator.
	Not physically or electrically attach any device without authorization from the administrator.
	Understand computers must be logged off to a point that requires a new log-on whenever staff or students leave their work area.
	Emphasize that sharing of network ID or password is prohibited.

Rationale

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (18 USC 2701-2709) and other wiretap laws prohibit unauthorized interception of electronic communications, including electronic mail.

Computer users must also obey laws against private use of state property, divulging confidential educational records, copyright infringement, fraud, slander, libel, harassment, and obscenity. Laws against obscene or harassing telephone calls apply to computers that are accessed by telephone.

Although computer users' security is never perfect, system administrators are expected to respect this privacy as far as possible and refrain from unnecessary snooping. Administrators who must read users' files for administrative reasons must be prepared to justify their actions to higher administrators and to the user community.

Reporting

Protect confidential materials  

	Exercise caution when committing confidential information to electronic media.
	Safeguard private information on the classroom computer system.
	Refrain from storing unnecessary personal information about staff and students.

Safeguard administrative data

	Neither directly nor indirectly use data obtained in the course of duties for any purpose other than those associated with official school responsibilities.
	Maintain the integrity, accuracy, and confidentiality of employee information.
	Ensure sensitive and confidential data is in a secure location.

Rationale

Information whose improper use or disclosure could adversely affect the ability of the school district to accomplish its mission as well as records about students requiring protection are covered under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.  This includes information that requires a high level of protection due to the risk and magnitude of loss or harm that could result from revelation, modification or destruction of the student’s data. 

Although this was originally intended for student information recorded on paper copy and filed in the administration offices, the same rational applies to digital information recorded and maintained about each student by a school district.

Plagiarism

Respect plagiarism rules  

	Give the definition and examples of plagiarism.
	Explain school policies and rules regarding plagiarism.
	Explain the rationale behind the rules against plagiarism.
	Model correct behavior when using outside sources.

Take steps to prevent plagiarism by students.

	Teach correct citation procedures.
	Make the research process a public activity as much as possible.
	Require research documentation as part of the paper.
	Acknowledge to students that plagiarism web sites exist and will be surveyed.
	Require sources from different mediums, such as books, periodicals, and web sources.
	Require a bibliography for the topic prior to its completion.

Take steps to detect plagiarism by students.  

	Become familiar with the various forms of plagiarism. Term paper web sites.  Papers assembled from different online sources.
	Search for the subject, author, and titles online.
	Search for suspicious phrases online.

Report documented cases of plagiarism.

	Become familiar with school policy on plagiarism.
	Document thoroughly suspected cases of plagiarism.
	Follow school procedures for reporting and punishing plagiarists.

Rationale

Plagiarism is theft of another's ideas or writings and is a serious offense in academia.  Although cheating has always been present in schools and universities, technological advances have made it increasingly easy to plagiarize.  Term papers are readily available for free or for purchase on the World Wide Web.  Students can electronically share writings with friends.  Portions of copyrighted works on the Internet can be easily copied without assigning due credit to the author.  Technology has made it a simple procedure to modify another person's works and call it one's own.  The emergence of online testing has made it possible for students to take a test under someone else's name without detection.  Many students are not aware that each of these cases is an example of plagiarism.

The present litigious society has made some educators reluctant to report plagiarism to school authorities.  Worse, many are not aware of the ease with which plagiarism can occur. For this reason, much of it goes undetected and unreported.

Adhere to current copyright laws and patents for software.

	Abide by terms and conditions of software licenses.
	Forbid unauthorized copying of software programs, applications, databases, and code.
	Instruct students on the licensing differences between commercial software, shareware, freeware, free software, public domain software and site-licensed software.
	Forbid use of backup copies of software for any reason besides reinstallation.

 

Abide by copyright laws and patents for education and research.

Apply and teach the four factors of copyright protection under the Fair-Use Statute including, but not limited to the following areas: videotaping    books and periodicals   music web resources including, but not limited to   images and other artistic work written content   web page layout and design, including source code   Multimedia Distance learning

Rationale  

Intellectual property is the notion of attaching ownership to sometimes seemingly abstract objects, such as ideas, thoughts, a piece of writing or software. When one creates an original object, one expects to retain ownership and all that accompanies that association. This includes infringement upon copyright and patent holdings. In terms of intellectual property, taking the idea of another, and passing it off as your own for gain (monetary or otherwise) is seen as theft in the same sense as a material object. The spawning of copyright laws and patents is in effect to protect intellectual property.

The authors of an Educator's Guide to Intellectual Property, Copyright and Plagiarism, aptly note that there are "several problems with the current copyright laws and challenges for the educational community."  Indeed, CONFU: The Conference on Fair Use, was held in 1997 to resolve some the issues educators face.  Although preparations and negotiations for the conference began in 1994, the conference ended without a resolution satisfactory to all participants. 

Many educators are confused about how copyright laws pertain to education.  Most of the confusion stems from the interpretation of the Fair-Use Statute. The statute makes some exceptions for the use of copyrighted materials for nonprofit educational purposes.  Some of these exceptions are easy to interpret; others are not.   

Harassment/Cyberstalking  

Protect students from harassment when using technology.  

Ensure technology is not used for the purposes of harassment.  

	Inform students that electronic harassment is illegal in most states.
	Educate students on the definition of electronic harassment.
	Explain to students the importance of not giving out personal information in any form, electronic or otherwise.
	Encourage students to report anything they feel uncomfortable about to teachers and parents.
	Inform students that electronic harassment is illegal in most states
	Understand and enforce the school district’s Acceptable Use Policy.
	Ensure that students understand what electronic harassment, cyberstalking or electronic bullying is.
	Communicate with other school district staff about occurrences of electronic harassment.
	Educate parents about electronic harassment.

Rationale  

Most states have enacted electronic/cyberstalking laws. However, no federal law currently exists to address cyberstalking. A bill has been introduced, but put on hold due to congressional personnel changes. Illinois law (720 ILCS 135/0.01, the Harassing and Obscene Communications Act) gives specific examples of harassment via electronic means.

Some examples include making obscene comments, requests or suggestions with the intent to offend.  Another example is sending a file, document or other communication with the intent to harass, while preventing the victim from using telephone or electronic communications devices. The law specifically mentions sending harassing communication to anyone under the age of 13.  Threats of harm via electronic communications are also covered in the law. Another section states it is illegal to knowingly permit any electronic communications device to be used for any of these purposes.

As educators, it is our duty to ensure that our students understand the implications of existing and pending laws.   Students need to understand the impact of harassment on a victim. We must ensure that our students understand they have the right to be free from electronic harassment. We must also ensure that our students understand the consequences for participating in cyber-harassment.

Virus or Malicious Code  

Safeguard technology from computer viruses  

	Deny unauthorized data modification.
	Guarantee that all programs, CDs, DVDs, and diskettes are scanned prior to use.
	Require that all downloaded materials and attachments to email, are scanned for viruses or malicious code.
	Prohibit the creation or distribution of a virus or malicious code on the school network or computers.

Rationale  

Computer viruses consume disk space, CPU time, and memory resources during their replication. Computer viruses have caused an untold amount of damage - mostly due to loss of time, money, and resources to eradicate them.  Some damage has also been caused by a direct loss of valuable information due to an intentionally destructive payload of some viruses.  Once the computer virus has been released, its creator has no control over it.