C&I 335
Summer, 1998
Michele Jacobs
Tri-City Elementary
Buffalo, IL
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Summary of Acceptable Use Policy:
The Tri-City School District's "Internet Use Agreement" is a policy that was adopted by the board in order to police the use of the Internet. All students who are taking courses that have access to the Internet are asked to read this document and sign that they will abide by the rules set forth. The parents and teachers of these students must also sign the document.
The document entails the various types of access a student has from e-mail to ERIC. They are given examples of different types of information that can be found. The policy stipulates that "with the availability of information also comes material that may not be considered to have educational value and inappropriate in a school setting". The district has taken precautions to restrict the access to controversial information but can not be 100% affective. The policy explains the coordinated efforts in which the Internet structure is set up. The policy states that "if a Tri-City School District user violates any of the provisions, his or her account will be terminated and future access will be denied". This statement is based upon the terms and conditions set forth by this document which include: Acceptable use covers copyrighted material, obscene material, material protected by trade secret, use of commercial activities, and use of advertisement for political lobbying. Privilege terms of the aggreenment state that the use of the Internet is a privilege and not a right, therefore inappropriate use will result in the termination of the users access. The system administrators will deem what is appropriate and inappropriate. Network etiquette is described as "accepted rules of network etiquette". The policy then outlines what accepted etiquette is from being polite and not abusive to e-mail messages that relate to illegal activities being reported to authorities. Security is stated as being a high priority. The security issue deals with security problems on the Internet, not using another student's account, not logging on as an system administrator, and if a student fails to comply with the security issues his/her privileges will be revoked. Vandalism is conveyed as "any attempt" to harm or destroy data, equipment, networks, Internet backbone, or the uploading of viruses. Once again it is stated that if this occurs the privilege will be cancelled.
Analysis of Acceptable Use Policy:
This is the first time I have seen this document. This document resides as a board policy and is not part of of our district's three to five year technology plan. The students and teachers in the elementary school have limited access to the Internet, but I feel need to be aware of this document. If a student does not sign this sheet through one of his/her courses they are not allowed to use the Internet. This creates a problem when students are asked to write research papers and do not have an agreement signed. The document is thorough in the explanation of Internet usage and the terms set forth. However, I do not feel the first section that explains the types of information and the risk of finding material that is inappropriate is well written. In researching this topic I found many well written Acceptable Use Policies and will share this information with our (new) Technology Director in the fall. The web sites I visited were:
http://www.ties.k12.mn.us/accept/
http://ideanet.doe.state.in.us/LearningResources/aupreq
http://www.rice.edu/armadillo.html
http://www.wlma.org/libint/libint.html
Site licenses:
We have one site license in the Elementary School for Grade Quick. This tool is used by the Elementary School teachers for grading and report card generation. The Middle School and High School have site licenses for Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows 3.1. The software in the Middle School and High School was purchased for student use, but it is also utilized my some of the teachers.