Acceptable Use Policies

 

Objectives:

 

1.     Students will discover the purpose and importance of Acceptable Use Policies as guidelines for both student and staff use of the Internet.

  1. Students will develop a list of guidelines they feel are important for an Acceptable Use Policy as well as a Permission Form for student use.

 

Introduction:

 

An Acceptable Use Policy dictates the appropriate use of the Internet by students and faculty. Each school district should have a specific AUP in place to unify the schools in the district under one guideline; however, schools may have their own Individual AUPs as well. Usually these rules include a list of responsibilities that the student or faculty member has as they are using the school’s Internet resources as well as a guide for repercussions of violating those guidelines. Teachers should appreciate and understand their district’s Acceptable Use Policy before allowing students on the Internet and enforce the guidelines set forth there with their classes. This policy should be reviewed by the teacher annually to ensure compliance with the district’s standards.

 

Activity:

 

We will examine the uses and components of an Acceptable Use Policy and how they guide the usage of the Internet in schools. We will look first at an outline of what an Acceptable Use Policy should look like, and then narrow our view to a concrete example. Imagine you are responsible for creating your school’s own Acceptable Use Policy. Look for the types of requirements that should be included.

 

First: Superhighway Safety- http://safety.ngfl.gov.uk/schools/document.php3?D=d56 This site details many of the aspects of the policies including details on what an AUP might include, how to create an AUP, factors to consider when creating an AUP, and implementing an AUP. Examine the different components that make up the AUP and how they are decided upon.

 

Next: Office of Learning Resources- http://ideanet.doe.state.in.us/olr/aup/welcome.html  This site is issued by the Indiana Department of Education’s Office of Learning Resources. It shows not only an overview of what is required in an Acceptable Use Policy, but it also contains a recommended list set up roughly like an actual AUP. This site will allow a comparison of the requirements to an actual AUP.

 

Look in the Other Links section for other resources and examples from actually school districts.

 

Assignment:

 

Create a list of ten components or requirements you feel are essential to a school district’s Acceptable Use Policy and include a brief explanation as to why you chose that item. Also, develop a permission slip to use in a classroom to be sure that the parents and students have understood the policy and agree to its terms.

 

Submission: Submit the list and permission slip as an html file to the McDaniel Web Server then notify your instructor by e-mail with a hyperlink to the assignment. The permission slip may be included on the same page as the list of essential items or linked to another document.

 

Rubric:

 

 

Unacceptable

Developing

Accomplished

Essential Items List

List contains fewer than ten items and no reason for selections.

List contains fewer than ten items and some explanations

List contains ten or more items with brief but thought out reasons for selection

Permission Slip

Permission slip does not reflect the requirements outlined in the essential items list.

Permission slip reflects some of the items in the essential items list but does not encompass all of the requirements.

Permission slip reflects all of the essential items in the list and ensures that the student and parent truly agree to comply with the requirements

 

 

Other Sites:

 

Critiquing Acceptable Use Policies by Dave Kinnaman. An essay written in June 1995.

http://www.io.com/~kinnaman/aupessay.html

 

Chicago Public Schools This site contains an AUP for students as well as one for teachers.

http://www.cps.k12.il.us/AboutCPS/Acceptable_Use_Policies/acceptable_use_policies.html

 

North Chadderton School This site contains an AUP for students attending North Chadderton School in England.

http://www.webschool.org.uk/aup.htm

 

General Acceptable Use Policy This site contains a fairly generic example of an effective AUP.

http://www.walkerschools.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=9&ltemid=33