Not a day goes by when a user in our schools isn’t ducking “acceptable use” guideli
nes in one way or another. In a world populated with Wi-Fi and cellular enabled handheld devices, talking about acceptable use seems to have gone out of fashion!
“Of course I should be able to pickup my e-mail or check the weather while I walk down the hall!” muses a teacher wielding his iPod Touch as he joins the stream of students changing classes. Sure. And we can’t just remove ourselves from the reality. Apple is pushing the Touch in the classroom… “netbooks” are popping out of pockets, purses and backpacks… The best defense? A good offense!
Clear Guidelines to the Rescue
“Rules that do not provide sufficient clarity can be attacked on the grounds that they are unconstitutionally vague. Courts have declined to apply criminal standards for the determination of vagueness in the educational environment because it is recognized that school officials need flexibility to respond to the unexpected and school sanctions do not reach the level of criminal sanctions. Courts have upheld as sufficiently clear such terms as “willful disobedience”, intentional disruption”, and “vulgarity” in a school setting.”
Nancy Willard K-12 Acceptable Use Policies
A decade old white paper on acceptable use policies by Jim Peterson (acceptable-use-policy-white-paper) provides a timeless starting point for considering the elements of a good policy. Although the technology is ever-changing, the baseline for considering what can and cannot be done within an educational environment is based upon very basic rules. In addition, authors such as Willard and educational organizations nationwide have compiled excellent resources for developing clear, future-oriented AUP’s that embrace technology change–and not at the expense of academic goals.
The CTAP Region 4 Project serving the Bay Area schools in California provides a number of resources for Acceptable Use Policies as well as related cyber safety and etiquette issues. The appendix from Nancy Willard’s 2007 book, Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats: Responding to the Challenge of Online Social Agression, Threats and Distress, is a particularly useful resource from the CTAP’s page. You can download it here, as well: Appendix H – District Internet Use Policy
