Source: Digital Access Key Image; Morgue File; http://mrg.bz/xJqkIW
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you are having a wonderful day today. Today we are going to be looking at acceptable use policies and their role in the classroom. For today's lesson, I've chosen a quote by Carol Bellamy, which states, "in serving the best interests of children, we serve the best interests of all humanity."
By the end of today's lesson, you will have been able to review acceptable use policies and some templates that are available for creating one. First, I want to go ahead and review what an acceptable use policy is. We're going to be looking at the definition that was established by the Consortium for School Networking. In it, it states that the overall definition of an acceptable use policy is there to protect students and to provide them with access to the internet.
Now, we need to note that access by minors to inappropriate matter on the internet is to be addressed in that acceptable use policy. We also need to see information on the safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms, and other forms of direct electronic communications. An acceptable use policy also helps to indicate information on unauthorized access, including so-called hacking and other unlawful activities by minors online. It also focuses in on the unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal information specifically regarding minors. Finally, acceptable use policies help to address measures that restrict minors, specifically their access to materials that are harmful to them online.
Now I want to go ahead and take a look at a sample acceptable use policy. For this, we are going to go to the following website. The website that we're looking at now is from the Institute of Education Sciences, specifically the National Center for Education Statistics. And the one we focused on specifically is nces.ed.gov. Looking up at the top, you'll notice the website that you can put into your search engine to find the same material.
And what we have here is a sample acceptable use agreement for internet and other electronic resources. This, as you can see, is brought courtesy of the Rochester School Department in Rochester, New Hampshire, and it focuses in on an acceptable use policy where any organization can fill in their name, as you can see in the brackets here. The sample, as you'll notice, overall gives you the main information about why the policy is put in place as well as focuses in on the responsibilities and the rights that are recognized for various organizations.
You also notice the staff responsibilities, the user's responsibilities, and specific elements of acceptable use and unacceptable use that the school or organization has laid out for what you can and can't do. This website also has information on how to review a couple of other acceptable use templates and how to develop and communicate your acceptable use policy. If you need any other information, you can look right down the side and find a link to each of those elements involved when implementing your school or district's acceptable use policy.
Now that we've come to the end of today's lesson, you are able to review acceptable use policies and examine some templates that you could use to help create one of your own. Now I would like to take just a moment for reflection. Now that you've learned about acceptable use policies and various templates available for creating one, what do you think would be the first step that you would take in ensuring that students in your classroom are following those acceptable use policies?
Feel free to pause the video for a moment to think about your answer to this question. It's your turn now to apply what you've learned in this video. You'll also notice that the Additional Resources section could be super helpful to you. This section is designed to help you discover useful ways to apply what you've learned here, and each link includes a brief description so that you can easily target the resources that you want That's all we have for right now. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
(00:00-00:21) Intro
(00:22-00:32) Objectives
(00:33-02:02) Acceptable Use Policy Definition
(02:03-03:45) Sample AUP
(03:46-03:59) Review
(04:00-04:45) Reflection
Victoria Australia State Department of Education
This resource provides the necessary components of acceptable use policies. Even though this site is from Australia, the templates are relevant to the development of acceptable use policies by grade level.
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/bullystoppers/Pages/lolconsent.aspx
COSN Handbook
A fantastic resource from COSN that explains the difference between acceptable use and responsible use: Rethinking acceptable use policies to enable digital learning. This handbook demonstrates why so many districts are moving away from acceptable use policies toward responsible use policies. A responsible use policy opens up more filters, treats technology use as a privilege and places responsibility on teachers and students. This is critical in a BYOD environment where you are unable to fully control student devices or in a system that allows personal mobile devices.
http://www.cosn.org/sites/default/files/pdf/Revised%20AUP%20March%202013_final.pdf