It comes with registration at the beginning of each new school year. Students and their parents are handed a piece of paper outlining the school district's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) which they must sign in order to use computers and peripheral technology at school. While such an effort might create the allusion of intelligent digital citizenship practices, many schools simply provide this information and require parent and student consent in order to comply with the federal government's E-Rate program, which provides low-cost Internet access, along with its Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA).
Traditionally, Acceptable Use Policies have been used as a means of building walls around open Internet access in schools (One element of CIPA's requirements is to utilize an approved Internet filter on district networked computers). Much of this has been done out of fear for exposing students to inappropriate or offensive content. As with any preventative measure, one must ask at the risk of what?
In a 2012 Mindshift article, Rich Halverson, a learning scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison claims, "It's a historical hiccup in the history of learning . . . Here we had the most historical advances in the history of learning banned from schools out of fear."
In that same article, the author adds to Halverson's observation, stating, "Fear was definitely the word you heard when talking to school administrators--no doubt partly because in the age of the Internet, 2001 was a long time ago, and the Web was still unknown territory for plenty of people back then. Also, all it takes is one student downloading pornography and sending it around the school, or one case of sexting that makes it in the news, for a school to find itself in serious hot water."
In light of such a dilemma, school districts throughout the country are beginning to look at AUPs with a different frame of mind. Rather than unilaterally protecting students from exposure to content online, some are starting to see AUPs as an opportunity to help students develop an active sense of responsibility as they learn to function in an ever-connected world.
In the Katy Independent School District in Texas, the focus has been placed on online connections opening up a world of opportunities. Rather than a formal Acceptable Use Policy, Katy ISD grants access to student, parent, and teacher education regarding online access with multiple district-developed resources including cyber safety webpages for all stakeholders in their district. Here, visitors will find the district's policies on privacy, social media, cyberbullying, and copyright issues. But contrary to what is seen in many AUPs, Katy ISD hasn't simply assembled a list of blacklisted activities. Instead, their AUP insight on how to know whether or not one is infringing on policy standards while also identifying ways to engage in safe and responsible Internet use.
In New Jersey, the New Milford School District utilizes a more conventional AUP for their parents, teachers, and students. As with many others, it delineates inappropriate uses of technology in school and explains the consequences of such actions. However, as can be seen at their flagship New Milford High School, the existence of an AUP does not deter from responsible and engaging use of technology as an integral part of the learning process. Not only are students enabled by a trusting relationship with school administrators and faculty when it comes to Internet access, they are encouraged to bring their own personal computing devices, which are subject to the district's AUP, to school to support their own learning. Such a practice is successful in the context of New Milford's approach to teaching user responsibility and accountability as a digital citizen in the 21st century.
Regardless of the format or presentation of an Acceptable Use Policy, in order to provide a non-restrictive, yet safe learning environment for students online or off, certain principles should always be present. Purpose, policy, and scope, as can be seen in the AUP for Boise State University, form the framework for successful policies. Still, within such a framework, education must be the focus as opposed to restriction. The specific details of such education should be subject to legal use of Internet technology and published online content with much consideration given to ethical treatment of other Internet users.
Our goal shouldn't be to identify the pitfalls of Internet and technology use and barricade our students and staff from falling prey to such threats. Instead, we should direct our efforts toward creating an understanding of acceptable, ethical, and responsible use which serves as filters in the minds of those who operate in our district organizations.
Resources:
Boise State University. (2010, October 21). Policy 8000: Information technology acceptable use. Retrieved from: http://oit.boisestate.edu/aboutoit/governance/policies/policy-8000/
Bonneville Joint School District #93. (n.d.). Computer use agreement. Retrieved from: http://www3.d93.k12.id.us/media/42287/3270f.pdf
Katy Independent School District. (n.d.) Cyber safety. Retrieved from: http://www.katyisd.org/dept/technology/instructionalinnovations/cybersafety/Pages/default.aspx
Mindshift. (2012, April 6). More school districts welcome cell phones in class. Retrieved from: http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/04/in-the-digital-age-welcoming-cell-phones-in-the-class/
New Milford School District. (n.d.). New Milford acceptable use policy. Retrieved from: http://www.newmilfordschools.org/nmhs/media/Internet_Acceptable_Use.pdf
Some of what you had to say made me think of the history of banned books. Not so long ago, certain texts were kept out of schools and libraries in order to protect students from undesirable content. Now, many of those books are required reading because of the ways they challenge students. In a similar way, social media, forums, and other corners of the Internet have been deemed distracting or outright dangerous to students and must therefore be blocked at school. I think teachers are starting to embrace the challenges and opportunities of many of these sites and see the value in helping our students to develop "filters in the mind".
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