Arp ISD Acceptable Use Policies

Board ApprovedSeptember, 1998Updated September, 2000

New Law

• Child Internet Protection Act• Provides for Filtering & Blocking of Internet

sites• Provides for Protection against Information

Gathering on children under 16• Expects Internet Activities to be Monitored

Basic Guidelines

• No student or faculty member will be allowed to utilize the digital or Internet resources of the district without signing the AUP agreement

• All students will be monitored during their use of these technologies

• All students will be taught the AUP and FBI Safety Guidelines

Posting Policies for Media

• The Arp ISD Posting Policies require that we present our students, community, faculty, and stakeholders as successful and motivated in all academic and athletic areas. All productions and publications for Web, CD, Video, newspapers, magazines, yearbook, or any media are as follows:

Posting Policies1. Promote successful students and educational practices 2. Provide educational and technical awareness to parents,

community, faculty, students, and all stakeholders 3. Allow students the opportunity to develop ethical and technical

expertise in the fields of communications, broadcasting, and telecommunications

4. Provide a learner-centered environment for:  • demonstration of SCANS competencies,  • character-building skills, research and information skills,  • use of hardware components,  software programs,  • digital and analog video systems,  • media input, output, & storage devices,  • and contributors to the electronic community 5. Provide a forum for the ethical exchange of knowledge and

educational objectives 6. Allow students & teachers to gain recognition for successful

practices.

Standards of Excellent Education

• Teach, Assess, Remind, Apply the AUP• Use collaborative Internet tools to make student

projects relevant, dynamic, and innovative• Ethical use of resources

• Copyright issues• Media releases for posting original works on the Web• Use of Net Etiquette and legal on-line conduct • Use of all technologies for TEKS purposes ONLY

Vandalism• Any malicious attempt to harm or destroy

District equipment or data or data of another user of the District’s system, or any other the agencies or other networks that are connected to the Internet is prohibited. Deliberate attempts to degrade or disrupt system performance are violations of District policy and administrative regulations and may constitute criminal activity under applicable state and federal laws. Such prohibited activity includes, but is not limited to, the uploading or creating of computer viruses or harmful program components.

Forgery

• Forgery or attempted forgery of electronic mail messages is prohibited.  Attempts to read, delete, copy, or modify the electronic mail or data of other system users, deliberate interference with the ability of other system users to send/receive electronic mail, or the use of another person’s user ID and/or password is prohibited.

Plagiarism• YOU MUST cite an author for:

– “Another person’s idea, opinion, or theory– Any facts, statistics, or graphs that are not

common knowledge;– Quotations of anther person’s actual

spoken or written words; and – A paraphrase (summary) of another

person’s spoken or written words.”Teaching & Learning, April 2002 “Preventing Digital Plagiarism” by

Caroline McCullen

Researching PlagiarismWeb sites

• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html

• http://indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html • http://www.mla.org

Chats

• Participating in chat rooms and newsgroups accessed on the Internet is only permissible for students under the appropriate  supervision of a sponsoring teacher. The sponsoring teacher must gain written permission for such activities from her campus  technology coordinator.

SPAMMING• Spamming is illegal. Have your class research

the new “spam” laws. They deal with unsolicited email. “Spamming” is sending out email to folks who do not request it. You spam the network when you send email to more than one or two of your associates.

• DO NOT use ARPISD as a recipient for e-mail. That mail out is reserved for emergencies only.

• Do not send email to large groups, like HS Faculty, unless it is for educational purposes.

NETWORK Netiquette          • System users are expected to observe the following

network etiquette:• 1. Be polite; messages typed in capital letters are the

computer equivalent of shouting and are considered rude.

• 2. Use appropriate language; swearing, vulgarity, lewdness, ethnic or racial slurs, and any other inflammatory language are prohibited.

• 3. Pretending to be someone else when sending/receiving messages is inappropriate.

• 4. Transmitting or creating obscene messages or pictures is prohibited.

• 5. Using the network in such a way that would disrupt the use of the network by other users is prohibited.                                   

MONITORED USE

• Electronic mail transmissions and other use of the electronic communications system by students and employees are not private and may be monitored at any time by designated District staff to ensure appropriate use.

TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION GOALS:

• http://www/admin/Accept.htm• To meet the challenge of preparing

all students in Arp ISD for a technologically challenging future by complying with  Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills guidelines as set forth by the Texas Legislature.

COMPUTER MAINTENANCE:

• http://studio01/admin/Accept.htm• Dos & DON’Ts

IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY

• A. Access of Network & Internet will be given through student and staff password accounts. Accounts will be maintained by the individual and passwords will not be given or shared with anyone else.

• B. All use of Arp ISD’s Network and technologies must be consistent with policies and goals of the Arp Independent School District, Texas Education Agency, and Federal Education Initiatives.

• C. Any Use of the Arp ISD Network for illegal, commercial and/or for-profit purposes is expressly prohibited.

• D. Extensive use of Arp ISD Network for personal or private business is expressly prohibited.

• E. Internet Driver’s License and passwords accounts will be used only by the authorized owner of the account for an authorized purpose.

• F. Users shall not seek information on, obtain copies of, modify files, other data, or passwords belonging to other users on the network.

• G. All communications and information accessible via the Arp ISD Network shall be assumed to be private property or the property of Arp ISD.

IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY

• H. No use of the Arp ISD Network shall serve to disrupt the use of the network by others; hardware and/or software shall not be destroyed, modified, or abused in any way. Vandalism is defined as any malicious attempt to harm or destroy data of another user.

• I. Malicious use of the Arp ISD Network to develop programs that harass other users or infiltrate a computer or computing system and/or damage the software components of a computer or computing system is prohibited.

• J. Hate mail, harassment, discriminatory remarks, pornographic references or graphics, and other antisocial behaviors are prohibited on the Arp ISD Network.

• K. The illegal installation of copyrighted software for use on District computers is prohibited

• L. Any violations of the use of Arp ISD Network should be reported to the teacher, technology coordinator, or supervisor assigned to the user. You will be considered an accessory to the policy breach if you do not report seen violations. The Network Administrator will be notified ASAP.

IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY

• M. User will accept the responsibility of maintaining the integrity of the private electronic mail (e-mail) system. Users must report all violations of privacy or unacceptable contacts or wrongful use of the network immediately.

• N. User will accept the responsibility of maintaining an activated and updated version of a virus scanner on any computer that is connected to the Arp ISD Network. User will notify Network Administrator if any virus is detected and from what apparent source.

IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY

• All technology will be utilized for educational purposes (i.e. games without educational objectives are not permitted at anytime and may result in the loss of privileges to technology.) If there will not be an independent assessment over the software content, it is probably not appropriate for the educational environment. If games are used for educational objectives, those objectives and the selected game must be documented in the lesson plans.

IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY

• Faculty will be responsible for making sure that classroom substitute teachers are advised that computers will not be utilized by students unless specific written instructions have been left by the classroom teacher on proper/educational use of technology for a specific class period.

• Failure to document use or failure to use technology for ethical and educational purposes will result in the reassignment or relocation of technology (microscopes, calculators, computers, TVs, video equipment, etc.)

• Movies are not to be shown in the classroom unless there are accompanying instructional materials and objectives are documented in the lesson plans. Frequent abuse of this policy has been documented on all campuses and will no longer be tolerated. Movies that are shown in the entire length without pausing to discuss or draw conclusions will not be considered acceptable use by this district. Teachers will be repromanded.

STUDENT SAFETY ISSUES

• Maintaining student safety must be a priority for all. Safety issues involve the following: (PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!)

Students last names, phone numbers, addresses, or other personal information will not be utilized over any network without express permission from the student and the parent. Please help all your students understand how important it is for them to remain anonymous over the Internet. This is exactly the same precaution we use when a stranger call our home.

Students should not join any group of activities on the Internet that have not been recommended to them through the Texas Education Network or another legitimate educational resource.

STUDENT SAFETY ISSUESStudents need to be informed that networks run "log"

programs. Administrators of networks can track anyone’s activity on their network. Threats, such as to the President, can and will be tracked. Arp ISD’s network has many such a "log" programs. Tracking of student and faculty activity is possible, if it becomes necessary. Please inform students that it is illegal to threaten, stalk, send or create lewd content or abuse on the network. Recently a judge in California sent a young student to jail for sending racially motivated "scare" mail to another student.

Students will report any unethical behavior that they encounter while using any network, whether in e-mail, in network data, or at any Internet site. The FBI is actively seeking to help schools by the arrest and prosecution of those who participate in illegal activity on educational networks.

ETHICAL USE POLICY:• In compliance with the state of Texas, Arp schools adhere

to the ethical use of all technological tools, networks, and the Internet. Ethical Use is defined as the following:

• Ethical Use of technologies refers to the utilization of resources, either hardware or software, in such a way as to maintain trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship -- the six pillars of ethical character. The application of which relies on each individual to:

DO NO HARM,DO GOOD,PREVENT HARM, andUNDO HARM.

Copyright Issues

• All students will be required to follow ethical use, and copyright laws. Infringement of these policies will result in restriction or limited use of technology in Arp ISD. Public domain software may not be uploaded or downloaded by a student without written permission from the campus technology coordinator. The coordinator will assist the student in properly checking the software for viruses before it is utilized by a user in the district.

Copyright Issues

• http://www/default/District/GRANTS/copyright_resources.htm

• Utilize this site to learn Copyright Laws

Games Not Allowed

• Technology tools are provided by the district for appropriate educational objectives (i.e. games such as Solitaire, will not be played during school hours). Students utilizing technology for unauthorized purposes wil be restricted from or lose privileges to district technologies.

Student Responsibilities• Students will maintain equipment and report any

equipment failure, damage or loss to their teacher. A student's failure to report important damage or loss may result in restricted use or loss of privileges to technologies. Since technology equipment is school property, student violation or abuse of this equipment will be subject to disciplinary action as defined in the District Discipline Management Plan.

• All e-mail will be retain for no longer than six weeks on the Arp Independent School District’s Network, unless authorized by the District Technology Coordinator. Students and staff are responsible for deleting old messages and keeping their e-mail below 500 Kbytes of server disk space. Attempts at forgery of electronic mail, password accounts, and files are expressly prohibited.

•  

Appropriate Forms

• http://studio01/admin/exhib.htm• Utilize these forms for gaining access to district

digital resources.