Transcontinental Project

1. Transcontinental Project ORGB 625 Chris Danz Jenkins Kumeh Shelly Lappi

2. The Force: Technology Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) As schools increasingly incorporate the Internet into their everyday curriculum, concerned administrators and parents have more opportunities to impose overzealous rules and limitations on teacher and student use of the Net. Some are banning the Internet altogether, fearing disastrous situations. Others are clamping down on access to some Internet resources or tools in an effort to avoid the worst possibilities. http://www.Io.Com/~kinnaman/aupessay.html#scene

3. Educate parents about their children's use of the Internet. Educate students about risks peculiar to computer communication rules for efficient, ethical, legal computer/network use, safe and appropriate computer social behavior, use of available and unavailable services. Preserve digital materials created by students and teachers. Protect vulnerable children from inappropriate approaches. Discourage children from making inappropriate personal disclosures. Encourage ethical behavior, and discourage criminal behavior. Diverse areas covered in Acceptable Use Policies

4. Encourage accepted Netiquette from the very start. Encourage polite and civil communication. Encourage individual integrity and honesty. Encourage respect for others and their private property. Allow enforcement of necessary rules of behavior. Encourage equal access to educational opportunities for all children. Protect the school networking equipment and software from danger. Help control costs by limiting storage space needs and other network costs. Diverse areas covered in Acceptable Use Policies (continued)

5. Diverse areas covered in Acceptable Use Policies (continued) • Discourage profanity, obscenity, pornography, and waste. • Discourage network game playing and/or anonymous messages. • Discourage use of computers and networks for profit or politics. • Assure Internet users that their online activities are monitored or • Assure Internet users that their email privacy is (or is not) being respected.

6. It is essential to create and maintain an environment where safe and responsible use of technology by all stakeholders is routinely modeled, supported and encouraged. Teach and consistently enforce the AUP Be a good role model (NETS) Be proactive (Teach students the NETS) Keep administrators in the loop Take reported issues seriously, and report all suspicious activity, immediately Know, understand, and apply the district’s AUP for technology and Children’s Internet Protection Act Requirements (CIPA) CIPA Update: October 2008, Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act: Schools must teach online safety as a prerequisite to receiving E-rate funding. The FCC: Released a NPRM (Notice of Proposed rulemaking) that proposes to require schools to certify to the SLD that their Internet Safety Policy includes educating minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms and cyber-bullying awareness and response. It is expected that this certification will be added to the Funding Year (FY) 2010 Form 486, which will give schools until July 1, 2010 to update their Internet Safety Policies. As educators it is our responsibility to:

7. How the force impacts education: • Technology is constantly changing which causes the AUP to become outdated quickly-becomes very hard for administrators and teachers to supervise and block everything, while still providing opportunities for students to use the technology. • Unlike Most school policy, AUP’s can’t be static and they need to be updated to match technological advances. For ex: our AUP was adopted prior to proliferation of Smart Phones such as Blackberry’s and iphones. 

8. What is causing the revision of AUP’s? • Using these personal hidden devices, students have the ability to take videos in a locker room and immediately post these videos to Youtube using the phone provider wireless network. • Students bypass the school network and leave no trail, so the district would have no way of knowing this is happening. • Rate of Technology advancements.

9. Major Challenges/Impacts from current AUP • Technology Advancements! How do we keep up with that? • Proliferation of personal devices in schools. We need to change our philosophy and teach our kids what is safe and appropriate usage of their personal devices. 3. Blackberry and iphones- Are we still responsible for our students if they are on school property, yet access the Internet through their wireless provider and not through the school network? 4. Most districts don’t take AUP’s seriously as a real policy until there is a problem and then it may be too late. 5. Top Down Approach upper administration need to convince the school board, and then convince administration to support the IT department and be the voice, monitor and enforce the district AUP but also issues consequences when there is a violation of the policy. 6. There is a need to revise the electronic equipment policy.

10. Strengthen language of AUP consent form Allow district solicitor to review and approve all revisions to AUP Educate students and teachers about he appropriate internet usage Integrate technology skills and tools in classroom lessons to meet goals of approved curriculum Look for evidence of consistent and pervasive implementation of requirements of NETs Incorporate teacher’s progress with NETs Encourage teachers to think and act differently. Educate students as part of CIPA to avoid putting themselves in harms way via technology unknowingly. Meet ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) NETS (National Educational Technology Standards Requirements). Integrate and embed technology into curriculum Do not teach technology as a separate subject Classroom lessons should reflect integration of technology skills to meet goals of approved curriculum Look for evidence of consistent and pervasive implementation of NETS by teachers Incorporate teachers’ progress with NETS in their overall performance evaluation Make professional development of teachers a requirement Offer informational nights for parents several times a year Provide training for parents on a free website called isafe.org Provide videos to parents to watch in addition to training them on isafe.org Ensure that teachers meet FCC’s (Federal Trade Commission) training requirements Analysis and Representation of Leader’s Options

11. Final Thoughts • This case study focuses on Acceptable Use Policies and their impact on the leadership dynamic in public education. As a team, we believe that this topic is one that every school district in the United States has been or will be faced with within the very near future. The literature reviewed was very informative and relevant to our current positions. This project will serve as a foundation for the review and revision of the Acceptable Use Policies in the Lebanon School District and the South Middleton School District.

12. Resources Lebanon School District AUP South Middleton School District AUP http://coe.winthrop.edu/Edld612/aup.html http://edtechlife.com http://www.Io.Com/~kinnaman/aupessay.html#scene http://www.kljerometeach.com/comprules.htmlhttp://www.io.com/%7Ekinnaman/aupessay.html