Shelburne Community School Acceptable Usage Policy

SCS

National School Network

"Responses on how schools are addressing appropriate use."

The following transcript is an e-mail sent via the National School Network on March 18, 1997, in response to gathering information on how schools are addressing appropriate use of the Internet. Permission to reprint granted by the National School Network.

http://nsn.bbn.com/bin/cgi-bin/hn-testbed/get/nsn-aup.html

The first message in the archive, included below and at:

http://nsn.bbn.com/bin/cgi-bin/hn-testbed/get/nsn-aup/1.html,

presents a summary of responses and relevant web sites along with a description of seven categories of activities used to address appropriate use of the network. All the messages sent to me are included in this archive.

Please feel free to respond to any of the messages in the archive with your comments. You can join the discussion and receive people's comments via email by becoming a "member" of the discussion and then "subscribing". If you have any problems with becoming a member, send me email.

If you would like to send email to the discussion you can send messages to

nsn-aup@nsn.bbn.com

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Promoting Responsible Computer and Internet Use

National School Network BBN Corporation March 1997

A call went out to the National School Network community and others on the Internet to learn more about how schools have dealt with guiding students to use the Internet appropriately. We had over 33 responses from district administrators, teachers, principals, parents, a lawyer , and a student. They described various methodologies from which I distilled the seven categories listed below. Also included are a sample of the statements from people describing their programs or expressing their opinion.

* Acceptable Use Policy: This is a quasi-legal document that explains the school's policies regarding computer and Internet use. Some place have both students and parents sign that they have read the agreement and will abide by its rules in using the network, computers for only appropriate purposes in support of the curriculum. (See attachments - Poudre School District's or Learning Through Collaborative Visualization's Acceptable Use Plan.)

* Technology Ethics Curriculum: An educational program would include teaching students about ethical uses of the technology as well as guides to teachers how to promote proper use. (see attachments - Brookline Public Schools Computer Curriculum 5/96)

* Loss of privileges: Ten respondents described that students using the computer or the Internet to access pornography or other inappropriate materials (and some schools even games) had their rights to use the Internet revoked. Suspension of privileges could be for a month or in the case of more severe misuse for the whole year.

* Blocking software: Ten sites said that they use some form of filtering to prevent students from accessing inappropriate sites. Software packages mentioned included Surfwatch, Bess, WebSense, and Cyberpatrol. Some people mentioned that using blocking software was not fool proof because new sites are added to the Internet everyday and that it is difficult to update a multitude of workstations continually to keep blocking current. However, some administrators said that blocking software is no guarantee but they used it because they wanted to do as much as possible to maintain appropriate use. Respondents who did not favor blocking felt that students should be educated about appropriate use and take responsibility for their actions. Some sites felt that the loss of computer access privileges was enough to maintain appropriate use because a student could not perform his/her work properly without computer access.

* Firewalls: Two sites suggested setting up firewalls as a way to prevent students accessing inappropriate sites. The firewalls are set up on a computer and work by checking all outgoing and/or incoming data. The problem with firewalls is that they make it very difficult to use some Internet technology, such as videoconferencing and some audio transmission which will become more important as the Internet grows in its use of multimedia.

* Supervision: Eight sites said that they do not allow students to use the Internet without a teacher or someone supervising use. If the computer was in the classroom, the teacher was responsible; if in a computer lab, the lab attendant is responsible.

* Use only for curriculum related projects: Another safeguard is to have a policy that the Internet is only used for projects related to curriculum. If students are caught using it for other things, their privileges can be revoked. One school said that students could use the computer lab for browsing, but only with supervision.

* Internet Drivers license At several high schools, students were issued an Internet drivers license or card which they had to display while using the computer. If they used the technology for anything inappropriate, their license was suspended.

One thing to keep in mind in implementing any of these methods is the impact it can have on the education of the students. For example, a loss of computer and/or Internet access for a year, puts the student's ability to perform and learn in jeopardy. In regard to blocking software, several respondents stated that the prejudices of the designers are imbedded in the blocking software and so relevant sites may be blocked, such as the Whitehouse or Girl Scout web site as mentioned below.

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Issues surrounding appropriate use (# of respondents 33):

1. Acceptable Use Policy 19 (58%)

2 Educate students and teachers about ethical uses 13(39%)

3 Blocking software and firewalls 11(33%)

4. Loss of privileges 10(30%)

5. Supervision 8(24%)

6. Use only for curriculum 4(12%)

7. Internet Drivers license 2(6%)

out of the 33 respondents - 11 where districts and 10 were high schools.

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A sample of comments:

Watertown School District: Blocking: Filtering systems do not completely work. After testing we found that some do not block all objectionable sites (relying on keywords only), while others block too many useful sites. Additionally, some systems impose their author's social and political biases on users of their blocking systems.

Supervision: Teachers/staff cannot be everywhere to monitor interest activity constantly. Given teachers' workload, it is difficult to monitor all computer activity. In addition, some students know much more than their teachers about using and abusing the computer.

There are different needs based on grade levels. For elementary students, the goal is to avoid inadvertent access to objectionable material. For secondary students, the goal is to prevent intentional access.

Education:Student education is key. Taking the time to teach (especially secondary) students what is on the internet and why it makes sense to avoid it will work with most students. Profligate violators will lose their privileges, but these will be few if the rules are clear.

Students who figure out ways to circumvent these systems should be encouraged toward more positive technological pursuits. Hiring them to work with the technology could prove beneficial.

P.W. Kaeser High School: Loss of privileges: It has a zero tolerance guideline whereby if they are caught in a sex site they lose all computer privileges for the year in all courses.

No blocking: We do not use any software to restrict access and students have not gone into it. We do recognize that a student may stumble across a offensive site but they are responsible enough to get out of it immediately.

Curriculum only: Students have to come in with a sheet that has the subject topic written in period and day so we know it is a curriculum related material search, no surfing is allowed.

Rosetta High School: Education: Education of student in appropriate use of the Internet was more effective than installing software/hardware to control access.

Tuscon Unified School District: Blocking: After having high school students abuse the privilege of Internet use to the point that there were excessive referrals to the office this fall, we put in a blocker. We are using WebSense and blocking pornography, sexually explicit materials, and adult recreation. We believe that this is a mirror of the print world which separates pornography into adult bookstores.

I recently surveyed 15 school districts and found no blocking in 13 and blocking in one and a restricted search engine in another. Two of the entities (Minneapolis Public Schools and Texas Educational Network) do not block because they believe that it implies a guarantee, making the schools liable if a student accesses objectionable material. We believe that we are making a legal "best faith" effort to block pornography.

Edmond Woodsway High School, WA - Student's comment: Anyway, I'm really disappointed with our school's lack of faith in the students. I'm in the Class of 2000, one of the next leaders of this country, and the people we are going to be supporting in their retirement aren't ready for the hand-off.

Coalition of Essential Schools: Pornographic stuff is rampant on television. As a parent of two children I take much offense to it. With limited resources, shouldn't the government feel it is more important to get rid of the violence on television and on the movie screens????? The educational use of the Internet for us and for my children far out weighs my concern for someone else's need to find "the dark side of the internet".

Poudre School District, Colorado: Acceptable Use Policy: Students at our school have had free internet accounts through the district since '92. One or two students are suspended from PSD-Net early in each school year. Such instances are usually well-noted by the student body. Most understand what a great resource it is to have a PSD-Net account and choose not to engage in behavior that could result in losing it. Most understand that an increase in such behavior by others could threaten everyone's use and therefore "express a healthy norm of compliance" regarding the PSD-Net AUP.

Seattle School District: Blocking: The district decided to purchase a filtering system called "Bess." It is costly, but we have the rights to install it on EVERY machine in the district. It is a filter that is manually updated daily, so if you run across a very questionable site (once the filter has been activated) you can e-mail them to check on whether that site should be excluded or not. In the library where I work I keep stressing that the resource is there to "support curriculum" and to access sites accordingly. I am very grateful for the filter because inappropriate use is a major concern for parents and staff in the building.

Rock Bridge High School: AUP and Loss of Privileges: Any obscene or inappropriate language or images, games, and chat features may not be accessed on school computers. It isn't perfect, but students know they risk being banned from use of school computers for violating this policy. And because they are required to produce so much class work with programs they can only access here, either on the net or through our building networked resources, few will risk abuse.

Champlain Valley High School: Supervision: There have been several instances where students have gotten into areas of the Internet where they should not have. These have all been where our supervision has broken down. I believe that there is a certain number of teenagers who must test any rule you put in place. For these we have a rule of No Game Playing on the school's computers. Every semester I delete the network access for a dozen or so students that just have to see if they can sneak in a round or two of network doom or some such thing during their free period. This is where we battle, and the consequences, when the students get the upper hand, are much less serious than if we were battling over pornography.

Blocking: Finally, I read in this month's WIRED magazine about one of the filtering programs that is written by a company owned by Focus On the Family, a conservative Christian organization. This software was discovered to not only be filtering pornography, but the National Organization of Women, Planned Parenthood and the Girl Scouts of America(!) (among others). So exactly who is creating the filter lists, and do they agree with your school's censorship policies (ask your librarian)?

Middle School: Instead of Blocking: Our approach was to teach the students responsible behavior and not have the school dictate it. Afterall, we know those that have access at home aren't going to be watched as closely as they would be at school.

Signed AUP and license: I have attached what we used to ensure the students were involved in the responsible use of access. The teachers had a list of concepts they reviewed with the students; i.e., harassment, indecency, and copyright, inter alia. Then each student had to take a quiz to demonstrate their understanding. The contract was initialed and signed by each student and their parent or guardian, and when all these steps were completed, the student was issued an ID card used to gain access to a computer; whether in the library, the computer lab, or the classroom.

San Diego Schools: Legislation: In California there is a bill in the legislature to force schools to purchase software to block access to sexual, alcohol, tobacco, and drug related material. I counter with do we then have to cover all the ads and stories in magazines and newspapers in the libraries? Do we not order Sports Illustrated? What if a student wants to do research on the economy of tobacco or prohibition? Beside being an impossible task we set ourselves up for a law suit by saying we guarantee no access and what happens when a student gets to a site?

Wilson High School: Blocking: Surfwatch (and other blocking software) is estimated to be only 67% effective. I've heard that Playboy changes their IP address several times a day to impede blocking. Of course my favorite story is of the young person who could not access the White House kids' page because his parents had installed Surfwatch; the objectionable word? Bill and Hillary and Al and Tipper were described as "couples".

Nancy Willard - lawyer and expert in this area: Blocking: Software such as Surfwatch and other client-based products are not IMHO worth the money. They have to be installed on every computer in the district *and* updated on every computer on a regular basis. However, any kid who has learned a few search basics can get around the blocks. Here is how: There is a new web site every 10 minutes. You can limit search engines to select only new sites. So all a curious kid has to do is to search on some selected "key words" and limit to only new sites and the odds are good he will find something. By using blocking software, you have just made it more of a fun challenge. SOLUTIONS: So how do we address this issue?

AUPs: Districts must have AUP policies in place. But districts must be as clear as they can in the terms they use in the policies. Telling students they cannot access "inappropriate or objectionable material" is not clear.

Education: Teachers must have professional development in the use of the Internet for high quality educational activities -- We need to focus on moving the kids in the right direction. Supervision: Schools need to monitor student use.

Peer pressure and policies: Districts MUST also set in place sexual harassment policies and develop effective educational activities to address this issue. We need to get to the stage where there is peer pressure against this stuff -- and we have alot of work to do in this area.

Consequences: When the inevitable violations occur, the consequence should be focused on addressing the student's perceptions about values and sexual harassment. I suggest that their account be terminated until they have written a 3-5 page paper on a sexual harassment/personal responsibility issue.

Pueblo County Board of Education: Education: It is folly to think you can censor the access to "inappropriate" material unless you want to give up a little privilege called the First Amendment - it is much better to teach responsibility and commitment to the students so this becomes a moot point.

OCM BOCES Upstate New York Regional Center for several districts: I think there is one aspect of the Internet that is very unlike our present concept of TV: INTERACTIVITY. Within what I have been calling the "discourse" model of the Internet, people can actually talk and exchange information. It is this aspect of the Internet that most impacts students and offers the most danger.. not the passive TV-like view of the Internet as a one-way, coming-to-us resource.

Our futurists talk about greater social change coming about as a result of taking away the barriers of time and distance to people's interactions with others. The new "Interactive TV" coming will add interactivity over cable (WebTV is only the first stage). This is a double edged sword..one you will have to deal with when YOUR students and children interact with strangers "out there". It can be very good, or very bad. Imagine large teams of teenagers taking on "characters" - real onscreen images (called Avatars)- that can blow up buildings and do any number of virtual deeds - today relegated to Nintendo kicking and boxing. Games? The coming debate will be about the nature of parental.. and by extension, school... control over what children see, hear, and do with this new type of "TV".

In his book "Technopoly", Neil Postman postulates that in the past (pre- 1940s), families (parents) acted as "filters" to what children could see and hear. When TV invaded our homes, they could no longer do that, and society changed, parents lost much control. Now, he sees the material on the Internet as subverting yet another "filter" that exists in our schools.... CURRICULUM. After all, it is CURRICULUM that determines what information a child is supposed to see and hear in a school, and what information a child is NOT supposed to see and hear in a school. School may be a control factor, a conscious barrier we WANT in order to protect our children while we work. What happens when more information, and interactive capability, enters our homes, but lags behind in our schools.. or is blocked from entering our schools? Will our children be aware of the dangers of strangers offering "candy"?

Attachments:

Acceptable Use policy: Poudre School District, Colorado - Terms and Conditions: http://www.psd.k12.co.us/terms.html Learning through Collaborative Visualization http://www.covis.nwu.edu/AUP-archive/AUP-1.3.html

"The Internetworked School: A Policy for the Future" http://www.covis.nwu.edu/Papers/Fishman%26Pea1993.html

"America Library Association - Access to Electronic Information, Services, and Networks: an Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights" gopher://ala1.ala.org:70/00/alagophx/alagophxfreedom/electacc.fin

Nancy Williard - Lawyer - "A Legal and Educational Analysis of K-12 Internet Acceptable Use Policies" http://www.erehwon.com/k12aup

Promoting Responsible Computer Use - Brookline Public Schools Computer Curriculum, May 1996

Melanie Goldman Co-Principal Investigator

National School Network BBN, Corp.

70 Fawcett Street Cambridge, MA 02138

(617) 873-4653 .... mgoldman@bbn.com ... http://nsn.bbn.com

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Last updated: March 19, 1997