An acceptable use policy is the way a school system prevents students from abusing the Internet. The policy gives regulations on how the Internet can be used by students. Parents are asked to confirm their understanding of the policy and the consequences for using the Internet in an unacceptable way. If a teacher is going to provide links for students, they should also be familiar with the acceptable use policy.
The rationale behind acceptable use policy is quite easily understood. While most school districts have intricate filtering systems in place, at times unacceptable websites can slip through. Website creators are very creative, and students can be very determined. It is ironic that at times filtering systems are much too thorough and can block perfectly legitimate websites but at the same time allow inappropriate sites through. Since the filtering systems are not perfect, acceptable use policies seek to minimize student determination and curiosity.
At my school, computer access is fairly limited and very structured. Since it is very rare for students to have access to the Internet other than sites on the school’s network, the filtering is very liberal. Also, the filtering when logged on with a teacher network login and password is extraordinarily liberal compared with being logged in as a student. Because of this, my school’s acceptable use policy isn’t very limiting at all for me as a teacher. I have only had one instance this year where a site I wanted to access was blocked. It was a site I had never visited before that I found through a Google search, and I wasn’t certain of what was on it so blocking the site was only a minor inconvenience.
In schools where perhaps students have more access to the Internet and the network has a stronger filter or a more detailed acceptable use policy, I can see where that could be a problem for the teacher. Teachers would have a lot more work in monitoring student activities on the Internet and making sure that he or she models the acceptable use policy in giving assignments. The teacher would need to be certain that any websites he or she has students visiting isn’t linked back to an inappropriate site after several clicks. A perfectly harmless site may have inappropriate ads, or it could be linked to a site that’s linked to a site that’s linked to a site, and so on and so forth until, after just a few clicks, the student is at a site that the student doesn’t need to be at.
Acceptable use policies are definitely a necessity in technology-driven education and the reasons far outweigh the aggravation.
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For every new technology, we need some type of control. Later, we can make changes as needed. But, first from a school environment we have a duty of care to our students. Young minds are so easily distracted we need guidelines in help to keep them on track and focused on what is important.
Although we can not follow them home; students need to understand that everyone has boundaries. Even teachers and administration. Although elementary schools need a different policy from middle or high school, each needs to have academic constraints. Music, games that deal with gambling and enjoyment sites without a learning objective are not appropriate for educational settings.
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