Acceptable Use versus Responsible Use
At the end of the 2021-2022 school year our district technology committee, which includes library media specialists, instructional technology leaders, and our Director of Technology, sat down to review our district's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), which is part of our Student Code of Conduct. Several of our buildings were attempting to apply for Missouri School Librarian Exemplary Status, and part of that application required an Acceptable Use policy that had been updated within the last five years. Because our Board Policy was in need of updating in order to meet this requirement, our committee sat down to review our policy and compare it to those of our neighboring districts. What did we notice? Technology policies vary from title to length, but seem to cover the basic core components. Our committee grappled with our approach--proactive or reactive?
Education World (n.d) suggests that schools include six components in their Acceptable Use Policies: a preamble, definitions, acceptable uses, unacceptable uses, and violations or sanctions. Our district's policy is compliant with these factors, as are our neighboring districts. We noticed that the districts in our county use almost identical language in our "preamble". Similar to our AUP, Wentzville School District, our neighbor to the west, includes wording that explains the importance of technology for teaching 21st century skills. Rockwood School District, a comparable district in a neighboring county, explains in their "Internet access and Usage Policy, an expanded explanation on the use of technology and its impact to provide innovative instruction for their students. These cohort districts also include similar examples of positive uses of technology, such as accessing information, as well as unacceptable uses like sharing passwords and violating plagiarism guidelines (Francis Howell Code of Conduct, n.d.). All of the policies that we examined include references to federal regulations such as the Childhood Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and the Children's Online Privacy and Protection Rule (COPPA).
While the content of AUPs are consistent, the tone and the length of the document varies greatly, as does the "home" of the policy. Some schools include their AUP within the general code of conduct, while others have separate AUP documents. Scholastic (n.d.) recognizes policies should define the measures that districts are taking to keep students safe, but also recognize that not all plans are fail proof. The tone of this verbiage differs from district to district. Julie Randles (2023) points out that schools often create policies that are rooted in fear rather than proactively supporting the establishment of healthy habits. Districts often focus on measures that they are taking to restrict students rather than focusing on what students CAN do to keep themselves safe. While our district's AUP has a student-friendly list of both acceptable practices and unacceptable practices, many others, including Wentzville, have pages filled with unacceptable ways that technology should not be used. On the other hand, Lee's Summit Schools, a district across the state, provides a level-appropriate guidebook to provide elementary students and parents with proactive measures that students can take to remain safe online both in school and at home.
When it came time to update our policy the discussion became about changing the policy from "Acceptable Use" to "Responsible Use. As confirmed by Randles (2023), Responsible Use Policies (RUPs) position students to be the drivers in the creative and innovative uses of technology rather than passive users. She suggests making language student-friendly, using "I will" statements. In the end, our revision process did not change our policy from an AUP to an RUP, as I would have liked, but our policy is concise and includes a friendlier tone. Maybe in the next revision we can include the student-focused "I can" statements to help students to develop healthy habits with the use of technology.
References:
Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) for the Internet. Education World. (n.d.). https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr093.shtml
Exemplary School Library Program Application. (n.d). Missouri Department of Secondary and Elementary Education. https://dese.mo.gov/media/file/exemplary-school-library-program-application
Francis Howell School District Student Code of Conduct. (2017) Francis Howell School District. https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1669685566/fhsdschoolsorg/iq2fpjhrfre3wzusrsm4/English-FHSD-Code-of-Student-Conduct-2022-23.pdf
Lee's Summit R-7 Elementary Handbook (2019) Lee’s Summit R-7 Schools. https://docs.lsr7.org/public/files/ple_6ea4af8c.pdf
Network and Internet Usage Policy 6320. (2022). Francis Howell School District. https://go.boarddocs.com/mo/fhsdmo/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=96TNFU5FC09F#
Randles, J. (2023). 5 Tips for Creating a District Responsible Use Policy. ISTE. https://www.iste.org/explore/education-leadership/5-tips-creating-district-responsible-use-policy
Rockwood School District Internet Access and Usage. (2022) Rockwood School District. https://www.rsdmo.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=2236&dataid=17280&FileName=Internet%20Access%20and%20Usage.pdf
Wentzville School District Responsible Use Policy. (2017). Wentzville School District. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i-UnbmUg6EBh71as01cmZpPKqGv9Uyx9_MtI6jT6Sbs/edit#heading=h.6jynaot9cbnq
Why have a technology policy in your school or library? Scholastic.com. (n.d.). https://www.scholastic.com/librarians/tech/techpolicy.htm
April, your point about creating AUP policies based on proactive writing as opposed to fear was thought-provoking. I often see this repercussions for students who are using their devices improperly, but not enough time is spent on correct usage. It's similar to discipline, where saying "Don't Run" doesn't actually convey to the child what to do. Can I crawl? Skip? Shuffle? Speedwalk? In the same vein, "don't do anything that would compromise the integrity of our network" doesn't do much either! Practicing and showcasing proper device use is important.
ReplyDeleteHi April! I loved your post this week. I also teach in a K-12 environment and I didn't consider the implications of COPPA in AUPs for school districts. FERPA law governers everything we do as K-12 educators but I forgot about considering COPPA.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, as you said, it's important to make sure our students remain safe online. These AUPs help us accomplish those objectives and set clear boundaries at the start of our course. Thanks!