Policies, Procedures, and Contracts
Chapter
9 covers acceptable use policies (AUPs), bullying policies, permission
slips, photo releases, and all other contracts that occur in schools. It
discusses how contracts are legally binding, but also are amendable and
should be look at consistently to change with the culture and society of
a school. These policies need to be reviewed prior to use by not only
administrators, but teachers and parents as well. At a certain age, I
think students should also contribute to the review process. Prensky
(2012) states that “school leaders need to identify all the foreseeable
risks to students, teachers, and staff and take reasonable precautions
to minimize those risks” when drafting policies. This is especially true
for internet user policies. It is difficult to determine where a limit
for student use of internet should be. It is a great resource, but
there are many things that are inappropriate for students, or even just
distractions from learning.
I
wish that I was able to review some technology policies in my previous
school. My school was very big, and honestly I don’t think I ever saw
the policies. I know there was a rule about the use of cell phones, and
I hope it said that it was up to the teacher--otherwise I’m sure I
broke the rule. The other thing that I wish I had comment on was
differentiated firewalls for students and teachers. I’m sure there is a
way to allow certain machines to have full access to the internet, and
others not, and I think that should be in effect in every school. I also
think there should be a school wide discussion about internet filters
in schools. I think there also has to be dialogue between students,
parents, teachers, and administrators over the use of the internet and
other technologies available at schools.
Internet filters are an interesting phenomenon. I am sure that they are very important from a legal liability standpoint, but students figure out how to get around them all the time.
ReplyDeleteOne teacher I spoke with worked at a school where all teachers, staff, and administrators had the password, which essentially meant that a good number of the students also had the password.
Do you think that filters are appropriate at all grade levels, or is there a point where there should be a serious discussion about getting rid of them?
I think you can definitely set up a internet filter at school. Like OU libraries, as an employee there, our office computer cannot download anything from the Internet, it is blocked by the system, so they we can actually focus on our work, not get distracting by something. I think most schools' Internet actually have set up the Internet filter, so students can not log on certain website if they want to.
ReplyDeleteAt my school all the students knew the internet passwords. When I used my laptops in my class the Macs always needed the passwords retyped even though it had been set to remember, and I was always shocked when a student would ask me to come type in the password. I always responded with, "Don't you already know it?" Then five kids would shout it out! Plus, so many of them knew about proxies and how to get around most filters. I think that filters are necessary in all schools, but the limits should change. I think there are definitely sites that students shouldn't have access to at school--we all know what kinds--but I think that there should be a blanket filter that is created and never looked at again. I know that there is a process that can be done to get certain sites off of the filtered list, but in my experience they were never priority and rarely checked on. I think we need to show students how to make good decisions when using the internet, and blocking everything isn't really teaching that.
ReplyDelete