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An Overview of School AUP

We started writing AUPs (Acceptable Use Policies) a little more than ten years ago, as most schools started to get wired to the Internet. The opportunities were dizzying, but we had the wisdom to go cautiously. We saw potentials for abuse and even danger. So we set out to establish polices of restraint and enforced them.

Much has changed since 1995. The World Wide Web has become much more than a library where you went to find and consume information. It has become a collaborative environment, where the information becomes something that we participate with, rather than simply read and believe.

Social networks, blogging, p2p file sharing, community media, and Wikipedia are only a few of the applications that are turning the Internet into a platform for knowledge gathering and creation. It is no longer, just a source to be cited. It's a dynamic flow of information that demands engagement.

Our AUPs must adapt to this new information landscape, and they must be adaptable.

Here are a number of suggested goals for AUP 2.0:

• Define and describe the reasons why access to digital, networked, and abundant content are being facilitated by your school or school district. Describe the instructional and management benefits and the reason why the information infrastructure is critical to the mission of your school or district.
• Describe the benefits-aligned practices and applications that are being provided for and encouraged, and who can utilize them.
• Describe conditions for experimenting and evaluating practices and applications not identified in the document.
• Define and describe broader information ethics issues, within the context of the school's/district's information infrastructure, including but not limited to: copyright, information integrate, and respect for the infrastructure.
• Describe the information infrastructure of the school or district, including hardware, software, and support staffing.
• Define and describe practices and applications that are prohibited by the administration and the consequences for using the information infrastructure in these ways.
• Define and describe technical and procedural practices that will be applied to the information infrastructure to monitor and restrict use and abuse.
• Provide support materials or access to support materials to assist faculty, staff, and students in learning to make appropriate, productive, and safe use of the information infrastructure.

Image Citation: Gragasin, Angeline. "Technology is Important." Angelinegragasin's Photostream. 22 Nov 2007. 8 May 2008 <http://flickr.com/photos/angelinegragasin/2055854959/>.

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