Acceptable Use and Technology Policies

Where I work, there are many technology policies. The newest one stems from the initiative for middle school students to go 1:1 with laptops. This is our first year trying it out, and I find the Student Technology Contract hilarious, yet effective. Take a look.

Student Technology Contract [digital image]. Anonymous, 2019.

If a student doesn't take care of their laptop, it will get taken away and it will be replaced with an older version or revert to pen and paper. I find this so funny.

One of the things I wish they would have added to this would be the use of social media, even though most of the students are not old enough based on the Terms of Service Agreements for the social media sites., many of them lie about their age to get accounts.

While on the district network, sites like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and the like are blocked, even for staff, unless they are on their own connection to the internet. There is Board Policy that relates to staff use of technology as well and it includes the use of personal devices and district provided devices. The last time it was updated was 2018. When you are a new hire in the district, you also have to sign a technology use contract. 

The basics of the Board Policy for the Usage and Conduct of Technology are:
"All use of the District’s electronic networks must be: (1) in support of education and/or research, and be in furtherance of the goals stated herein, or (2) for legitimate school business purpose. Use is a privilege, not a right. Board of Education Members have no expectation of privacy in any material that is stored, transmitted, or received via the District’s electronic networks or District computers."


All the rest of the language refers to other policies such as Privacy, Ethics, Conduct, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Copyright.

The District doesn't allow teachers to post anything related to students on their private social media accounts. There is a best practice of submitting their photos to the official school Twitter and Facebook accounts to be posted there. One simple reason is that parents/guardians haven't given permission for individuals to post information about their children publicly. As a parent myself, I'm grateful for this. I should be the one that decides what is published publicly about my child.

Here are a couple of great posts that fall closely in line with my beliefs on the oversharing teachers are doing online from the classroom: https://funnymonkey.com/2016/students-and-social-media and here is part II: https://funnymonkey.com/2016/students-directory-information-and-social-media---part-2

Many teachers don't realize that by posting pictures of their students, they are more than likely posing a risk to those students. I know of a recent story (not in the district I work in) where a family had to be relocated after a picture of the student showed up on social media. The family was in witness protection prior to the photo being released. I can't even imagine how much guilt that teacher felt after that happened.