Acceptable Use Policy Overload

   
  When I first started researching my district's acceptable use policy (AUP), I was bombarded with an eight page document that I needed to reread several times in order to grasp the concepts and big ideas. Those eight pages did not include the additional two pages of a filtering policy, the two pages for cyber bullying and social networking education,  the four page staff AUP signature agreement, or the eight page student AUP signature agreement. I wanted to take the student AUP and modify that, however when I pulled it up, parts were blacked out and I was unable to read the majority of it. I decided to look at the eight page AUP along with the policy in place for filtering. I took the two of those documents and condensed them into a one page document. I did keep a lot of the terminology but also tweaked it so that it is a little more user friendly.

Here is my revised addition of my district's current AUP:

I also chose to incorporate some of the key ideas that caught my attention from the YouTube video featuring  Bud Hunt, Joe Wood and Mike Gras. I appreciated Joe Wood's input that the network belongs to the children and teachers as they make up the majority usage, along with his closing relating to technology and policies being that it is all about education and expectations of behaviors. I took away that he was stating that  if staff and students are educated on behaviors and expectations for usage, you will have the community that Bud Hunt was stating in his final statement. I would like to believe that most teachers in our building understand the pressure that our technology department is under and look up to them as powerful resources whom we are grateful for whenever we see them enter our room, as it means they have heard our cries and are coming to rescue us! Bud Hunt also made me realize how stretched technology departments, within school districts, truly are. I know that our tech department would probably be better off with a  few more staff members which would help alleviate the long hours they put in all year long. They are just as much a district employee as I am and their job would run more smoothly if the other employees within the district were more educated on our technology resources. Finally, I feel that our tech department in our district does just what Mike Gras said, they trust their teachers. When I have a problem with a  site link not working or if we have a site that was once accessed (new security this past year) then we just have to fill out an online tech request and it will be taken care of. We even receive alerts when it has been assigned, who it is assigned to and once it has been resolved.
At the conclusion of the week's readings and assignment, I have a greater appreciation for the work that our technology department puts into our district, the policies it has to uphold as well as creating and revising policies with the school board. I would love to obtain access to our student AUP signature piece and reword that into terminology that my students would understand. That piece would make a wonderful mini lesson during the first week of school in order to make students fully aware of what they and their parents are signing for.


These links will take  you to my district's list of policies as well as the individual policies that I used to create my own:
TASD- Policies
TASD-AUP
TASD-Criteria for Filtering





References:
Pyne Arts Technology. (Photographer). (2013). Student Acceptable Use Policy [Web Photo]. Retrieved from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF461wOyUOdeKGbF5ekERmcBFhzOCDCWuilNKhcoGaOewuII-4S6L0uWnVYs73kyiaNiYuVvl0A3V7ndQIpevBxJugvjeQq_5IrJg5TrT_d-IT1hxuRd9ukCemvcJ6aPt4zWDqtdqMEA/s1600/AUP.png

Shareski, D. (2014, March 16) EDIM516 Network Filtering [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sThQDRqMzYw&list=UUaAh-TmAdlzAuASh_fR6-gA

University of Missouri-College of Veterinary Medicine. (Photographer). (2013). Acceptable Use Policy [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://it.cvm.missouri.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/AcceptableUse.jpg