Acceptable Use Policies
Acceptable Use Policies remind me a lot of Terms of Services. I feel as though both are necessary yet few people actually read them. In high school, I went to one of the first schools in my area that students each had their own laptop. I don't recall if I ever signed an Acceptable Use Policy but I can assure you I never read through it. I knew the basics of what you should not do on the school laptops. The school did their best to block any social media sites and game sites. However, students always found a proxy website to get past that. Once the school realized this, they would block those proxies. However, new proxy websites were made daily so it was something students always found a way to get past. I am sure using proxy websites was against the Acceptable Use Policy but students never received consequences for it.
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Thinking back on my experience makes me wonder how much my students know about our district's Acceptable Use Policy. Being that this is the first time I have seen our AUP, I was shocked to see how small it was. I believe it is missing important information that students should know. It does not have any information on how to be safe digital citizens. The main focus of the AUP is what types of electronics may be used and where. It is my belief that this AUP focuses on what students should not do rather than what they should do. In this case, it is more of a Non-acceptable Use Policy. In order to improve, visualizations could be added to the policy to make it more readable. There should also be more information on how to safely and responsibly use electronic devices. Administrators along with our technology coaches could collaborate to make these improvements.
I realized there was no mention of educators in the AUP. It was mainly directed to students. Although this doesn't seem like a big deal because we are all adults and should know these things, I still believe adults could be better educated on how to safely use electronic devices. This was made even more clear to me when I checked if my e-mail has ever been in a data breach. The website told me my e-mail has been in 7 data breaches. Unfortunately, I have been notified of this before, but I rarely do anything about it. I can be much more careful on my selection of passwords when I make accounts. I know we are not supposed to use the same passwords on all of our accounts, yet it is common among adults to do it anyway. I also did a security check-up on Google. My back-up e-mail account was an account that I have not had access to since I was about 13 years old. That could have been a big problem. Luckily, I changed that. The Snapchat Thief was an extremely eye-opening podcast. I have been notified before that someone has logged into my snapchat from another country. I thought it wasn't a big deal because it's just snapchat. I didn't even think about all the photos that are saved in the app and how much information those could give away. This probably had something to do with using similar passwords as other websites that have had data breaches. It is important to take the correct steps when you know your data has been breached to avoid further issues.
I loved your comparison of AUPs to ToS' and that no one really reads them even though they are both important. Excellent idea, as well, to include visuals into the student AUP. Even better, it would be great to have a student committee that did this.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa,
ReplyDeleteYou were lucky your school gave you a laptop in high school! At my high school, the only computers we had were the teachers' desktop computers or computers in the technology classes. I would agree with you though, if I had to read an "Acceptable Use Policy" I probably would not have read it. Looking at our district's Electronic Use Policy, I was shocked to read that it was more so about what students should NOT do, rather than what they should do. A visual on do's and don'ts would be an awesome addition to the policy. I did the security check up on Google as well. I'm happy you changed your back-up e-mail!
Hi Alyssa,
ReplyDeleteI had a similar reaction to yours about the Acceptable Use Policy and how little it seems to come up in our district, even though all staff and students had to sign an Authorization for Electronic Access form before being issued their district technology. I was struggling to even find our AUP and had to pop in my department chair's office to see if he knew where to locate it. I really like your idea to include some visualizations in the AUP. That would definitely allow all people engaging with it to have a clearer understanding of the key details and perhaps make it easier to hold individuals accountable for the stipulations.