The definition of acceptable use policy according to the United States Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics states the “purpose of such a policy is to inform users of the ground rules on web use, thereby protecting them and the education organization from violations of law, practices that would damage the system, or misunderstandings regarding responsibility for user actions.” (n.d.).  Their website goes on to provide guidelines for posting information on a school’s website, types of content to include, usability guidelines, student’s rights, cyberbullying, netiquette, social media, and copyright compliance.  The website is very informative and highly recommended to review before creating your own school’s website. 

In addition to the recommendation of what to include on your website, it also gives guidelines about the rights and responsibilities of both students and teachers within the school. A couple things I noticed while researching this is that each one is just a little different. Some are more inclusive than others, some are updated every school year, and some give repercussions of not following them. Almost all of them require the students and/or parent to sign and return the form to the school every year.

Acceptable Use Policies are there for the protection of the students, teachers, and school. According to Education World, most AUPs are broken down into several categories including a “preamble, a definition section, a policy statement, an acceptable use section, an unacceptable use section and a violations sections” (2009). While the preamble focuses mainly on the goals and why it is needed; the definition section focuses on clearly identifying the meaning of words like computer network and educational purpose. Following this you usually find the policy section which describes the types of computer use the students can have. The acceptable and non-acceptable sections obviously describe what should and should not be done and the importance of digital citizenship. Finally, the violations section will explain in detail the repercussions of not following the policy. Unless the student is over 18 years of age, the policy is usually signed by both the parent and the student.

Here are a few examples of Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) from educational facilities that I reviewed:

Seattle Public School District

Portland Public School District

Everett Public School District

Columbia School District

As more and more schools and students connect to the internet every year, it is becoming even more important that we guide our students to become good digital citizens. In addition to the students signing the policy, it is very important that teachers review this information in class, throughout the school year, to help our students understand how important this is.

References:

Education World. (2009). Getting started on the internet: Developing an
acceptable use policy (AUP). https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr093.shtml

Emma. (2019, June 3). Federal law and acceptable use policies. https://learnsafe.com/federal-law-and-acceptable-use-policies/

National Center for Education Statistics. (n.d.). https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/tech_suite/app_C.asp