Acceptable Use Policy and Safety

 Happy Wednesday!

We are half-way through the week. This is a short-long week for me. Tomorrow are 4th quarter parent/teacher conferences. My students and I have been prepping for conferences because they are student led this time. They are getting excited as they have been reflecting on the year and completing their presentation for their families. IAR state testing also started today for third grade. There have been lots of emotions as this is their first state test EVER! My students couldn't believe that the test use to be on paper booklets. With that being said, this week I will be touching more on technology privileges at my school. This week, I have been reviewing my school districts Acceptable Use Policy and how students and staff can stay safe on the internet. 

Photo Creds: Unity Point District 140 Website

Unity Point School Technology Policy and Handbook

This week I took a deep dive into my school district's website. There were lots of valuable resources on our website regarding technology. Here is the link to see the various resources Unity Point shares with family, staff and students. These articles linked help teachers and families become more educated on student data privacy. There are websites linked to share important data privacy laws as well. My school district gives a quick summary of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), and Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA). I think our website gives a great overview and resources the the communities within our school. I believe this is a great way to inform parents to know how their child is being protected despite technology use. However, as I explored Unity Point's website I had difficulties finding an updated Student Handbook. This is the Student/Parent Handbook on the website. As you may notice, the handbook has not been updated since 2018-2019 school year. Although some of the information is accurate, I was able to find the 2023-2024 Student/Parent Handbook in our Drive. 

Here is the updated Google Docs to view our Handbook for 2024. Here you can find the Acceptable Use under the District Computer System and Internet Safety Policy on pages 51-56. The last page of this section includes the student agreement for technology usage. In the Acceptable Use section, my school focused on how students could use the devices. However, under the Prohibited Use section the handbook shared details on what not to do on a school device. Before sharing the Prohibited Use, they stated "Access to the System is provided as a privilege by the District and may be revoked at any time. Inappropriate use may result in discipline, including loss of System use privileges." Overall, I think the technology policy could use some updates with the advancements of AI and other new technology features. I would also recommend that our school updates the handbook to this school year. It seems like it hasn't been updated for quite some time. 

Safety for Kids and Adults

As technology continues to advance each day, I think it is important for all users to be aware of their safety on the web. For example, scammers are getting more knowledgable with how to get people to click their links. I think this is an extremely important topic. Phishing has been a topic for many universities and school districts. There was actually an incident in my school district a few years ago. Someone had created an email account as one of the staff members and it looked legit. This then led to them getting ahold of a staffs direct deposits. I have also had an incident with emails that I thought were coming from Amazon. This then led to me entering my information and someone else was collecting access to my account. I also had several scam emails sent to my SIU email account when I was completing my undergrad. There were job offers that seemed real and one of my friends applied. Later on, they received a check and tried to deposit it and it was consider fraud.  However, you can be more cautious by taking this quiz and learning more! I think this would also be a great lesson to teach at school, so students can start to become more aware of their surroundings on the internet.