Tom O’Connor
Date 12/3/99
The best way for schools to solve the problem of providing lawful and safe opportunities for students to take advantage of the educational uses of the Internet is by preparation of an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). The Internet is a powerful way to reach out to the students to help them learn more instead of just using their textbooks. Teachers must be knowledgeable of the content that the students may get into besides educational material. The teachers and schools who are guiding students to proper use of the Internet should set up an Acceptable Use Policy. The purpose of an Acceptable Use Policy is to "define how students can use the Internet in schools." (Marcroft, 1) It should tell the students what they can and they cannot do while using the Internet . A well written Acceptable Use Policy will help make a number of issues clear to students including "access rights; network privileges and system safety; vandalism and destructive behavior; copyright issues and academic integrity; privacy and personal safety; illegal activities; appropriate language and material; and proper use of computer time." (O’Donovan, 1)
Every year the, the Internet becomes a more integral and powerful part of our educational system., while more and more schools take advantage of this technology. Through the Internet student can learn about and experience things that they never could from a book alone. Thanks to the Internet, students "can now take fascinating field trips without leaving their seats. " (Marcroft, 1) They can also interact with other students halfway across the globe. But, in addition to its great opportunities as an educational resource, the Internet also contains material which is inappropriate for young students. Web sites which emphasize hate, violence, and sexual topics are not healthy ideas to expose students to. There are many of these sites on the Internet. Even without looking for these sites, students may accidentally encounter them through a routine search for educational information.
One way to control Internet content is by using filtering software. This is software that screens our content that fits a definition selected by the user. The main problem with designing and using this type of software is "how to deny access to undesired sites without overblocking." (Marcroft, 3). By setting up criteria for the software to use you may screen out harmless sites which have real educational uses. Some software is designed to screen out inappropriate web sites by comparing any sites to be downloaded to a list of sites that should be blocked. Other sites screen out certain word or phrase patterns. All of these methods are effective to a certain extent. But no method is perfect because it cannot anticipate all and evaluate every site content without mistakes. Filtering software is an important element in addressing student safety issues, but "while such measures have a place, they can also throw out educational babies with the bath water." (Dyrli, 2) How can a student get access to useful information about breast feeding if the word breast is filtered out?
Another issue which follows from the overuse of filtering software is whether use of the Internet is a right or a privilege. "In a free and democratic society, access to information is a fundamental right". (Carter, 3) If the use of computers for research is a principal means of getting information, then depriving students of the Internet may be equivalent to taking away their books. With or without filtering software, the most valid approach is to teach students how to be responsible for the correct use of technology so that they are able to make good choices themselves. An Acceptable Use Policy may help to provide the proper environment for the development of student responsibility. Teachers have a legal and moral responsibility to protect the young people in their care. Yet they also have a responsibility to provide their students with the best learning tools possible. If they stop students from using the Internet altogether, they deprive them of an exciting state of the art learning tool. If they allow unrestricted Internet access, they place student’s safety and school’s liability at risk. And if they allow students to use the Internet as long as teachers monitor their activities, they find that teachers simply cannot look over every students shoulder all at once. Teachers must decide how to balance out the censorship against the students right to information. An Acceptable Use Policy that teaches students how to make good decisions will have the most results.
The first step a school should take is to set the rules for the Internet use so that everyone, ,from students to teachers to parents, knows what is acceptable Internet behavior. An Acceptable Use Policy clearly delineates how students are expected to make use of school provided Internet access and how not to use it. The definition of Acceptable use Policy varies not only from school to school, but from place to place, time to time, or user to user within a single school. Particularly when each teacher uses the same computers as their students, the administrators must take users needs into account when creating an AUP.
Certainly , every school's AUP should declare that unacceptable behaviors are subject to disciplinary action, including written warnings and revocation of access privileges. It should state that the school reserves the right to report any illegal activities to the appropriate authorities and of course the AUP should be well understood by those who created the Acceptable Use Policy. Schools need to publish an Acceptable Use Policy to ensure that students do not abuse Internet or E-Mail privileges , and the AUP should emphasize the need to make smart decisions.
An AUP should not be confusing or needlessly long. A one or two page AUP which is written in clear language will achieve much more that one that goes on about issues that no one understands, The AUP should explain the language and behavior that are permitted in clear language, and it should explain the consequences that come from abusing Internet access. Schools can find good models in a AUP from other schools that use it, but they should always modify them to suit their particular situation. It should make it clear that students are expected to use proper courteous language in dealing with others electronically. "The Internet is viewed as a virtual community and the common rules of courtesy and common sense apply." (Carter, 1) The consequences of behavior should always be expressed in positive terms as a continuation of privileges rather than as a potential loss of the privilege. An AUP, properly written can make the challenge of the Internet much easier for students and teachers alike.