Recently, a middle school student at one of our local school districts was proclaimed the national winner of the Doodle4Google contest. The district was proud of her accomplishment and they wanted to publicize it on their web site. But because of the rules of their AUP, they were not allowed to mention her name! You could go to Doodle4Google page and see her name. However, the local district was left to merely announce that “one of their students” had won!

I see that their site has been recently updated however. The student is now given full credit.

I believe what you said about “Otherwise it’s just another bunch of words from somewhere else” is exactly what is happening.

I believe a lot of schools (more than we would probably care to admit) are grabbing AUP’s off the internet, doing a simple find and replace to put their school name in, and are having their students/parents sign an AUP that was not even written for their school — probably never haven read it before mass producing it for signatures.

Grins, I can safely say this, because I know one of my past schools did, and I got the idea from another school.

So, while yes, I agree it COULD be a legal document – how I am seeing them used, distributed, and not fine-tuned for “that” schools use — basically we have again printed out useless pieces of paper — and for what purpose — just to say “We have an AUP?”

Smiles, now I am stirred up a bit.
And THAT is a good thing.
Jen

Jen, I’d be tempted to say, “let’s put up a wiki and we can all work on it together” however, I think that every local stakeholder group has to own this issue. Otherwise it’s just another bunch of words from somewhere else.

David, The AUP shouldn’t be the only thing that covers technology, or ethical behavior for that matter. But right now, it is often the ONLY message that parents and students get about school computer use. The other problem is that they are so one-sided, it’s a sure way to have students ignore them. And we often call them “contracts” — as if there was some two-way agreement between the signing parties. Students clearly hear the message, that they are not to be trusted.

How about an AUP that lists rights for the student (or for that matter, teachers) to working, usable hardware, to an Internet connection that hasn’t been filtered down to uselessness, to an email system that works, or to timely tech support?

A contract is two-way street.

An AUP should be empowering, not dis-empowering. Again, we should look at AUPs as an opportunity, not just a CMA tool.

Thanks, Sylvia. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

Thanks for bringing this up — I had brought up the same during a panel at a recent conference and was pretty much shhhhhed on what I was trying to say.

I know at my school — our AUP is a discipline plan and not a plan of usage. However, our network is so locked down that the AUP at times seems ridiculous because they can’t really do the things the AUP tells them not to (unless they hack into the system!)
I would love to change the wording, but the “higher ups” feel that an AUP protects us — not sure from what we are protecting……but for now, it is their decision.

I would truly enjoy having a parent/student/teacher/admin collective group that works on an AUP together…..one that shares the possibilities instead of the consequences.

Jennifer