This week we had to research different AUPs including our own schools and compare them using the six elements that the National Education Association suggested as components of an effective AUP. My first thoughts were what is an AUP! After researching, I discovered that my school does have one that was developed 2 years ago by our Instructional Technology Specialist. It actually took me two days to access the document through our school website. It was in Google Docs and I had to request permission in order to view. I wondered why the document wasn’t just attached as a word document. What if parents or students wanted to access it quickly? It was written in a kid friendly manor using Poudre School Districts AUP as a guide. It was short and sweet, but lacking three of the six elements of an effective AUP!
So, this week I learned that revising an AUP is not an easy task! I looked at over 7 different AUP’s so I can get an idea of what different districts are adding to their AUPs. There was no consistency on layout, organization, or content. I got different ideas from each of the AUPs and then changed my
schools. I was confused along the way by how detail to word the AUP. Some of the AUPs were vague and open to interpretation and others were very detailed and left no room for misunderstanding. Some had lots of negative words and others were more positive. I thought it would have been easier to create my AUP with someone else at my school where we could talk and reflect on what we as a school thought was important to get across in the AUP.
I added and deleted statements over and over again struggling with how long it was getting. Are parents and students really going to read a four page policy? At the end I was happy how it turned out. I think it is a start, but in order for it to be effective I think all parties involved should have input into how it is written. I don’t teach with kids accessing the Internet every day. I teach Kindergarten. I’m sure other teachers and our technology specialist has a different view point about how our schools AUP should be written. I do think that it should reflect the beliefs of the school and how they approach technology. If I were a parent reading a policy I’d want it to focus on more positives than negatives. I’d like to add more acceptable uses to my policy so they outnumber the unacceptable use
section. Perhaps I could talk to teachers and get more specifics about how their students use the Internet.
My school also has a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy as well. I was wondering if the Internet Use Policy and the BYOD Policy could somehow be combined to reflect a Technology Policy at our school. MMMMmmmm!
Below is the AUP I created.
So, this week I learned that revising an AUP is not an easy task! I looked at over 7 different AUP’s so I can get an idea of what different districts are adding to their AUPs. There was no consistency on layout, organization, or content. I got different ideas from each of the AUPs and then changed my
schools. I was confused along the way by how detail to word the AUP. Some of the AUPs were vague and open to interpretation and others were very detailed and left no room for misunderstanding. Some had lots of negative words and others were more positive. I thought it would have been easier to create my AUP with someone else at my school where we could talk and reflect on what we as a school thought was important to get across in the AUP.
I added and deleted statements over and over again struggling with how long it was getting. Are parents and students really going to read a four page policy? At the end I was happy how it turned out. I think it is a start, but in order for it to be effective I think all parties involved should have input into how it is written. I don’t teach with kids accessing the Internet every day. I teach Kindergarten. I’m sure other teachers and our technology specialist has a different view point about how our schools AUP should be written. I do think that it should reflect the beliefs of the school and how they approach technology. If I were a parent reading a policy I’d want it to focus on more positives than negatives. I’d like to add more acceptable uses to my policy so they outnumber the unacceptable use
section. Perhaps I could talk to teachers and get more specifics about how their students use the Internet.
My school also has a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy as well. I was wondering if the Internet Use Policy and the BYOD Policy could somehow be combined to reflect a Technology Policy at our school. MMMMmmmm!
Below is the AUP I created.
kalvels_lt3__aup_created_for_bethke_elemschool.docx |