Acceptable Use... where does it apply?

Omaha Public Schools does have an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Teachers are asked to sign a AUP document each year and I believe that students are also made aware of AUP expectations if not required to sign something themselves. There is definitely a section within the Student Handbook which outlines the AUP. One of the items within the ‘Interactive, Web-based Publishing’ section really stood out to me. This portion of the Policy outlines use of weblogs and social networking sites. Posts should be filters for language, in some cases it must be a site evaluated by the Technology Curriculum Committee. As I perused the whole document I noticed that it is the responsibility of the principal to monitor individual staff websites. The policy however does not clearly define if these are all individual’s sites or only work related sites.

Appropriate use while at school (or work) is something that most people are familiar with, even if they do not always follow these practices. Facilities also install blocking software which prevents access to materials deemed inappropriate for a wide variety of reasons. This is sometimes frustrating because these can prevent us from accessing websites, video clips and things like that which would positively add to our teaching. However the concept of appropriate use is often not observed outside the work/school environment. Teachers have all heard stories about administrators, teachers and coaches across the country who have gotten into trouble professionally for things which they have said/done/posted on their personal sites. This is of course not limited to education, look at Rep. Weiner if you need any more proof that people do stupid things with technology without recognizing the extent of the potential consequences.

I find that young people especially do not understand the concept of being cautious online, nor do they understand the public access component of being online. Despite the fact that student athletes sign a contract to play sports which clearly states they will not drink nor be around other drinking, I had a student who was outraged that they got in trouble at school and kicked out of sports because of the pictures posted on their Facebook page of them drinking underage. The student felt it was equivalent to administrators looking through a photo album in her room and that what she did in her personal life should have zero impact on anything else.





In an era where there are more applicants than there are job postings and some potential employers are asking on applications about what personal websites the applicant has, you would think that people would become concerned with what it out there… and there might be more than you think. I have a personal email, and this blog that’s the extent of my online life; but Google me for a different story. I pop up in a site called Mylife, PeopleAZ, Facebook in addition to Burke’s website and our class blog. Granted I share my name with a few other people out there… but one of these sites included my age, that I am in Omaha, and my maiden name (misspelled!).