Dear Sir or Madam:

I would first and foremost like to express my gratitude for your time reading this letter and
considering what I have to say about our school’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). As we all
know, we are attempting to transition between a solely teacher-centered classroom into one
where students have much more autonomy and are trusted to handle their computers and all
associated software at school and at home. In short, we are endeavoring to include more distance
education practices in our teaching; we are allowing students the chance to participate in their
schooling beyond the four walls of the physical classroom and the allotted time they are to have
face-to-face interactions with their teachers and classmates. This, ultimately will help prepare
students for a more asynchronous learning experience when they enter college and they myriad
different careers that rely on distanced communications.

Of course, with this responsibility comes the need for students (and their parents) to take
ownership of the time and money we spend on ensuring this process is effective and beneficial.
With that in mind, I have reviewed our AUP and would like to express some praise and concerns
for what is listed.

First, I would like to express some of the elements that work extremely well in this AUP. The
most relevant aspect of the AUP would be our discussion of plagiarism. “Students must not copy
intellectual property of other persons without giving credit.” What this leads to is the concept of
digital citizenship that is often expressed in AUPs. Since technology and online work is
becoming ubiquitous, we must ensure our students understand the importance of fair use. With
this comes what I feel would be an improvement on our AUP. There is not much of a discussion
of what intellectual property is. The laws tend to get muddled and confused, especially when
there are many different exceptions to rules. Perhaps it would be helpful for us to include a short,
helpful definition of what intellectual property is. In fact, this would benefit teachers as well as
we often have questions about the work we use in the classroom being “fair use.”

One other aspect of this AUP I feel is beneficial is our extensive use of what is unacceptable use
(such as harassment, abuse, bullying, etc.) The language in this section is clear and devoid of
unnecessarily complex legal jargon that can often get lost upon the students (not to mention the
parents). However, this type of accessible language is not seen throughout the document.
“Students will not try to circumvent, defeat, or disable any of the security means the District has
put in place to secure its network. Students shall not upload, download, use, or create malicious
software or attempt to harm or destroy District equipment or materials or the data of any other
students or staff.” There are moments when our wording should be concise and succinct; this
seems largely unnecessary when we could simply say there will be no disruption of any security
measures the District has set in place.

Even though this may not necessarily seem important to some, it is extremely useful to know
there are resources where students can go if there are any issues that arise. What this allows is for
students and parents to know where to locate our IT department as well and realize they do not
have to pay out of pocket for the computers given to them. Often, parents are apprehensive about
their children having expensive hardware because they do not want to pay for anything that
happens to their computers. The main issue with this is that there is a warning that students and
parents cannot hold the District responsible for what happens. “Students and their
parents/guardians agree not to hold the District or its staff responsible for the failure of any
technology protection measures…Students and their parents/guardians agree to indemnify and
hold harmless the District and its personnel for any damages or costs incurred as a result
thereof.” It seems a bit odd to claim towards the beginning of the document that students and
their guardians are not responsible for any damages and then claim they are responsible and must
pay for said damages.

All of this will ultimately benefit our further inclusion of distance education, allowing for
students to incorporate their acceptance of the AUP for their learning outside of the physical
classroom. To better improve this document and make it much more useful for our evolution in
education, we should include a section where we discuss the policies of distance education, such
as the idea that students will be expected to produce and publish work on the internet and will
complete their assignments on the computers and hardware given to them by the school.
Additionally, links to websites and resources to ensure they are up-to-date with the changes to
distance education as well as the definitions of the myriad terms they come across related to
distance education. We should also come together to discuss how often we will, as a District,
discuss our own changes and calibration of our AUP and distance education. Perhaps this would
be a good use of professional development opportunities in our District as well as our individual
school sites.

Thank you for your time in reading this letter and I look forward to discussing further some of
the concepts I have brought up.

Sincerely,
Eric Halterman