ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY FOR TECHNOLOGY (Revised August, 2006)
Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia
PURPOSE
Technology is a valuable educational vehicle. Our schools are committed to
teach its students, faculty, administrators, staff, and school community to
work and to learn effectively with technology and to ensure responsible use
of technology. The policy outlined below applies to all technology use
including, but not limited to Internet use. The Acceptable Use Policy for
Technology applies to all students, faculty, administrators, staff,
volunteers or community members allowed access to school technology
resources.
GOAL
The school’s goal is to prepare its members for life in an electronic,
global community. To this end, the school will:
• provide a variety of technology based tools
• teach technology skills
• integrate technology with curriculum
• encourage critical thinking and problem solving skills
• facilitate evaluation and synthesis of information
• encourage ethical practices
RESPONSIBILITIES OF USER
Our schools will make every effort to provide a safe environment for
learning with technology including Internet safeguards. The students,
faculty, administrators, staff, and school
community are granted the privilege of using the computer hardware and
software, peripherals, and electronic communication
tools including the Internet. With this privilege comes the responsibility
to use the equipment correctly, respect
the name and intellectual property of others, and follow the policies
outlined below.
TECHNOLOGY USE GUIDELINES
• Educational Purpose/ Appropriate Use: All technology use and Internet
access at schools for all faculty, staff and students is provided solely for
educational purposes. Educational sites and teacher created assignments are
to be used to enhance student learning. Students must not access
entertainment sites, for example social networking sites or gaming sites,
except for educational purposes under teacher supervision. Expressed
permission to use the Internet and hardware/software in any area of the
school must always be obtained.
• Copyright/Intellectual Property: All sources obtained for teacher and
student work should be properly cited. Users are to respect the rights of
and the intellectual property of others in accordance with Federal Copyright
Law. Transferring copyrighted material to or from a school without expressed
permission of the owner is a violation of Federal Law. • Examples of
Unacceptable Uses:
o Users must not use equipment to harass, threaten, deceive, intimidate,
offend, embarrass, or annoy any individual.
o Users must not post, publish, or display any defamatory, inaccurate,
violent, abusive, profane or sexually oriented material. Do not use obscene,
profane, lewd, vulgar, rude or threatening language. Do not knowingly or
recklessly post false information about any persons, students, staff or any
other organization.
o Users must not use a photograph, image or likeness of any student, or
employee without express permission of that individual and of the principal.
Users must not use school equipment to create any site, post any photo,
image or video of another except with express permission of that individual
and theprincipal. Maintaining or posting material to a Web site or blog that
threatens a likelihood of substantial disruption in school, including
harming or interfering with the rights of other students to participate
fully in school or extracurricular activities is a violation of the
Acceptable Use Policy and subject to the disciplinary measure found herein.
o Users must not attempt to circumvent system security, guess passwords, or
in any way gain access to secured resources, another person’s files or
another person’s password.
o Users must not install, move, delete, download, upload, reconfigure, or
modify any software or files on school equipment without permission.
o Users must not move, repair, reconfigure, modify, or attach external
devices to the systems without permission.
o Users must not deliberately visit a site known for unacceptable material
or any material that is not in support of educational objectives. Students
must not access entertainment sites, for example social networking sites
such as myspace.com or facebook.com or gaming sites, except for educational
purposes under teacher supervision.
o Users are not to plagiarize content and may not present the work of
another as their own without properly citing that work.
o Users must not violate license agreements, copy disks, CD-ROMs, or other
protected media. Users must not use technology for any illegal activity. Use
of the Internet for commercial gains or profits is not allowed from an
educational site.
• Reporting: Users must report immediately any damage or change to the
school’s hardware/software that is noticed by the user.
• Electronic Devices: Users must adhere to local school policy regarding the
use of additional electronic devices including but not limited to personal
digital assistants (PDA), calculators, gaming devices, cellular phones, and
pagers. Access will be determined by the administrator of the school. The
school’s technology policy regarding authorization, use, responsibility,
integrity, intellectual property, and monitoring will be applied to these
devices.
• Administrative Rights: The Office of Catholic Education or the school
administration at any time may add additional rules and restrictions. The
school has the right to monitor both student and employee use of school
computers. Violation of the above rules will be dealt with by the
administration of the school. Violation of these rules may result in any or
all of the following:
• Loss of use of the school network, computers and software, including
Internet access. The student will be expected to complete work on a non-
networked, stand-alone computer system. • Issuance of demerits/detentions,
if applicable.
• Disciplinary action including, but not limited to, dismissal and/or legal
action by the school, civil authorities, or
other involved parties.