ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

222 North Seventeenth Street • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103-1299    

Telephone: 215-587-3700 • Fax: 215-587-5644

OFFICE OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION

Director of Technology K-12

ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

FOR TECHNOLOGY

Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

PURPOSE

Technology is a valuable educational tool. 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 a digital, global community. To this end, the school will:

            • provide a variety of technology based tools

            • teach technology skills

            • integrate technology with curriculum to enhance teaching and learning

            • encourage critical thinking and problem solving skills

            • facilitate evaluation and synthesis of information

            • encourage ethical practices and provide education for internet safety and digital    citizenship

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 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 and Identity: 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. When using school technology, teachers and students are to use their assigned user name and password at all times. Each person is reminded to log off of their assigned account before leaving a computer unattended.

• Communications: Electronic and/or Digital communications with students should be conducted for educationally appropriate purposes and employ only school sanctioned means of communication.  The school sanctioned communications methods include: Teacher school web page, teacher school email, teacher school phone number and educationally focused networking sites.

Teachers or administrators in their normal responsibilities and duties may be required to contact parents outside of the school day.  A teacher or administrator is free to contact parents using a home phone or a personal cell phone. However, they should not purposely distribute a home phone number or a personal cell phone number to students.  If a student contacts a teacher or administrator using a teacher or administrator’s personal numbers, email or networking sites, the teacher or administrator should immediately report this to the administrator or appropriate authorities.

• Electronic and Mobile Devices: Use of any technology oriented device in our schools should have an educational focus. 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. If a particular mobile device is to be used for educational purpose, the school administration and/or teacher will provide parameters for this use.

N.B. The types of electronic and digital communications referenced in this AUP include, but are not limited to, social networking sites, cell phones, digital cameras, text messaging, email, voice over ip, chat rooms and instant messaging.

• Examples of Unacceptable Uses:

o Users must not use equipment to harass, threaten, deceive, intimidate, offend, embarrass, or annoy any individual. Users must not post, publish, or display any defamatory, inaccurate, violent, abusive, profane or sexually oriented material.  Users must not use obscene, profane, lewd, vulgar, rude or threatening language.  Users must not knowingly or recklessly post false information about any persons, students, staff or any other organization. 

o Users must not use a photograph, image, video 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 the principal.  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 or teachers 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. Users must not install, move, delete, download, upload, reconfigure, or modify any software or files on school equipment without permission. 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 social networking sites 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.  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.

• Administrative Rights:   The school has the right to monitor both student and employee use of school computers and computer accessed content.  Due to the evolving nature of Technology, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Office of Catholic Education reserves the right to amend or add to this policy at any time without notice.

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.