General Administration AP 140 - Appendix A: Acceptable Use of Technology Procedures

For Staff and Students of the Division.

Introduction

ICT is now available to students and staff of the Division as well as other members of the public throughout its classrooms and offices. We are very pleased to bring this technology to these stakeholders and believe it offers diverse, and unique resources to them. Our goal in providing these services is to promote educational excellence in classrooms and administrative productivity in offices.

Terms and Conditions

1. Acceptable Use
   The use of the Division's ICT must be in support of education and research, and consistent with the educational objectives of the Division. Use of other organizations' network or computing resources must comply with the rules appropriate for that network. Transmission of any material in violation of any federal or provincial regulation is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material, threatening or obscene material, or material protected by trade secret.
2. Privileges
   The use of ICT is a privilege. Each student who accesses the Division's ICT must review these procedures with a Division faculty member. In cases of dispute, the Superintendent will deem what is inappropriate use, and the Superintendent's decision is final. Senior Division administrators may prevent access to these technologies any time as required. The Principal may request the Superintendent to deny, revoke, or suspend specific user access. The Division expects teachers to monitor student access for which he or she is responsible. This may include random checks to determine whether the Division's ICT is being used in a manner that is consistent with this agreement. Students accepting access to Division ICT consent to such monitoring.
3. Responsibilities
   1. Access to ICT is viewed as a privilege, not a right. You are expected to abide by the generally accepted rules of and etiquette of using ICT. See Appendix C.
   2. ICT is to be used for educational and research purposes and/or the support of those purposes consistent with the educational objectives of the Division.
   3. The Division requires that the teacher monitor student ICT use, including e-mail, to see that the systems are being used for the intended purposes and that such use does not pose a risk to and is compatible with the Division's systems.
4. Software Downloading and Installation
   Users of the Division's ICT shall not download or install software applications or operating systems to individual work stations, servers, or other devices that are not on the Division's list of approved and supported software. The Director of Information Technology and Digital Communications or designate has the right to remove, completely erase or re-format the user's hard disk drive or other storage device without warning to eliminate any software applications or services that are determined to have a negative impact on the performance on the Division's ICT. The extent of negative impact is entirely within the discretion of the Director to determine.
5. Hardware Installation and/or Modification
   Users of the Division's ICT shall not install or modify any hardware component without informing the Director of Information Technology and Digital Communications or designate.
   Hardware components are those identified in Definitions on page one of this Administrative Procedure.
6. Web Page Creation
   1. The school's Webmaster must be an employee of the Division and is the only one to post the page on the Division's web site.
   2. The Principal must give final approval and is ultimately responsible for web pages posted on the school or Division web site.
   3. Division personnel wishing to create and publish web pages for purposes related to their employment shall ensure:
      1. The content of the page portrays the Division in a positive manner.
      2. The content of the page is educationally relevant and is free of copyright infringement.
      3. Their pages link from the school's web page and vice versa.
      4. That all links on the page are verified regularly and do not connect to other pages containing offensive and otherwise inappropriate material.
      5. That student generated web pages are sponsored by a teacher leader and are in compliance with FOIP legislation.
      6. The teacher leader will be informed of changes to any web pages they have sponsored.
      7. The Web page is formatted according to the Division's formatting standards.
      8. Final drafts of the page are submitted to the school's webmaster for initial approval.
      9. The school's webmaster shall regularly ensure that the information contained on school web pages is accurate and current.
7. User-owned devices.
   1. Devices not the property of the Division will be subject to Administrative Procedure 140 - Acceptable Use of ICT when they are on school premises, present during school-sponsored activities, and/or connected to Division networks. All policies, privileges, responsibilities and procedures that apply to Division-owned equipment will also apply to user owned equipment.
   2. Users must follow the same standards of conduct when using user-owned devices as would be expected when using Division-owned equipment.

Disclaimer

The Fort McMurray Public School Division makes no warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, for the service that is provided. Neither the Division nor any of its sites will be responsible for any damages you suffer, including loss of data resulting from delays or service interruptions. Use of information obtained via the Division's ICT is at your own risk. The Division specifically denies any responsibility for the accuracy or quality of information obtained through Division computer facilities.