McKinnon Secondary College

Acceptable Use Policy

Rules and Guidelines for Appropriate Use of Computer Facilities

Version 2.4 - Policy last updated December 2007

The McKinnon Secondary College network is provided for staff and students to promote educational excellence by facilitating resource sharing, innovation and communication. All students are given full access to the network with an individual account. Students will also have college-administered individual email and full internet access. Any such facilities must be regarded as privileges which may be withdrawn for misuse of the resources. Student use of computer and network facilities will be monitored to ensure compliance with this policy document.

Computing facilities are provided primarily for the educational benefit of students and the professional development of staff. Any behaviour that interferes with these primary objectives will be considered an infringement of Acceptable Use.

1. General Policies

• Use of computer/internet resources for educational purposes has priority over other (recreational) uses
• Appropriate language must be used in all communications including email
• No user may deliberately or carelessly waste computer resources or disadvantage other users (eg by monopolising equipment, network traffic etc).
• Consideration must be given to avoiding inconvenience to other computer users. e.g. use headphones to listen to sound or music; leave computers ready for the next user to log in; not leave rubbish or paper lying around computers; replace furniture to normal positions when you leave.
• No person will use any college-provided technology or electronic services such as email or internet resources for the purposes of bullying, attacking, or intimidating any other person.

Summary of conditions

Students must not:

• Use any other person’s internet or network account, even with that person’s permission
• Use abusive or obscene language in any communications
• Steal, or deliberately or carelessly cause damage to any equipment
• Interfere with or change any software settings or other people’s files
• Attempt to get around or reduce network security
• Do anything in any other person's home directory
• Store unauthorised types of files in their own home directories
• Waste resources
• Send "spam" (bulk and/or unsolicited e-mail)
• Reveal personal information in any communications
• Deliberately enter, or remain in, web sites containing objectionable material
• Knowingly infringe copyright

2. Computer hardware

Computer facilities are expensive, sensitive and must be treated carefully.

Students must not:

• Do anything likely to cause damage to any equipment, whether deliberately or carelessly
• Steal equipment
• Vandalise equipment or furniture
• Mark or deface any equipment
• Interfere with networking equipment
• Eat or drink near any College-owned computer resources
• Attempt to repair equipment without permission
• Unplug cables or equipment
• Move equipment to another place
• Remove any covers or panels
• Disassemble any equipment
• Disable the operation of any equipment
• Bully any other person by electronic means.

Students must also report other people breaking these rules.

Note: Regardless of the real or supposed levels of understanding, students are NOT authorised to attempt the repair or adjustment of any college hardware or software. Any such attempt will be regarded as a violation of network security. Any problem with equipment or software must be referred to an authorised person.

3. Software and operating systems

Computer operating systems and other software must be set up properly for computers to be useful. Students will not:

• Change any computer settings (including screen savers, wallpapers, desktops, menus standard document settings, security settings etc) without permission
• Bring or download unauthorised programs, including games, to the college or run them on college computers.
• Delete, add or alter any configuration files
• Copy any copyrighted software to or from any computer, or duplicate such software
• Deliberately introduce any virus or program that reduces system security or effectiveness

4. Networks

Network accounts are to be used only by the authorised owner of the account.

If you find a computer logged in, you should do nothing in that account except log out.

It is the responsibility of students to make backup copies of their work. The college will exercise due care with backups but will not be held responsible for lost data.

Students must not:

• Attempt to log into the network with any user name or password that is not their own, or change any other person’s password
• Reveal their password to anyone except the system administrator or classroom teachers, if necessary. Students are responsible for everything done using their accounts, and everything in their home directories. Since passwords must be kept secret, no user may claim that another person entered their home directory and did anything to cause college rules to be broken.
• Use, possess, download or search for any program designed to reduce network security
• Enter any other person’s home directory (drive U:) or do anything whatsoever to any other person’s files
• Attempt to alter any person’s access rights
• Intentionally seek information on, obtain copies of, or modify files, other data or passwords belonging to other users.
• Store the following types of files in their home directory, without permission from the Computer Systems Manager:

o        Program files (EXE, COM), including games.

o        Large files that are not required for a class

o        Compressed files (ZIP, ARJ, LHZ, ARJ, TAR etc)

o        Picture files, unless they are required by a subject

o        Obscene material – pictures or text

o        Obscene filenames

o        Insulting material

o        Password-protected files

o        Copyrighted material

5. Printing

Students should minimise printing by print previewing, editing on screen rather than on printouts and spell-checking before printing.

Students must not load paper into printers without permission. Paper that is pre-used, torn, creased, damp, irregularly shaped or sized or unsuitable for laser printers should not be used in laser printers.

6. Internet use

Internet access is expensive and has been provided to assist students' education. Students must use it only with permission, and not in any unauthorised way. It is not intended for entertainment.

Because the Internet is an unsupervised environment, the school has a responsibility to ensure that, as far as possible, material obtained from the Internet is not offensive or inappropriate. To this end, filtering software has been placed on the Internet links. In the end, however, it is the responsibility of individual students to ensure their behaviour does not contravene college rules or rules imposed by parents/guardians.

The school is aware that definitions of "offensive" and "inappropriate" will vary considerably between cultures and individuals. The school is also aware that no security system is perfect and that there is always the possibility of inappropriate material, intentionally and unintentionally, being obtained and displayed.

It is the responsibility of the school to:-

• provide training on the use of the Internet and make that training available to everyone
• make users aware of the school’s Internet Access Policy
• take action to block the further display of offensive or inappropriate material that has appeared on the Internet links

6.2 Email

Electronic mail is a valuable tool for personal and official communication both within the college network and on the Internet. Students and staff are encouraged to use it and take advantage of its special features. As with all privileges its use involves responsibilities.

Throughout the Internet there are accepted practices known as Netiquette which should be followed. The following points should be noted:

• Use appropriate language and be polite in your messages. Do not be insulting, abusive, swear or use vulgarities.
• Never write hate mail, chain letters, harassment, discriminatory remarks and other antisocial behaviours. Therefore no messages should contain obscene comments, threats, sexually explicit material or expressions of bigotry or hatred.
• Do not reveal your personal address or the phone numbers of students or colleagues.
• Note that email is not guaranteed to be private. System administrators have access to all files including mail. Messages relating to illegal activities may be reported to the authorities.
• Teachers will set their own guidelines for use of electronic mail in class time.
• It is recommended that students posting messages to newsgroups "munge" their email addresses to prevent mail robots extracting their addresses. "Munging" alters the real address so it is clearly readable to humans but are invalid email addresses, e.g. e.g. smi0001 AT mckinnonsc DOT vic DOT edu DOT com

Students must not:

• send offensive mail
• send unsolicited mail to multiple recipients ("spam")
• send very large attachments
• leave mail on the server after it has been read
• use email for any illegal, immoral or unethical purpose
• attempt to disguise their identity or the true origin of their mail
• forge header messages or attempt to use any mail server for deceptive purposes
• use any mail program designed to send anonymous mail

6.3 Online chat (e.g. IRC, Windows Messenger etc)

Real-time chat programs are not to be used by students.  They pose serious risks to students’ well-being.

6.4 World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a vast source of material of all sorts of quality and content. The college will exercise all care in protecting students from offensive material, but the final responsibility must lie with students in not actively seeking out such material. It is conceivable that, especially for senior students, information is required for curriculum purposes that may appear to contravene the following conditions. In such cases, it is the responsibility of students and teachers to negotiate the need to access such sites.

• Students will not deliberately enter or remain in any site that has any of the following content:

o        Nudity, obscene language or sexual discussion intended to provoke a sexual response

o        Violence

o        Information on, or encouragement to commit any crime

o        Racism

o        Information on making or using weapons, boobytraps, dangerous practical jokes or "revenge" methods

o        Any other material that the student's parents or guardians have forbidden them to see

If students encounter any such site, they must immediately turn off the computer monitor (not the computer itself) and notify a teacher. Do not show your friends the site first.

• The Internet must not be used for commercial purposes or for profit.
• The Internet must not be used for illegal purposes such as spreading computer viruses or distributing/receiving software that is not in the public domain.
• It is inappropriate to act as though you intend to break the law e.g. by attempting to guess a password or trying to gain unauthorised access to remote computers. Even if such attempts are not seriously intended to succeed, they will be considered serious offences.
• Interactive use of the Internet should ensure that there is no possibility of the transmission of viruses or programs which are harmful to another user's data or equipment.
• Copyright is a complex issue that is not fully resolved as far as the Internet is concerned. It is customary to acknowledge sources of any material quoted directly and it is a breach of copyright to transmit another user's document without their prior knowledge and permission. This includes the use of images and text. It is safest to assume all content on web sites is the legal property of the creator of the page unless otherwise noted by the creator.

6.5 The College Web site

Material placed onto the school web site must:

• be checked for appropriateness and (as far as possible) accuracy
• not violate copyright
• have the written permission of a parent/guardian if the parent or guardian has requested such a veto
• not contain the home address or home phone number of an individual
• not contain the e-mail or web address of a student unless specifically required and requested

Links to sites beyond the school site must be checked for appropriate content. It must be recognised that the content of external sites may change after links have been made, and the college cannot be held responsible for the contents of linked sites, but the college must exercise all due care to ensure no objectionable material is directly accessible via links on our site.

7. Penalties

More than one may apply for a given offence. Serious or repeated offences will result in stronger penalties. Ban on lunchtime computer use

• Temporary ban on using computers
• Removal of email privileges
• Removal of internet access privileges
• Removal of home directory and network access (with consequent inability to satisfactorily complete unit requirements of the subject)
• Detention
• Paying to replace damaged equipment or compensate the college for stolen internet or printing credit
• Removal from classes where computer use is involved
• Suspension from College
• Criminal charges may be laid with the police
  

Acceptable Use Policy Agreement

For the use of college learning technology resources

Before students may use computer facilities at McKinnon Secondary College, they must sign this contract which binds them to the following conditions. If they break any of the conditions, appropriate penalties will be applied.

Your name: _________________________________________

Form: ________  Network login name: ___________________

I have read the Rules and Guidelines for Appropriate Use of Computer Facilities document and agree to obey the guidelines and conditions in it.

Signed by student: ________________________________   Date: ________________

This section must be completed by the parent or legal guardian of the student

I, the parent or guardian of ________________________ have read and understand the and Guidelines for Appropriate Use of Computer Facilities document. I agree that my child will observe these rules and guidelines.

If you wish to restrict information about, or pictures of your child being used on the college website, please contact the college in writing. The college will at all times attempt to ensure compliance with these requests, but it must be recognised that accidental inclusions may occur with large website events (such as photos of massed school activities). In such cases, it is important that the college is immediately informed of the offending web page so changes may be made. It is also the responsibility of students to notify the webmaster/Manager of Information Systems (Mr M. Kelly) that an unauthorised picture or name has been posted on the website.

Name of parent or legal guardian: ____________________________

Signature of parent or legal guardian: _____________________________

Date: _________________________

Page last modified: 06-Feb-2008