Parramatta Marist High School - Information Technology Access Policy 1/4/2008

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING POLICY AND COMPLETE THE PERMISSION

NOTICE ON THE LAST PAGE OF THE DOCUMENT. THIS POLICY IS IMPORTANT TO
THE SAFE OPERATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AT OUR SCHOOL FOR
STAFF, STUDENTS AND THE COMMUNITY.The international education community
recognizes that as telecommunications and other new technologies shift the ways that
information may be accessed, communicated and transmitted, those changes may also
alter teaching and learning. Telecommunications, electronic information sources and
networked services significantly transform the information landscape for schools by
opening classrooms to a broader array of resources (including, but not limited to,
thousands of libraries and databases).

While materials accessed are expected to support and enrich official curricula,
telecommunications potentially opens classrooms to electronic information resources that
have not been screened by educators for use by students.
The school believes that the benefits to students far outweigh any potential
disadvantages. Developing the skills to analyse and evaluate electronic resources is an
important skill necessary for participation in a free and democratic information society.
Parramatta Marist High School supports access by students to the rich information
sources available through the internet and multimedia technologies, and attempts to
provide guidance and instruction to students in the appropriate use of such resources.
The school attempts to provide continuous access to
http://pmonline.parramarist.nsw.edu.au/. However, the school provides not guarantees or
warranties that students at home, are solely accessing this website. Parents should be
aware that in the course of their son/ward’s studies, that adequate security and
supervision is provided to ensure that their son/ward is accessing appropriate information
safely out of school.

The proper use of access to electronic information sources is the joint responsibility of
students, parents and school staff. Supervised use of electronic communication systems
is an essential part of schooling in the information technology era in which we live. The
school adopts structured ways of engaging with the multiplicity of new technologies, to
minimize any apparent welfare risk, while developing students’ ability to make productive
and critical use of telecommunications and multimedia resources.
Independent student use of telecommunications and electronic information resources will
only be permitted where students and their parents or guardians provide written
acknowledgement that students agree to act in accordance with the standards of conduct
established in this policy document.
Students are responsible for good behaviour on school computer networks just as they
are in a school classroom or corridor. Communications on the network are often public in
nature. General rules for behaviour and communication apply, as do specific rules
applicable to telecommunications access.

Rules For Acceptable Use

Use of the Internet and other electronic communication services must be in support of
responsible educational and research purposes and must be consistent with school
curriculum objectives. Use of the Internet and other electronic communication services is
a privilege and not a right. Inappropriate use will result in termination of that privilege and
will subject a student to school disciplinary action.The following acts are specifically
prohibited:

A. Illegal Activities
i.
Sending or displaying offensive messages or pictures, or accessing, uploading,
downloading or distributing
pornographic, obscene or sexually explicit material;
ii.
Violating copyright laws (including copying and transmitting document, software, music
and/or video files without
license; and plagiarising - copying and presenting as one’s own, the work of others found
on the global internet or
local intranet);
iii.
Accessing, downloading or transmitting any material in violation of any law of the
Commonwealth of Australia or the
State of New South Wales; or distributing material protected by state or federal laws;
iv.
Hacking or attempting to gain unauthorized access to the files or network services of any
organization or individual;

B. Inappropriate Language & Harassment

(in any electronic communication – including email or web pages)
i.
Using vulgar or obscene language in any electronic communication;
ii.
Harassing, insulting, defaming, or attacking others;
iii.
“Spamming” other users by sending unsolicited junk email (including chain letters);
iv
Accessing any website deemed, in the opinion of the Principal as Social Networking,
typically charaterised as a website that allows the instant publishing of information. Not
limited to, but including My Space, Facebook and Bebo. Specific permission must be
granted to use such sites by the principal, and must only be accessed under the explicit
supervision of staff.
v.
Commenting on ‘blogs’ or other ‘social network’ websites without permission of the
supervising teacher
vi.
Games and Personal Entertainment. Any internet site that provides access to online
games, gaming forums, downloadable games, ring tones or other digital media not
directly related to the area of study at the time it is being accessed.

C. Endangering Personal Safety

i.
Revealing your own or someone else’s personal contact information (home address,
telephone number,
passport details, id numbers, etc.) to other individuals over the internet;
ii.
Arranging to meet people contacted over the internet without parental approval;

D. Breaching System Security

i.
Intentionally spreading viruses, worms, chain letters, or trojans;
ii.
Vandalising any computers or peripheral equipment, computer systems or computer
networks;
iii.
Altering, moving or deleting the files belonging to others;
iv.
Using another's password, or providing your password to another person;
v.
Gaining unauthorized access to the network, including use of the network on someone
else’s login;
vi.
Accessing chat lines (such as ICQ, IRC, Messenger or unauthorized telnet services);
vii.
Using magnetic, optical or ‘flash’ memory media on the school network that have not
been checked for viruses;
viii.
Installing any software on a school computer without permission from the Head of
Information Technology.
ix.
Storing, accessing or using any executable file, sound file or audio file from items
identified in (viii).
x.
Attempting or accessing the network without providing the assigned user name and
password at the log-on screen.
xi.
Using any internet ‘service’ that attempts to ‘spoof’,’mask’ or ‘hide’ its identity from the
school network security. This activity is characterised as attempting to access sites that,
under normal network activity, would be ‘banned’ by the school network security.
Typically, these sites are known as ‘proxy’ sites.

E. Invading Privacy
i.
Trespassing in another's folders, work or files;
ii.
Reposting a message that was sent to you privately, without permission of the original
sender;

F. Misuse of Limited Resources

i.
Employing the network for commercial purposes or political lobbying;
ii.
Use of Email accounts for other than educational purposes during class time;iii. Students
must ONLY use email provided and monitored by the Parramatta Catholic Education
Office, via CeNet. No personal or private email accounts are to be accessed.

G. Social Networking and Web2.0 technologies.

Social Networking is considered to be any website that allows users to publish digital
information instantly or as a result of being a ‘member’ of a service application. Generally
this activity is characterised by concepts such as ‘forums’,’blogs’,’wikis’ or social
activities. Examples include : MySpace, Bebo and Facebook.As a general guide, any
website that allows the publishing of information which is not immediately removed once
the user leaves the site. Any website that requires the student to be a ‘member’ and have
a password to access it. Our aim is to allow students to participate in read/write web,
Web2.0 or Classroom 2.0 style publishing, responsibly, transparently and safely. To do
this the school recognises the need to guide students in acceptable use. Some
educational researchers cite that over 90% of high school students with internet access
have MySpace or other instant social networking profile and are actively involved with
online publishing of information.Un-acceptable Use
i.
Publishing information to social networking sites that allow the publishing of text, audio,
video and images must be for educational purposes only, and clearly identified as a
requisite of the classroom activity.ii.
Access is limited to sites not explicitly referenced by staff for the purpose of publishing to
the internet.
iii.
www.MySpace.com, www.Bebo.com, www.Facebook.com are banned at all times and
not to be accessed.
iv.
At no time should a student sign into any web based service, requiring them to provide
personal details in exchange for a user name and password for further access not
explicitly authorised by the teacher
v.
Failing to provide username/password to any space that they are using to their teacher
on demand
vi.
Posting video or audio to public spaces, characterised by YouTube, GoogleVideo,
MySpace et al, either as a ‘member’ of the service or anonymously.
vii.
Altering, deleting or moving any digital materials produced on any ‘social space’ without
permission of the owner.
viii.
‘Commenting via text’ on other peoples work appearing on any space with public access
without permission of the teacher
ix.
Publishing any materials provided to students in class to any publicly accessible space
(sharing). Teacher and school generated media is subject to copyright. Publishing any
part of any copyrighted material.
x.
Posting, downloading or plagiarising any work posted to social spaces as reference
materials (cheating), not limited to, but including ‘Bored of Studies’ and ‘Spark Notes’.
This information is often inferior, inaccurate or deliberately misleading.
iv.
User account names, site names and URLs must use the format of first name and first
two characters of your surname to ensure privacy is maintained.
v.
Students and parents are aware that social network publishing means that everything
they publish in the public domain cannot be deleted, moved or suspended by the school.
Even if content is deleted, it is likely that it can still be accessed in the future.
vi.
Digital Information supplied by staff to students in the course of their studies must not be
published in any form to the public domain. Materials are subject to copyright and remain
the property of the school at all times.

Further Information

The school community makes no warranties of any kind, either express or implied,
concerning the services it provides.
The school or its agents will not be responsible for any losses which an individual user
may suffer, including but not limited to, loss of data, non-deliveries, misdeliveries or
service interruptions, regardless of the cause. The school denies any responsibility for
the accuracy or quality of information obtained through its services. Further, the school
cannot guarantee that persons will not make improper and/or inappropriate use of such
communications access, but upon discovery will apply the appropriate sanctions.
General guidelines to proper use and prohibitions against improper use shall apply to
both students and staff.Policy Adopted: April 1st 2008. Errors and Omitions excepted
EO&E.