List of active policies

Full policy

Educational Purpose:

Students shall use the Internet system for educational purpose. Educational purpose includes school's & TechnoKids activities and projects or limited high-quality self-discovery activities.

Limitations on Non-Educational Activities:

Students shall not use the Internet system for the following non-educational activities:

1. Students shall not use the Internet system for commercial purposes, defined as offering or providing products or services.
2. Students shall not use the Internet system for purchasing products or services.
3. Students shall not use the Internet system for political lobbying except to analyze legislative measures and communicate their opinion to elected officials via the Internet.

Student Access to ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) Equipment and Information Systems:

1. E-mail. E-mail is an essential means of communication among students and teachers. Email has significant benefits as students contact others within the school or internationally as a means of information gathering, collaboration, and sharing of schoolwork
   
2. World Wide Web. The Web is an open worldwide communication medium that is an invaluable resource for education.
   
3. Chat. Chat provides the capability of engaging in "real-time" discussions. Students will have access to Chat only for specifically defined educational activities.
   
4. School or board networks, data and data storage, online and offline communication technologies and access devices, such as mobile technologies, tablets, phones, PDAs, digital cameras, and webcams. Students will use this equipment solely as it relates to schoolwork. If used responsibly and within an educational context, these technologies can achieve curriculum goals in a creative, innovative, and relevant way.
   
5. School Website. Student work may be published online to share with others and invite collaboration.

Student Safety:

1. Students shall not reveal personal contact information about themselves (full name, address, phone number) when using the Internet.
2. Students shall not agree to meet with someone they have met online without their parents’/guardian’s approval and participation.

Student Access to the Internet:

1. Students shall not access material using the Internet system that has been deemed inappropriate for school use. Inappropriate material is defined as:

• Dangerous information -- information that if acted upon could cause damage or presents a danger of disruption.
• Criminal information – information that advocates or condones the commission of unlawful acts including instructions on breaking into computer systems, child pornography, drug dealing, gang activities, etc.
• Inappropriate language -- obscene, profane, lewd, vulgar, rude, disrespectful, threatening, or inflammatory language; harassment; personal attacks, including prejudicial or discriminatory attacks; or false or defamatory material about a person or organization.
• Information that is inappropriate in an educational setting or violates school rules.

Should students accidentally encounter inappropriate material they shall disengage from it immediately and report it to their teacher. Students shall not post defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, offensive, or illegal material to the Internet. Students shall not engage in cyber-bullying or use inappropriate language in online communication. Inappropriate language is defined as obscene, profane, lewd, vulgar, rude, disrespectful, threatening, or inflammatory language; harassment; personal attacks, including prejudicial or discriminatory attacks; or false or defamatory material about a person or organization. Students shall promptly disclose to their teacher, any email messages they receive that are inappropriate or make them feel uncomfortable. When sending email, the student sender should be clearly and appropriately identified. Students shall not send “spam”. Spam is sending an annoying or unnecessary message to a large number of people, such as chain letters. Students shall not download or install any commercial software, shareware, or freeware onto network drives or disks. Students shall not deliberately attempt to disrupt the computer system performance or destroy data by spreading computer viruses or by any other means. These actions are illegal. Students shall not damage computer hardware or software. Students shall not read, copy, modify or erase other people's files. Students shall not use social media, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. to post material that identifies the school or staff. Students shall not post images, video, sounds, or text that contains harmful or inappropriate information about fellow students.

Student Privacy:

Students acknowledge that the routine maintenance and monitoring of the system may lead to discovery that they have violated the law or a school rule. TechnoKids & the school reserves the right to search email messages or Internet cache files if there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search would turn up evidence that the student has violated or is violating either the law or rules of the school.

Plagiarism and Copyright:

• Students shall not reproduce copyrighted material without explicit permission.
• Students shall not plagiarize. Students shall stay within the bounds of the “fair use doctrine” of copyright law and must cite the source of information taken from the Internet.

Personal Devices:

• It is the intent that personal devices are to be used in the school solely as an academic tool. Students may not use personal devices to phone or send instant messages, unless as authorized by the teacher.
• Students using their own technology in school, such as leaving a mobile phone turned on or using it in class, sending nuisance, offensive, harassing, threatening, or bullying text messages, or the unauthorized taking of images with a mobile phone camera, still or moving, is in direct breach of the school's acceptable use policy.
• It is the student’s responsibility to keep their personal devices safe and secure.

The Disciplinary Process:

Internet access is an educational activity that is considered to be an important component of the educational environment in the preparation of students for life and work in the 21st Century. It is an essential requirement for the completion of assignments. Therefore Internet access is being provided to students for an educational purpose and access should not be denied, restricted, or suspended without due process as follows:

• Students shall receive a notification about an alleged violation and will be allowed to tell his or her side of the story to make sure that no injustice is done.
• TechnoKids or the school may suspend access to the Internet system upon any violation of the AUP.
• Violation of the disciplinary code of the school when using the Internet system will be handled in accord with the disciplinary code.
• Suspicion of illegal activity when using the Internet system or violation of the law will result in the appropriate legal authorities being contacted to handle the situation.

Liability:

TechnoKids & the school shall not assume responsibility if a student causes harm to another person or organization as a direct result of using the Internet. TechnoKids & the school shall not be responsible for losses sustained by users resulting from the Internet system. These losses could involve loss of data, an interruption of services, or reliance on the accuracy of information maintained on the system or accessed through the system. Educators and students should make a personal back up of material contained on the computer system.