Deepa's Blog

Policy Brief- Issue 4

2008-11-02T12:41:00.002-05:00

Internet Privacy and Security in Our School : A Policy Brief

Overview :

The increasing use of internet technologies in the school curriculum has given rise to growing concern about the privacy and security of our students, should they continue to use the web ‘unaware and unprotected’.

Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. It is sometimes related to anonymity the wish to remain unnoticed or unidentified in the public realm.

Security is the condition of being protected against danger, loss, and criminals. In the general sense, security is a concept similar to safety.

In the context of internet therefore, the terms imply protecting the identity of the user against potential dangers and threats to their safety, posed by exposure on the internet.

Main Issue :

The first line of protection is usually provided by the network security protocols installed, firewalls, and other filtering software used by the servers. Since the school is part of our secure intranet, this issue is automatically taken care of. But the mental and physical immaturity of the student community of the school, exposes them to other threats and temptations which are characteristic of this age group; and the internet is replete with such opportunities. Some of the commonly occurring incidents and scenarios are listed below.

* The social tools of the Internet that appeal most to teens (e.g., the ability to communicate to a lot of people at once, share pictures and videos easily, or pretend to be a different personality or identity) can easily be abused and used by kids to harass or humiliate others. And the potential anonymity of it all can make it difficult for parents and teens to identify and report an online bully. Also there is a danger that this internal ( to school) bullying exposes the target to external predators on the net.

* Social networking sites which are useful to teachers as tools of enhancing lessons, provide teens with their own personal online space. Just like their real rooms, these virtual spaces become a reflection of what they're all about, and they will decorate it with colors, writings, art, pictures, and videos. Kids need to learn at an early age that the Internet has become the world's electronic archive, and once photos are posted online, they can persist there forever. Your teen daughter may not care today that a friend posted a photo of her on Facebook in a provocative pose, but she will likely care later if that photo pops up in a Google search conducted by a future college recruiter or prospective employer.

The school has a moral and social responsibility to – (i) create awareness about these issues (ii) educate our students so that they are well equipped to handle the threats posed by internet use (iii) enforce preventive measures to secure our students from becoming targets or bullies.

Policy Options :

1) Get the students/parents to sign an acceptable use policy agreement which clearly lays out the do's and dont's of internet use in the school. Supplement this by an online/printed lesson and quiz on the contents of the agreement.

Pros – The supplementary lesson and quiz will ensure that students and parents really understand the terms of the agreement and its potential as a safety measure.
Cons- The entire process of obtaining the agreements could get lengthened and a bit tedious.

2) Educate the students on safety issues on the internet through workshops and seminars held on a regular basis.

Pros – This will promote the acquisition of useful life skills amongst students.
Cons – It will call for extra expenditure of time on the part of teachers and money on the part of the administration.

References : i) http://www.edutopia.org/online-school-security-privacy
ii) http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/technology/EdTech/EdTechInitiatives/In_Security.htm
iii) http://www.techcorps.org/resources/internetsafety/primer.html

Policy Brief- Issue 3

2008-10-26T11:37:00.001-04:00

Accuracy and Validity of Internet Resources : A Policy Brief

Overview :
The internet is a global library of information & resources, that is open ended and has no walls. It has come to be accepted as a universal learning tool. But students must realize that anyone can publish literature on the internet and therefore evaluating internet resources to determine their validity, is a critical learning skill they must quickly master.
There are several criteria that can be applied to determine if a web page is valid or accurate. The following guidelines provide a brief summary of the most important issues to be considered while examining web content for validity.
i) The URL itself is a preliminary indicator of validity e.g. domains like .org,.edu,.gov can be supposed to be relatively authentic.
ii) Secondly, the site design, its organization, purpose, currency can go a long way towards establishing validity.
iii) Author's credentials and the sources used by him/her are probably decisive when you are evaluating validity.
Current Status of this issue in our school :
The use of internet in the school curriculum is increasing, but no conscious effort has been made to address this issue. A majority of the students and even some teachers remain unaware of its importance
and therefore lack the will to make a conscious effort to acquire the intellectual skills necessary for evaluating internet resources.

Policy Options :
The school should adopt the following measures to promote student and teacher awareness towards this issue and facilitate learning of internet skills discussed above…..
1) To educate and motivate students -
i) Prepare and display guidelines( worded in simple and attractive language) to evaluate internet resources prominently at points of internet access in the school e.g. library, computer lab, classroom etc.
ii) Get students to fill out questionnaire/ evaluation chart/ form containing targeted ‘Y/N’ type of questions, whenever they use an internet resource. This will help them to start thinking of the questions they need to ask to determine validity of web content.
iii) Circulate handouts designed to develop Parent awareness, during PTA meetings or other such events.
Pros –The measures can easily be adopted and implemented at individual school level.
Cons – The publishing of relevant literature will require expenditure of time and money. The expenditure of money could however be minimized by having online questionnaires.

2) To ensure that teachers play a positive and constructive role –
i) Require teachers to create, maintain, update and submit to the supervisor, a computerized record/log/catalogue of internet resources reviewed by them in their individual academic context.
ii) Require teachers to recommend at least two or three resources( logged as per the above directive) whenever they ask students to use the internet.
iii) Organize ‘awareness programs’/ ‘orientation seminars’/workshops/ lectures for teachers on an ongoing basis.
Pros – This will get the teachers actively involved and thereby enhance student education in this area.
Cons – It will require teachers to spend time out of their regular curriculum and also some expenditure of money on the part of the administration.

Reference :
http://books.google.com/books?id=EA7ZXIqJ19cC&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=accuracy+and+validity+of+internet+resources&source=web&ots=zP7rsTupxF&sig=1m6JWq1hRvnTzpf9YjMpDvuqMCg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/special_initiatives/wa_resources/wa_teachers/backgrounders/harris_evaluating.cfm
http://www.lib.purdue.edu/ugrl/staff/sharkey/interneteval/accuracy1.html
http://www.lib.vt.edu/help/instruct/evaluate/evaluating.html

Policy Brief- Issue 2

2008-10-19T12:23:00.001-04:00

The issue of Copyright in the use of internet in my school

Overview :
Copyright applies to all material posted on the internet in the same manner as it does to printed/published material. Therefore any work posted to the internet is automatically protected by copyright laws irrespective of whether it is registered or not. However there are two exceptions….
i) if the work is posted to the ‘public domain’ i.e. the author explicitly releases his/her work to the public domain
ii) if the ‘copying’ or ‘reproducing’ is for ‘fair use’(allowing use without permission for purposes like commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education so long as the use is ‘limited’ and does not harm the commercial value of the work…. Making ‘intent’ an important consideration in the act of ‘copying’.)
Hence we must remember to take the following measures, in order to ensure that we are not infringing on the copyrights of material published on the internet, whenever we copy/reproduce either a part or whole of it, irrespective of our purpose.
1) cite the source of the internet resource
2) check carefully for any prohibitive or restrictive notices posted there
3) seek written permission from the author if possible ( There are formats and forms freely available on the internet for this purpose.)
4) try to rewrite the ‘text’ content in our own words
5) establish that we are not violating any copyrights by using specialized software.

Current Status in our school :
Our school being one of the departments of an independent academic institution, is automatically governed by the institute’s policies on the issue of copyright in the use of internet. And the policies are well formulated and clearly defined, due to the ongoing research and development taking place here. However, it should be noted that majority of the teachers and students of our school are totally ignorant of the importance of this issue and the precautions they need to follow while using internet resources.
Also it would be difficult to understand and implement the institute’s policies ( which are framed in rather intimidating legal and complex syntax) in the context of our school. We therefore need to formulate policy guidelines relevant to our context.

Policy Recommendations :

1) The school should constitute on priority basis, a committee/ task force of teachers teaching different grade levels and subjects in charge of the following tasks ..
a) Framing guidelines in respect of ‘ensuring that copyrights are not violated in using internet resources’, phrased in an easy to understand manner, highlighting explicitly the possible consequences of non-compliance
b) reviewing them periodically so as to keep them updated.
c) displaying copies of the guidelines prominently at points/locations of internet connections and copying machines

Pros- This will promote the compliance of copyright policies by students and teachers.
Cons – Since copyright laws in the internet context are continually expanded or modified, the task of updating the guidelines could involve an expenditure of time and effort ( scarce commodities in a school environment) by the teachers in charge.

2) At the beginning of the school year, (possibly at the first PTA meeting) the school should circulate handouts of the guidelines to parents and require them to sign consent forms on behalf of their wards, to guarantee compliance on the part of students.

Pros- This will create awareness on the part of parents and could protect the school to a certain extent in the event of a potential breach of copyright.
Cons- Parents usually tend to sign consent forms either without reading or because they feel that it is obligatory to do so. This could defeat the very purpose of the consent form, which is to address the issue of copyright in internet use.

Reference-
http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/copyright-internet.htm
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Technology/AUP/home.shtml
http://www.umuc.edu/library/copy.shtml

Policy Brief- Issue 1

2008-10-12T22:30:00.001-04:00

Issue of Access, Digital Divide and Specific Populations in the use of internet

Overview :

The term ‘access’ here implies access to internet and broadband available to students and teachers in the school. The issues involved in access are……

i) Quality of access ( in terms of speed and connectivity)

ii) Constraint factors like availability of resources (no of broadband connections, no of workstations etc),time limit, flexibility of timing and so on

iii) Inhibitive attitudes towards use of internet

iv) Inability to access internet resources for want of requisite skill sets

v) Inequality i.e. absence of policy in the school, to promote fairness in access of internet

‘Digital divide’ is the gap between ‘student-teacher populations who are able to access and use the internet effectively’ and ‘who are unable to do so’.

Current status of the issue in our school :

1)The current status of digital divide and the status of access implied in iii) & iv) above, is summarized in Tables 1 and 2.

2) Assuming that status of access implied in factor i)( speed and connectivity) above remains the same, the status of access as implied by ii)( time limit, flexibility of timing and so on) is summarized by the paragraph…..

In our school, students up to grade 10 have supervised internet access at scheduled times, about 1.5 HRS per week. The high school students are allowed to stay back after school, and use the internet with teacher’s permission. The computers are mainly in the computer laboratory, adequate in number, and have good connectivity

(by Indian standards).Hence we definitely need to address the issue of students getting inadequate access, in spite of having the necessary hardware and software.

Policy Options :

Since the issue of access and digital divide in our school arises mainly on account of ‘inhibitive attitudes’ and ‘lack of enabling knowledge & skill sets’, in students of specific socio-economic background (Ref Table1) as well as teachers belonging to specific age group (Ref Table 2), the solution lies in ‘educating’ these specific or otherwise, student-teacher populations.The term ‘educating’ here includes ….

i) creating awareness of the many benefits of internet use by organizing focused programs , events, workshops, seminars or such other related activities

ii) addressing fears and doubts in their minds, through discussions held to educate them on how to avoid or prevent or protect themselves from the dangers inherent in the use of internet

iii) teaching specific skill sets for making effective use of the internet, during the events specified above

This goal can be achieved by adopting the following policies….

A) 1) Setting standards for students in achieving proficiency in the use of internet on gradewise basis

2) Restructuring the student schedule to include more computer time

3) Structuring targeted activities into the curriculum of each subject which require the use of internet

B) 1) Setting standards for teachers in incorporating web enhanced activities into their lessons

2) Setting standards for teachers to master desired skill sets in the use of internet

C) Organizing focused workshops, seminars, programs and other events for the specific student and teacher populations identified in Tables 1 and 2.

Reference: Tables 1 and 2 below...

	Family Income	Parents’ level of education	Nature of Access At home	Parents’ attitude to Use of Internet	Student attitude Towards internet	Student’s Proficiency In internet use	% of students per Class of high school
1	Low	Not high school graduates	No access	Ignorant	Some are interested, While others are ignorant of its potential	Poor knowledge	30 to 40
2	Average	High school graduates	Some have limited access. Very few have broadband.	Not very favorable	Most are interested in Improving or gaining Internet skills	Poor to fair	20 to 30
3	Above average	College graduates	Most have access; many have broadband	Cautious; wary of harmful site content, sites and networks.	Very much interested	Fair to good	20 to 30
4	High Income	Post graduates and doctorates	Unlimited access with some parental control	Favorable	Highly motivated	Good to very good	10 to 20

(by Indian standards).So, we definitely need to address the issue of students getting inadequate access, in spite of having the necessary hardware and software.

The status of digital divide and the access issue in our school is tabulated in Table 1 of the attachment.

We also have a digital divide amongst our teachers, which is summarized in Table 2 of the attachment.

Age of Teacher	Frequency of internet use In the classroom/lesson	Proficiency in use Of internet
20 to 30	At least once a week per Class	Good
30 to 40	About 2 to 3 times a month	Fair
40 to 50	Occasionally	Fair to poor
Above 50	Negligible	Poor