Breaking down the AUP

Breaking down the AUP for my school district is not going to be as easy as I thought.  I have spent time in meetings and subgroups to discuss how we work with the polices and procedures placed into  our AUP. 

The best use of the AUP would be the following:

Purpose: The district Internet access shall be used in order foster the educational ventures of our students, teachers and parents.  The content should only be used for the direct purposes of instruction and the exportation into deeper content available through viable means through the World Wide Web. All content that is not permissible though established law and guidelines will not be permitted to be used in and on district property. 

Usage and Privacy: The students, parents and teachers will be cognizant that any and all actions both innocent and deliberate will be monitored and subject to administrative review.  If specific and malicious attempts to undermine the content and security of the network shall be subject to administrative review and subject to involvement with law enforcement. 

Responsibility: Any and all individuals who are on the network, individual equipment, and interacting with others on the network must be good citizens in this environment.  Correct language, etiquette, and respect must be demonstrated by every member of the community to all other members of the community. 

I think from the discussion with the gentleman about the security of their school's network is exactly what I think when I speak about network security and filtering at my district.  In the past couple years we have made a shift from dead blocking into a system where the individual teacher will be able to permit sites with their own pass code.  I was never a fan of being denied access to a site that I thought was useful by someone who does not teach what I do and would, in my opinion, lose at a debate of its validity.  I am glad to see the shift to putting the teachers in charge of reviewing material and choosing to bypass the system for the 90 minutes or so.  I understand that there may some people who could lose sight of realistic expectations of what they think is appropriate and the system does have a level that cannot be passed. 

The one policy that makes me frustrated is that all devices the students may bring in must be over 7 inches.  Smaller than that makes them illegal and not permissible under our AUP.  I am against the thought that just because the device is smaller that it is going to be used in a negative way.  I know that cell phones are not permitted.  They are all small.  They cannot overturn that policy.  Therefore any device under 7 must not be.  I ask, what if a kid doesn't have something bigger. They can do the same work on their phone.  Why not let them?  Is it because they can be on their own cell network and we cannot verify what they are doing?  Devices over 7 can do the same thing.  So what?  Why are we disqualifying students from access when we don't have to?

I think that we are making decisions in a vacuum from what is necessary in the classroom.  Being a member of the district committee on technology I can see that the administration has an idea of where they want the district to go.  They may listen to the teachers in the classroom in our round table, breakout sessions but they don't really take into account what we need.  I am by no means the utmost authority on technology but I do listen to the frustration of teachers who need simple solutions without the policy read to them as the answer.