What is the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)?

What is the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)?

The first time I heard about the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) document was when I started as a teacher assistant around three years ago. A member from the office gave me this paper, and I asked nervously what is an AUP? She explained it was an important document given to everyone before they are given a computer or access to online tools (internet/network), and it was an agreement between me and the school about my rights and responsibilities. I will be honest: I skimmed through it really fast and signed. These days, I have read more about AUP and learned the importance of knowing our responsibilities with our online tools and network. Not only is it for my sake, but it’s also to protect and help my students be responsible with their actions when using the internet/network.

Boston Public School

An article from Kajeet expresses how Boston Public Schools (BPS) created an AUP that was student friendly with words that students could understand. I strongly believe this is important because we want our students to understand the message. If a form has extremely formal words, students may not understand the main point or will lose interest in reading the document.

Morton High School

My school has an AUP that is written for students, teachers, support personnel, and administrations. It is two pages long, along with a consent form and request form. I like that it is not too long because then students, and perhaps even adults, will not read it thoroughly. Although, I wish they had different AUP forms for students and adults; my school’s student handbook has a “Computer Use Policy' section that is addressed to the students only. Yet, I also like that they use the word “responsibilities” because we need to know that no matter what we do, a good or bad action will occur, and we need to take responsibility. I also like that my school has the AUP in Spanish. This is important because I have newcomers who are new to this country and the English language, and they need to understand the message in their native language. I also like that they use verbs ending in “-ing” when reminding readers of actions that are unacceptable: sharing, using, failing, violating etc. This makes it clear that in the process of taking actions, we need to consider that there will be consequences.

Overall, I believe an AUP document is important because everyone—students, teachers, administrations and more—need to understand their responsibilities. Educators need to make sure our students are not watching inappropriate content during school. I teach high school students and it is my responsibility to make sure they are using the internet appropriately. We do not want our students to watch any harmful or violent content. We want to create a safe place for everyone, even when they are online.