AUP - ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY FOR INSTITUTIONAL

TECHNOLOGICAL RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS

The technological resources of the Pan American School of Porto Alegre, such as computers, the internal network, internet access, and audiovisual equipment, among others, are offered to provide our students whatever they need in order to promote educational excellence supported by technology.

The Pan American School believes in the educational value of the Internet and recognizes its potential for supporting our curriculum. Nevertheless, the school also recognizes the potential damage of wrong use or abuse that can occur as a result of inappropriate Internet access, and will put forth all effort to protect our students and teachers. The school maintains the appropriate software and hardware that is designed to limit the access to harmful or detrimental materials on the Internet. Such filtration, nevertheless, will not be able to completely protect the users from having access to the detrimental materials on the Internet. All the users will have to remain alert and continuously take care to avoid unsuitable or illegal interaction with members of the worldwide virtual community.

The computers in classrooms, the school library, laboratories and internal network of the Pan American School are available only for educational purposes.

Students will be responsible for the ethical use of computers, network access accounts of the school and other technological tools that will be offered for academic development.

The purpose of the following policies is guiding students in the correct use of these resources. The school may control, monitor and, depending on the case, cancel the student access if it considers necessary to protect the safety, availability and integrity of school information and systems.

The policies in this document are in accordance with the school's educational philosophy and National Rules of Networks Security.

Students should be respectful in their use of computers at school and follow the instructions given by Department of Technology and Teachers. This includes submitting to the following:

Computer Lab rules:

• ·         No food, candy or drinks in the computer areas.
• ·         Inform Technology Area staff of any problems you may have with the equipment and do not make any changes in the equipment settings.
• ·         The use of equipment is restricted to academic activities in classroom hours and under teacher supervision.
• ·         The use of computers outside classroom hours will be only for academic purposes related to school and requires proper authorization and supervision of a teacher. In this case, any damage caused to equipment will be direct student responsibility.
• ·         Immediately report to the Technology Area staff any lost, stolen or damaged equipment.
• ·         The school’s computer labs are workplaces;remember to keep the noise level down and avoid using such spaces for socializing with classmates.
• ·         Use only software programs authorized by the school and keep all your files in authorized places only. Transfer them to a storage device (USB, CD, floppy disk, etc.), since the school will not become responsible for information that could be lost or damaged. Remember that all information stored in the Pan American School networkand computers is, in reality, School property, and at any time the Technology area staff can review the files stored in folders.  Unsuitable and/or unlicensed software will be erased or uninstalled without forewarning.
• ·         Print service can only be made with explicit authorization of a teacher and only for academic purposes.
• ·         Use the Internet as an educational resource and accept responsibility for Internet sites visited and all material received under your account.
• ·         Avoid giving out personal information such as passwords, your name, address, phone number, and credit card numbers.
• ·         Report infractions, suspicious behavior, or privacy violations to the Teacher or to Technology staff.
• ·         Log off after you have finished your session and leave the work area tidy.
• ·         Do not open any document that has been identified as infected by a virus.
• ·         If a computer is damaged from misuse, the user is responsible for its repair or replacement.

Students should not use the school’s computers in inappropriate ways that:

• ·         Incite drug use, hatred or violence, pornography, obscene material or promote dangerous or antisocial behavior.
• ·         Would tarnish the reputation of the Pan American School and its community. Remember that you are a representative of our school using a non-private system. You can be alone with your computer, but whatever you say and do can be seen globally. Never use vulgarities, swear words, or improper language.

Students are advised that there will be consequences if they participate in inadequate activities described below:

Category 2- inadequate activities considered as serious misconduct that will be described in a report of breach of security policy.

Students who participate in any one of the following inadequate activities will be disciplined. This can lead to a conversation with parents, a note on permanent student records, loss privilege of using computers, suspension of classes, expulsion from school and the appropriate legal implications, if necessary.Activities that are included in this category are considered serious and interfere in the normal operation of our system or may be harmful to members of our community. Even those who are guilty for the first time may face serious consequences.

Hacking- Students are not to attempt to access or modify network resources for which they do not have permission, for any reason whatsoever. The Student who engages in suspicious activities such as tampering with the school’s security software, ‘snooping’, falsifying their identity, or hiding files, will be viewed as a security threat.

Files-Students are not to store or send inappropriate files in any school computers.

Privacy- Students are not to use, to attempt to access, or to interfere with another person´s private resources, such as their login, password, email or files. (Example: installation of keylogger software or any application that may capture personal details).

Email- Students are not to email inappropriate messages.

Internet- Students are not to access inappropriate websites or to create websites that threaten the integrity of the Pan American School community, promoting antisocial attitudes or for commercial purpose.

Dishonesty-students are not to copy and paste text, images, or graphics from websites that are protected by copyright without ‘proper acknowledgment’ or permission of the owner of the intellectual property. If you wish to use some information from the Internet, you should cite the source information. The Institutional policy on this subject is zero tolerance of plagiarism in the signed work, with this purpose we will use services to verify the legitimacy of the work delivered by students.

Security-students are not to reveal or send information from others that might jeopardize its security.

Vandalism-students are not to participate in vandalism. Vandalism is defined as any malicious or criminal damage, stealing or destroying of the school technological resources, furniture or other users’ belongings.

Cyberbullying- Cyberbullyingis the use of any electronic communication device to convey a message in any form (text, image, audio, or video) that defames, intimidates, harasses, or is otherwise intended to harm, insult, or humiliate another in a deliberate, repeated, or hostile and unwanted manner under a person’s true or false identity. The school will take any report of cyberbullying seriously and will investigate credible reports promptly.  Students are encouraged to report an incident immediately to a teacher or Principal.  Students who make a report are requested to preserve evidence of cyberbullying.  For example, a student may save or bring a copy of an email, text message, picture or other electronic transmission that the student believes was intended to harm, insult, or humiliate.

Category 1 -inadequate activities considered as “light” misconduct that will be recorded in a violation folder.

Students who participate in the following activities cause inconvenient problems and interfere in the use of computers by others. Often these actions may cause additional time spent by the technology staff to restore school’s network resources or may even destroy it.  

These students will be referred to section coordinators for disciplineand the report provided by the Technology department will be attached to the student’s folder and permanent student record. The recurrence of any such activities will be considered as category 2, serious misconduct.

• ·         Students are not allowed to install any programs on school computers. If necessary to do so students must request from the Department of Technology with at least two days in advance, provided that the school will have the resources and licenses.
• ·         Students cannot install unauthorized games (offline & online) or play with them.
• ·         Students are not allowed to download, install, or use programs to access music, videos or to transfer P2P files (for instance, Ares, LimeWire, Torrent, Kazaa, Messenger or similar etc.).
• ·         Students cannot change computer configurations such as the cursor, color, screen saver, background, etc.
• ·         Students cannot disconnect or change in any way physical equipment connections. The wiring and electrical connections must be handled exclusively by the designated technology staff.
• ·         Students should not use computers to listen to music or watch videos without authorization.
• ·         Students cannot access “chat” services under any circumstances and the use of these services will be monitored.This includes instant messaging sites and social network sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, etc.)
• ·         Students should not interfere in the work of other people in the computer rooms and, for this reason, should remain silent, or if group work is necessary a moderate tone of voice is required.
• ·         Students cannot access their personal e-mail accounts except with a teacher instruction, and then only for academic activities.
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Wireless Network

The school offers its student’s access to Internet via wireless network. This should be used only for educational purpose. The student can connect any device at any time on the wireless network. The teacher has the authority to ask the student to turn off the device during the time that the teacher deems it necessary. The student who does not follow the rules described in this document may have this privilege canceled.

The school is not responsible for the content within the students' personal devices/computers, including files, software and data.

The student must keep antivirus software updated in their computers.

The technology department will not provide any support in the student devices.  The only help that can be provided is to connect the device on the wireless network.  

All security policies described in this document apply to the local private network and for the wireless public network.

Electronic Mail Policy

Purpose of Policy

Email has become a vital communication tool used by staff and students to carry out academic and administrative functions. It is important to ensure the security and responsible use of email within the school.

The purpose of this policy is to ensure the proper use of Panamerican School of Porto Alegre email system by its students, faculty and staff. Electronic Mail is a tool provided by the Panamerican School to complement traditional methods of communication and to improve education and administrative efficiency. Users have the responsibility to use this resource in an efficient, effective, ethical and lawful manner. A user manifests agreement to be bound by this policy by using the Panamerican School email system. Violations of the policy may result in restriction of access to all Panamerican School information technology resources, including the email system and may result in other appropriate disciplinary action.

Ownership of Email Data

The Panamerican School owns all email accounts and all data transmitted or stored using email capabilities.

Personal Use

While incidental personal use of email is acceptable, conducting business for profit using Panamerican School resources is forbidden.

Privacy

While the Panamerican School attempts to keep email messages secure, privacy is not guaranteed and users should have no general expectation of privacy in email messages sent through the Panamerican School system. Under certain circumstances, it may be necessary for the IT staff or other appropriate school officials to access email files to maintain the system, to investigate security or abuse incidents or violations of this or other Panamerican policies. Such access will be on an "as needed" basis and any email accessed will be disclosed only to those individuals with a need-to-know or as required by law.

The Panamerican School reserves the right to intercept, store, archive, delete, or view such emails for security/audit purposes and, where necessary, instigate appropriate proceedings against the parties involved.

Expiration of Accounts

Student accounts will remain in effect for as long as the student remains enrolled at the Panamerican School. If the student leaves the Panamerican School, the account will be deleted.

Appropriate Use

When using email as an official means of communication, students, faculty and staff should apply the same professionalism, discretion, and standards that they would use in written business communication. Furthermore, students, faculty and staff should not communicate anything via email that one would not be prepared to say publicly.

Sending mass emails to the entire student body by individual students is prohibited.

Any opinions expressed in the email message you have received are those of the individual and not necessarily of Panamerican School of Porto Alegre. The email message, and any files attached with it, should be regarded as confidential information.

User Responsibility

Each student is assigned a Panamerican School email account and is required to check this account daily. Faculty and the Administration use email to communicate with students and for official notices. Students are deemed to have knowledge of all communications from the Faculty and Administration which are sent to their Panamerican School email address.

Sharing of passwords is strictly prohibited. Each individual is responsible for his/her account, including the safeguarding of access to the account. All email originating from an account is deemed to be authored by the account owner, and it is the responsibility of that owner to ensure compliance with these guidelines.

Examples of Inappropriate Use

Any inappropriate email, examples of which are described below and elsewhere in this policy, is prohibited. Users receiving such email should immediately contact the Panamerican School Technical Staff or appropriate Panamerican School Administrators.

• ·         The creation and exchange of messages that is harassing, obscene or threatening.
• ·         The unauthorized exchange of proprietary information or any other privileged, confidential sensitive information.
• ·         The creation and exchange of advertisements, solicitations, chain letters and other unofficial, unsolicited email.
• ·         The creation and exchange of information in violation of any laws, including copyright laws, or School policies.
• ·         The knowing transmission of a message containing a computer virus.
• ·         The misrepresentation of the identity of the sender of an email.
• ·         The use or attempt to use the accounts of others without their permission.
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Spam and Viruses

Incoming email is scanned for viruses and for messages deemed to be 'SPAM', or unsolicited advertisements for products or services sent to a large distribution. Suspected messages are tagged "SPAM" or blocked from the user's inbox if the message is deemed a threat. Due to the complex nature of email, it is impossible to guarantee protection against all SPAM and virus infected messages. It is therefore incumbent on each individual to use proper care and consideration to prevent the spread of viruses. In many cases viruses appear to be sent from a friend or coworker, therefore attachments should only be opened when the user is sure of the nature of the message. If any doubt exists, the user should contact I.T Support.