Internet Policy Review
Williamsport Area School District
Lawrence J. Flint

1.) Where did you obtain the Internet policy and who was your contact?

The Internet policy for our school district was provided to me when I began my employment there earlier this academic year. The superintendent's office provided it as one of the documents during orientation

2.) Does this policy pertain to an individual school or an entire district?

This policy affects the entire Williamsport Area School District regardless of employment or student status and building assignment.

3.) List at least four strengths of this policy.

a.) The policy defines acceptable use in a manner that is consistent with the mood of the school environment and is within common sense bounds.
b.) It clearly defines the purpose of computing resources. A great investment has been made and the district has done a good job defining the proper use of such an investment.
c.) The policy openly encourages the use of the Internet as a research and communication tool. It recognizes the fact that computing resources are an excellent tool and not a necessary evil.
d.) This policy makes very clear the fact that all electronic mail can be reviewed by system administrators to check for proper content. This removes liability from the district in the case that it does prosecute and uses this as evidence.

4.) List at least four weaknesses of this policy.

a.) The policy limits the type of access and behavior that students have while at the school but it does (and can do) nothing to limit their use at home. Most students spend much more time online at home than at school.
b.) Although the policy discusses plagiarism, it does not address the fact that there are many resources on the Web that are misleading and incorrect.
c.) It clearly states that users are not permitted to reveal personal information about them. This takes individual people with personalities and transforms them to anonymous people at the end of a wire. It is clearly the case that the internet is a place for diverse people to gather from great distance and this goes against that reasoning.
d.) It states that users shall refrain from accessing information that may be seen as offensive to students, teachers and parents. There are many sites that many people would find offensive for many reasons but these sites may have an inherent educational value that far surpass other resources with the same content.

5.) What type of problems is this policy creating for teachers and students?

The school board has adopted a filtering policy and accompanying software which blocks many web sites with certain keywords that constitute inappropriate content. This is of particular concern to many teachers because it limits the ability of students to do research in some areas of study. I have been concerned because it has limited my ability to link to many web sites dealing with chemicals, ballistics, explosives, and drugs for my chemistry and physics students. Some chemical databases found online are also blocked. These are very useful and essential resources that can only be accessed by students at home.

6.) Do you agree with this policy? Why or why not?

I commend the school district on writing a very comprehensive policy that is not overly restrictive. They have recognized that the World Wide Web is a vast collection of computers that cannot be entirely controlled. Each person has to take it upon himself to use best judgement when utilizing online resources and communication.

7.) What would you do to improve it?

Being of liberal mindedness, I feel that the policy should be much less restrictive and that the blocking software be removed from the system. It is imprint that we recognize that our students are part of the Internet society just as adults are. Just by covering their eyes at school does not take away the social problems that are addressed by the web. Education as to proper content is more valuable and it should instill good judgement for our students.