Internet Usage Policy

(1)  Introduction

The Internet offers a range of enriched learning opportunities to students. The World Wide Web has the capacity to present information in a number of forms, e.g. audio and video, which are highly motivating for the learner.

E-mail, mailing lists have the potential to promote cross-cultural exchanges, language learning opportunities and collaboration on curriculum based projects. While all these may have positive effects on the learner’s social development, literacy and vocational skills, keeping students safe is critical at all times for parents and educators.

(2)  Aims of our Policy

• To ensure that pupils will benefit from learning opportunities offered by the school’s Internet resources in a safe and effective manner.
• It is hoped to include parents, students and educators in the promotion and use of this policy.
• It is envisaged that school and parent representatives will revise the policy every year

(3) What are the Risks involved in using the Internet?

There are three primary categories of risk associated with Internet usage, which include the following:

• Exposure to material in the form of images and text which is of an illegal, harmful violent, hate based or sexual nature.
• Exposure to material in the form of images and text which is of an illegal, harmful violent, hate based or sexual nature.
• Being lured into a physical encounter, which might threaten the safety and well-being of the child.

(4) School’s Strategy

The school will employ a number of strategies in order to maximise learning opportunities and reduce risks associated with the Internet.

• Pupils from second class to sixth class will be allowed access to the Internet.
• Internet sessions will always be supervised by a teacher.
• Websites will be previewed and evaluated before integration into lessons. Such websites will have educational content and will be used for educational purposes only. While the school will take every precaution against pupils accessing unsuitable material we do not accept responsibility if inappropriate material is accessed by pupils.
• The school will regularly monitor and archive pupils Internet usage by checking user files, temporary Internet files and history files.
• Students and teachers will be provided with training in the area of research techniques specific to the Internet.
• Specific internet settings will be locked and pupils will not be permitted to change these settings.
• Uploading and downloading of non-approved content will not be permitted. By non-approved we mean content from sites that have not been evaluated by teachers.
• Internet security devices such as Virus protection software, firewall and spyware will be used and updated on a regular basis.
• The use of any form of portable computer storage device in school will require the ICT co-ordinator’s permission.
• Students will only use pre-approved search engines, e.g. www.yahooligans.com.

(5) E-mail

• E-mail will be confined to internal usage only.
• Students will not have access to external e-mail sources.

(6) Internet Chat Rooms

• Students will not have access to moderated chat rooms or discussions forums.

(7) School Website

• Pupils will be given the opportunity to publish projects, artwork or school work on the World Wide Web.
• Teachers will co-ordinate the publication of student work.
• Pupils’ work will appear in an educational context on web pages with a copyright notice prohibiting the copying of such work without written permission.
• Photographs of individual students will not be published on the school Website, instead photographs will focus on group activities with group titles. Only pupils for whom we have received permission from parents will be included in such photographs.
• Personal pupil information including name, home address and contact details will never be published on the school Website.
• Website material will only be uploaded/accessed by the ICT coordinator.

(8) Data Protection Act

The Data Protection Act, 1998 was passed to deal with issues arising from the increasing amount of personal information contained on computers. In accordance with the Act the school alone will only publish pupil information that is relevant to the context of a web page. Parental permission will be sought using the parental permission slip before publishing work or pictures of individual children within a group setting.

(9) Sanctions

Misuse of the Internet will result in disciplinary action with reference to the School Behaviour Policy. The school also reserves the right to report any illegal activities to the appropriate authorities

Appendices

Internet Safety and Teacher Support
www.ncte.ie: National Centre for Technology in Education
www.iab.ie: Internet Advisory Board
www.into.ie : Irish National Teachers Organisation
www.scoilnet.ie: Resource Center for Parents

Glossary
The following are some of the more common terms that emerge when addressing the issue of Internet Safety.

Anti Virus Software
A software program that can be installed to scan and protect files from computer viruses.

AUP (Acceptable Use Policy)
An agreement specifying appropriate and inappropriate use of the Internet.

Browser/Browser History

• The software that allows users to read pages on The World Wide Web.
• A folder containing recently visited websites that is stored by the browser.

Chat Room
A place where you can have a conversation with one or more people in real time, that is, whey you type in a line of conversation the other person sees it immediately and can reply straight away.

Username
A name given to a person to disguise their real identity. This feature is often used in chat rooms for safety, e.g. a number –007, an animal-mouse, or a combination of both, e.g. –pup44.