2 policy questions

[martynbez]

first one is regarding the head of teaching IT and IT teachers wanting to have access to all student folders for checking work. Now is this a breach of the child's privacy or is it common place?

 

second kinda of the same as above but with Email. is it ok for the tech's to be checking inside students email accounts?

[Face-Man]

Firstly whatever you decide on this you must make sure the students and staff know that you can do this. That get over any problems as they have been pre warned.

 

We have a policy here that if it resides on school equipment it belongs to the school and so can be checked by people the school assigns to do so. So basically home folders are checked for inappropriate material but students are encouraged to "hand work in" to staff folders for marking (that way staff don't need to see student folders). Web base email is off site and so is private but screen shots can be taken if accessed in school.

 

like wise once a usb stick is plugged into a school computer it is connected to the school system and so is far game for monitoring, virus removal etc.

[Diello]

first one is regarding the head of teaching IT and IT teachers wanting to have access to all student folders for checking work. Now is this a breach of the child's privacy or is it common place?

 

second kinda of the same as above but with Email. is it ok for the tech's to be checking inside students email accounts?

 

This comes down to what you have (if anything!) in your AUP - Ours explicitly says that work areas are school property, and staff may look at student files. The teachers having access is a grey area, really they have no reason to need it, if work is to be handed in, it should go into a specially designated area (think of a school book, the student hands these in at selected times), it's a bone of contention with teacher thinking they have an automatic right to it. The danger comes from teachers having "accidents" with student work (e.g. deleting it), so if you do choose to allow access... make sure it's read only.

 

Same goes for emails - your AUP should say that you have the right as they're school property. It's not necessarily illegal if it doesn't have it in there, but it helps to cover your behind.

[Domino]

personally, when asked for the above, I would reply with,

 

no 1: no

No 2: no

 

But thats because I'm a mean, mean, mean person.

 

 

And also our AUP stipulated that personal areas would only be 'monitored for illegal/forbidden activity'

[jcollings]

We give staff read only access to student work areas - it's useful sometimes to mark work that way and to pick up a piece of work a student forgot to put somewhere e.g a circuit board layout that needs etching or a piece of work that needs to be machined over night on the CAM kit.

 

Email - we would only look at that if there was a suspicion of inappropriate behaviour eg. bullying

[pete]

first one is regarding the head of teaching IT and IT teachers wanting to have access to all student folders for checking work. Now is this a breach of the child's privacy or is it common place?

 

second kinda of the same as above but with Email. is it ok for the tech's to be checking inside students email accounts?

 

We don't allow teacher access to student home drives for a few reasons:

 

1) At least one kid in 20 will have a paintmash of "Mr X smells of poo", which is fine so long as it stays in their homedrive. Giving teachers access would let the drama llama run wild when they're discovered.

1a) Given the naming conventions kids use for their files (madeofjamxxxx123.doc = history coursework) the teacher has no chance of reliably finding the work they need without being excessively nosey.

2) As far as possible, we leave kids home shares alone. We might check them up if they're massively over quota or there have been shenanigans, but we try to give them a semblance of privacy.

3) We have a VLE and drop-box folders for submitting and returning work.

 

WRT Email: Provided staff and students know that email is monitored, and you're looking for something specific (rather than fishing) with a valid reason you should be fine.

[CyberNerd]

A students homedrive are like an electronic exercise book. All our teachers have (read only) permissions so that they can look in them. I think it absurd that a teacher wouldn't be denied access to their students work. It also helps from a child safety perspective. Of course we now have an AUP stating that we can intercept communications - wouldn't want to fall foul of RIPA.

[Domino]

well, then the kids rely on the teacher being able to see it whatever happens.

 

It doesn't work like that at GCSE or A-level, so surely its better for them to have to hand their work in

[CyberNerd]

well, then the kids rely on the teacher being able to see it whatever happens.

 

It doesn't work like that at GCSE or A-level, so surely its better for them to have to hand their work in

 

Students do 'hand in' finished work. but sometimes its good for teachers to be able to pick up on where they are going wrong. An extra pair of eyes must only be a good thing.

[Domino]

ahh, but it's all fun and gmaes until someone loses an eye

[BBrian]

What permissions need to be set for this? Our AUP tells people to assume everything is logged and there is no privacy, but I've always been wary of messing with the permissions on the folders that were automatically created for roaming profiles and folder redirection. I have it in my head that there's a setting in a GPO somewhere, but don't know it.