what would you class as reasonable use of a laptop?

[PEO]

so here is the problem.

 

we have a new esafety policy and laptop policy. in the policy we have this line.

 

I will only use the school's email/Internet/Intranet/Learning Paltform and any related technologies for profesional purposes or for uses deemed 'reasonable' by the the head or Governing Body.

 

Staff are unsure what reasonable means... in terms of well if I book a holiday with my work laptop, is that reasonable use?

 

I've been asked to write a list of what reasonable use is...

 

Forgive my ignorance but I feel like writing in big leters red 'DONT DO ANYTHING STUPID'

 

I'm stuck.... can anyone help me out?

[krisd32]

Don't take home and allow your children to install / play games and download illegal music on them.

and then don't come to me when you've filled your hard drive with family holiday photo's and they're entire cd catalougue into itunes.

[mjs_mjs]

Thats where an AUP should deem what is and isn't reasonable. Do you have an AUP?

[PEO]

yes that line is on the AUP

[alan-d]

Part of our AUP says the following;

 

The above-mentioned teacher and name of school agree that the teacher may use the laptop computer for any purpose s/he wishes, provided solely that it shall not result in personal financial gain for the teacher or any of his/her family associates, but the expectation shall be that such purpose shall primarily be for the teacher’s personal and professional development in connection with her/his duties in the school, and that both parties shall collaborate in recognising what activities might produce outcomes beneficial to both the teacher and the school. To this end, name of school will endeavour to provide any training mutually agreed to be necessary. Both parties agree to provide any information requested by name City Council officer, the Department for Education and Skills, the Office for Standards in Education, National College of School Leadership, or other comparable agency, in investigating the effectiveness and value for money of the Laptops

[Potato-Peeler]

Make it clear any form of pornography, illegal software etc is not allowed. You would honestly be amazed what we have to put up with

Actually it might be worthwhile not giving them admin rights?

[pete]

Our guidance is roughly paraphrased as:

 

"Would you be happy for the head to see you doing this?"

 

(assumes your headteacher isn't crazy or otherwise holds funny ideas)

[penfold]

I will only use the school's email/Internet/Intranet/Learning Paltform and any related technologies for profesional purposes or for uses deemed 'reasonable' by the the head or Governing Body.

 

Staff are unsure what reasonable means... in terms of well if I book a holiday with my work laptop, is that reasonable use?

 

I've been asked to write a list of what reasonable use is...

 

Forgive my ignorance but I feel like writing in big leters red 'DONT DO ANYTHING STUPID'

 

I'm stuck.... can anyone help me out?

 

I hope i dont sound thick, but surely the head or the Governing body should be writing a list of what is reasonable not you?

[timzim]

...surely the head or the Governing body should be writing a list of what is reasonable not you?

 

Oh God no, please don't let a committee near it or you'll never get a sensible list!

[Dos_Box]

Why is that teachers eem to think that Limewire should be part of the standard build too!!

As soon as I see that icon on the desktop I immediately unplug it from the network, it's the computer equivalent of saying 'I've got pox'!

[elsiegee40]

Oh God no, please don't let a committee near it or you'll never get a sensible list!

 

I've just been asked to attend a meeting at the school where I am governor to help do exactly this... but then I'm very popular with the IT staff (both academic and non-academic at that school) as I listen to them!

[penfold]

Oh God no, please don't let a committee near it or you'll never get a sensible list!

 

Lol true enough, but you know that when a list is produced and a member of staff uses their laptop outside what is reasonable nothing will happen anyway.

[PEO]

taking admin rights away would increase my work load.

 

If I see any type of torrent or download program, I always go in deep and look for illegal or unrelated work.

 

I must admit it does get my back up when some one in the home goes on it and basically changes everything. despite my best efforts to set up a laptop which is customed towards that teachers needs.

[fafster]

Our policy is along the lines of "If you're unsure whether something is allowed, then it probably isn't."

 

Staff used to have admin rights on their laptops, but not any longer.

[tmcd35]

I start by asking the Head and Govenors what they deem reasonable use to be, then you'd have your answer!

[srochford]

If you don't yet have an AUP and you're effectively trying to draft one then I think you can start with big things - eg you mustn't use the laptop to do anything illegal or potentially illegal (so no torrents or P2P software) and you mustn't do anything which could bring the school into disrepute (so no porn, even if it's legal!)

 

Next big thing is that the user must not remove any software such as virus scanners etc, they mustn't turn off automatic updates and so on.

 

Is it reasonable to use the laptop for (say) booking a holiday, personal banking, shopping online etc? I think most people would say that's fine - it's unlikely to cause a problem or break the laptop. If something does go wrong with the laptop then it's easy to wipe and reinstall - the user won't lose anything (backup is a whole other can of worms, however)

 

What about iPlayer, Spotify and similar? Again, shouldn't cause a problem - they shouldn't stop the machine working and, if somehow they do then again it's a wipe and restore.

 

You're then looking at things which are reasonable but could cause problems - eg if I put all my personal digital photos on the laptop it's not really going to cause a problem unless I fill the disc or something goes wrong.

 

If the laptop goes wrong and I've got all my personal data on it then there's a potential problem - as a technician, I want to just wipe and restore the machine. As Joe User, I don't want to lose all my photos or whatever - this is where you need management backing to say that (say) users can store personal stuff on the machine but it's the user's responsibility to back this up to an external drive - the technician will repair the machine but is not responsible for recovering data.

 

I'd guess I can't ignore backup any longer :-) If the machine is being used for school work then it's likely to have stuff on it which does need to be saved if the machine goes wrong. I would expect to have a good backup system provided for the user which is as simple to use as possible and, ideally, reports back to the IT staff so that they know if the user data is not being backed up.

 

Ultimately, "reasonable" is one of those weasel words used by solicitors to keep them in business!

[mjs_mjs]

You could just set them up as network machines with VPN or access to a seperate partition for their work. Then they are an extension to your network and would come under the same rules... which brings us back to if you wouldn't do it in school... it isn't ok use.

[sippo]

We've just had a laptop come in the last few weeks. The hard-drive had failed. The teacher said well its got all my personal stuff on it. After explaing that he signed the 'AUP Form', that the only thing I can do is send off the hard-drive for a restore. The price came back at £690. I think he'll be backing up his personal data onto external devices in the future!!

[p858snake]

just ask them "Would you do it, with the laptop connected to a projector in front of a class?" if not...

[timzim]

just ask them "Would you do it, with the laptop connected to a projector in front of a class?" if not...

 

Nice one! ...but i think some of our teachers probably would...

[LeMarchand]

Nice one! ...but i think some of our teachers probably would...

 

I've seen someone have the "I have a dream" speech up on YouTube (now blocked!) who failed to spot the racist invective littered with F-bombs IN ALL CAPS in the comments on the page .