Item 1: Perhaps the single most important item for any individual, student or otherwise,

Protect to remember when browsing the internet is to always protect your personal data.
your Research has shown that at least two out of five adult internet users have
privacy experienced at least one privacy breech or fraudulent use of their personal data
online (Allison et. al, 2005). In the U.S. alone this amounts to billions of dollars of loss.
The majority of these breeches were found to be caused by the individual
affected sharing too much personal information with the public, especially on
social media sites. The same rules that apply to a busy sidewalk should apply to
how we use the internet, if you wouldn’t yell out your address, full name, who
employs you, or other personal information in public than you should not make
this information readily available to people online.
Item 2: In keeping with the School and District AUP’s, material that is viewed as
Avoid obscene, harmful, or vulgar will be automatically filtered out by content filters.
prohibited The best course of action is to simply avoid attempting to connect to such sites.
content. Not only will this keep you in compliance with the AUP (and out of trouble with
administrators) it will protect you from a large percentage of phishing attacks.
Research has shown that a large percentage of these attacks on your personal
information are from re-directs on non-reputable sites (Curtis et. al, 2018). If you
should be conducting legitimate research and find yourself blocked from access
to a particular site, bring this to the attention of your instructor. The instructor
will verify the website for credible content and then bring the matter to the
appropriate individuals for removing blocks as necessary.
Item 3: Be When browsing the internet during classroom time, ensure that you are using
productive. this access to further your studies or follow up on questions asked during class.
Do not use this time to watch videos, browse social media, etc. This time is
provided for you to complete your assignments as necessary and wasting this
time will result in you having to do research on your own time. Certain websites,
like Facebook and YouTube, can be used for research as long as you remember a
few key questions when browsing material. Is the viewpoint or argument being
presented with valid data? Does the individual site their resources? Are these
resources reliable? Does the individual in question have a history of reliable data
reporting or putting forward substantiated claims? If you cannot answer yes to at
least three of these questions, then this source is most likely not a valid reference
for you to use in your research.
Item 4: Be Tying into Item 2, do not share prohibited content with others online. This
respectful includes, but is not limited to, obscene, vulgar, or hateful links or messages.
of each When on social networking sites discussing course work or debating theory,
other. keep your conversations civil. Do not demean, belittle, or threaten another
individual if they disagree with your viewpoint, even if you strongly object to
that viewpoint. None of the theories, or the individuals who proposed them, are
infallible and above another theorist. Likewise, some cultural differences in our
backgrounds may cause us to come to differing conclusions from our peers. At
times you may find you have to “agree to disagree” with your peers and that’s
 ok. It is your job to critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of each theory
and come to your own conclusions.
Item 5: Be The computers and other devices provided to you for your research by the school
respectful are the sole property of the school. Do not deface, degrade, or destroy these
of devices. Doing so not only deprives other students of using these devices for
materials. classwork, but also puts you at liability for replacement.
Item 6: Do When browsing the internet on a school network, do not expect your browsing
not expect history to be private. The network, and the devices used to connect to said
privacy. network, are the property of the school and as such they can review access
history at their discretion. While it is not the policy of this instructor to request
logs of this access, keep in mind that any administrator or instructor can request
logs of activity at any time: and your best course of action is to avoid prohibited
content (Item 1).
Item 7: Do not download or install any free, pirated, cracked, or otherwise modified
Use version of a commercialized software. Doing so is not only illegal in most
legitimate jurisdictions in the U.S., it also opens you up to potential cyber-attacks. Without
software. extensive knowledge of how the program is modified or what the program has
access to on your device, there is no way of knowing what data it has access to.
Keep in mind the old adage “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”. Developers
who developed this software are paid for their work and those who circumvent
this work are rarely going to give away the software without also expecting
something in return.
Item 8: Do As mentioned previously, the devices and network are the sole property of the
not expect school and district. Therefore, do not expect to be given the same device each
any time, a certain level of quality of the device or access, or to even always have
warranties access to said items. While the instructor will strive to ensure that every student
on device has a device to conduct research on and a network to connect to, certain
usage or unforeseen events can occur that will prevent this from happening. Should such
condition. a outage or lack of devices occur, your instructor will ensure that adequate
make-up time is given to complete any research missed.
Item 9: It is the official district policy that access to the internet, and the devices that
Access to allow this connection, are a privilege that can be revoked. Note that your
these instructor strongly disagrees with this stance. However, as it is official policy
materials is you must ensure you follow items 1-8 to avoid losing access to these materials.
viewed as Should you lose access to these materials, and you make a case to the instructor
a privilege. showing your adherence to items 1-8, your instructor will take your case to the
proper administrator for proper restoration of access.
Item 10: At all times when using the internet and associated devices for connection, you
Use the should be striving to increase your understanding. Use this time to explore items
Internet to and theories discussed in class, collect data, and form your own hypothesis based
further of the existing evidence. The point of this class is to get you thinking critically
your about the society we live in, and help you become individuals who validate
knowledge. claims and hypothesis before placing your stock in them.