TECHNOLOGY & SOCIAL MEDIA ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

School : refers to United Nations International School (UNIS).

Network Resources : refers to School computers and other digital technology resources and services, including but not limited to: computers (as defined below); software and operating systems; email, voicemail and all related storage and retrieval systems; data and database storage and retrieval systems including local and cloud-based services; and all other internal and external networks and Internet services made accessible by and for the School.

Computers : refers to all devices that store digital data including desktop and laptop computers, iPads and other tablet-based equipment, data capture and/or storage devices such as cameras, audio recorders, hard-drives, flash-drives and other digital storage devices.

Users : refers to School staff, admin, employees, trustees, volunteers and any other individuals who are not current students utilizing School Network Resources.

The Digital Revolution brought a dramatic shift from analog, mechanical, and electronic technology to digital technology. The widespread use and interconnectedness of mobile networked devices, mobile phones, online resources, social and professional networking are today all around us. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly intensified our interactions with a variety of hardware, software, and social media, fueling a surge of creativity around new tools.

UNIS recognizes the importance of technology on the student learning experience. Technology at UNIS is intended to facilitate and enhance creativity, innovation, collaboration and communication among all of our users. To this end, UNIS promotes safe, legal, responsible and effective uses of technology. This acceptable use policy (AUP) provides the framework for using information and technology in an ethical, legal and responsible manner.

Students are expected to be global interconnected citizens. By putting collaborative technology in students’ hands, UNIS opens exciting creative learning possibilities in which they can be guided to be independent lifelong learners in an ongoing evolving digital world. The adults in the community are tasked with supporting and protecting students as they explore these possibilities.

This policy applies to all authorized users of UNIS technology equipment, computer networks (wired and wireless), email, telephone and software and other forms of technology services and products, regardless of where the devices are used. In some designated cases, part of this policy and related applies exclusively to certain specific categories of users. Violations of this policy and related policies will result in referral to administration and possible disciplinary action.

We expect all users to comply with UNIS’ rules, to act in a responsible manner, and to follow the guidelines set by the school. The actions of users accessing UNIS networks reflect on UNIS. In general, acceptable use means respecting the rights of other computer users, the integrity of the physical facilities and all pertinent license and contractual agreements.

If an individual is found to be in violation of the Acceptable Use Policy, UNIS may impose disciplinary action in accordance with Article 5.6.00 of the Staff Association Agreement (“Agreement”, for employees). Individuals are also subject to federal, state and local laws governing many interactions that occur on the Internet. These policies and laws are subject to change as state and federal laws develop and change.

This agreement is intended to provide a framework of acceptable use and not to define all required or prohibited behavior by users. All users are expected to make appropriate choices and conduct their behavior in an appropriate and responsible manner. Any act of misconduct not specified in this policy and related policies may be subject to disciplinary action.

UNIS provides to its members the use of resources and work-related tools, including access to the Library, to certain computer systems, mobile devices, servers, software and databases, to the telephone and voicemail systems, and to the Internet. UNIS members have a reasonable expectation of unobstructed use of these tools, of certain degrees of privacy, and of protection from abuse and intrusion by others sharing these resources. You can expect your right to access information and to express your opinion to be protected as it is for paper and other forms of non-electronic communication.

In turn, users are responsible for knowing the regulations and policies of the school that apply to appropriate use of the UNIS’ technologies and resources. Users are responsible for exercising good judgment in the use of the school’s technological and information resources. Just because an action is technically possible does not mean that it is appropriate to perform that action.

As representatives of the UNIS community, employees are expected to respect UNIS’ good name in electronic dealings with those inside and outside the community.

All users are expected to protect UNIS’ computers and technology equipment. Theft, vandalism, tampering, intentional destruction or disregard for the physical condition of equipment and network is unacceptable.

Users are required to report any type of equipment and network abuse to the Technology Department. Damage, loss and/or theft of school-owned equipment may be subject to a fee.

UNIS recognizes the importance of providing students with positive, productive educational experiences through the School's Internet services. UNIS network resources are considered the property of UNIS. Access to UNIS’ network services is provided throughout the school via a wireless network. UNIS blocks websites and web-based services that the administration deems to pose a threat to the safety, security, and well-being of its community members, facilities, network, and resources. To the extent practical, UNIS’ Internet Safety Policy :

• Prevents user access over the UNIS' network to inappropriate material via the Internet

• Prevents unauthorized access and other unlawful online activity;

• Complies with federal and state laws.

Some websites may be blocked following default policies. Faculty/staff/administration can request access to these websites at any given time. Their request will be reviewed and approved if the request complies with the UNIS’ Internet Safety Policy.

The use or disclosure of a student’s personally identifiable information or the posting of pictures of students is prohibited without the express permission of that child’s parent. UNIS’ community members should not post pictures or information about other students and student activities on their personal social media accounts. This includes all information that may directly or indirectly lead to tracing an individual's identity, including but not limited to the following per FERPA regulations:

• Name

• Picture

• Date of Birth

• ID Number

• Email Address

• Phone Number

• Race

• Religion

• Academic Performance

Photos of UNIS students may only be used by the school and its agents if agreed to in the registration contract: "We (I) understand that UNIS reserves the right to use at any time in the future photographs, names or other media images, recordings or materials of us (me), and/or our (my) child, for brochures, videos, websites, prints or other publicity or marketing purposes." Agreements may be found within Veracross.

All users are expected to maintain the security of their computers and data by protecting their passwords and never leaving their equipment unattended.

Software piracy occurs when one installs and/or uses software for which proper payment has not been made. Protected software may not be copied into, from or by any UNIS computer, except by license. Copying software among computers within the school is prohibited.

Copying software between school and home computers is also prohibited. UNIS enters into a variety of software licensing agreements that limit the number of copies that may be installed. Users authorized to install software are expected to consult with the technology department when considering purchasing or installing software. The Director of Academic Technology is responsible for ensuring that UNIS is compliant with software vendor licensing agreements.

The Technology Department staff will remove unregistered software from school computers unless proper licensing and proof of purchase is verified. Personally owned software must be legally licensed if installed on an UNIS-owned device. UNIS-owned equipment shall only run licensed operating systems. Unauthorized hacking or modifying the operating system of any device is prohibited and subject to investigation of impacted device(s).

Most videos available on streaming services, or on DVD, unless they are older films in the Public Domain, are protected by copyright. However, some statutory exceptions allow educators to show all or portions of films in an educational classroom. Title 17, Section 110(1) of the United States Copyright Act states educators may show a “performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, unless, in the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, the performance, or the display of individual images, is given by means of a copy that was not lawfully made under this title, and that the person responsible for the performance knew or had reason to believe was not lawfully made”.

In other words, this section permits a faculty to show a film, or a portion of a film from a DVD or a streaming web service, in a face-to-face classroom or a similar location, unless the copy of the film was unlawfully made.

However, regarding streaming services, we do not encourage employees to use personal account. Any faculty/staff/admin who will need to show a film, a documentary, or portion of either, is encouraged to contact the librarians and/or use school resources and online services.

Computers and associated peripherals such as printers and scanners may not be used to create fraudulent or counterfeit documents, including, but not limited to, IDs, currency, tickets, legal documents, or QR codes.

UNIS’ community members use of computing resources is expected to reflect appropriate standards for responsible conduct. Users should always keep in mind that information produced, shared, and retrieved by them is a reflection on the school community and is subject to the school’s policies.

• Users may use only the computers, computer accounts, and computer files for which they have authorization.

• Users may not use another individual's account, or attempt to capture or guess other users' passwords.

• Users are individually responsible for appropriate use of all resources assigned to them, including the computer, the network address or port, software, hardware, and accounts. Therefore, users are accountable to UNIS for all use of such resources. As an authorized UNIS user of resources, enabling unauthorized users to access the network by using a UNIS computer or a personal computer that is connected to UNIS network is strictly prohibited.

• Users should make a reasonable effort to protect their passwords and to secure resources against unauthorized use or access. Users must configure hardware and software in a way that reasonably prevents unauthorized users from accessing UNIS’ network and computing resources.

• Users must not attempt to access restricted portions of the network, an operating system, security software or other administrative applications without appropriate authorization by the system owner or administrator.

• Users must comply with the policies and guidelines for any specific set of resources to which they have been granted access. When other policies are more restrictive than this policy, the more restrictive policy takes precedence.

• Users must not use UNIS computing and/or network resources in conjunction with the execution of programs, software, processes, or automated transaction-based commands that are intended to disrupt (or that could reasonably be expected to disrupt) other computer or network users, or damage or degrade performance, software or hardware components of a system.

School technology is provided for educational and professional purposes. Using school technology resources for personal activities is acceptable but must not interfere with the user’s responsibilities and performance and must not interfere with the community’s ability to use the computing resources. UNIS’ networks are not to be used for personal financial gain or in any manner that reflects negatively upon the UNIS community.

It is crucial that important data on users’ computer or device be backed up on a regular basis. This can be accomplished by using users’ Google Drive account, provided by the Technology Department. It is recommended data is backed up at least weekly, although daily backup is preferable. The Technology Department will provide training for backing up data. All data stored in Google is backed up through use of Google Vault, accessible by UNIS Technology leadership.

UNIS owns all data stored on school-owned equipment, including but not limited to the data network, computers, mobile data storage devices and all connected peripherals. Shared resources on the UNIS network include file servers; other computers on which users' work is stored; devices containing UNIS’ information; and hosted online services with which UNIS has contracted to provide services.

Mechanisms exist to prevent unauthorized access by others and protect private information. Information users have not been invited to use is not theirs to access. It is unacceptable for a user to access and read another user’s email or file, even if the email or file is unprotected. The owner of the files must grant other users permission to access files.

The technology equipment, network and associated user accounts are the property of UNIS. Routine monitoring and maintenance of the UNIS network, UNIS computing equipment, and UNIS licensed accounts (used within UNIS Network or not) may reveal inappropriate usage or violation of this policy.

UNIS reserves the right to access, view, or monitor school-owned technology resources electronically to ensure that system performance, management and maintenance functions, that policy compliance and system security are intact, and that problems can be diagnosed and resolved quickly when disruptions to normal service occur. It may be required by law to allow third-party access to the school’s network and electronic data as communications may become evidence in legal proceedings.

As a result, individuals using any UNIS shared resources, whether UNIS-owned, connected or not to UNIS’ network, or personal devices connected to UNIS’ network, must recognize there is no guarantee of privacy associated with their use of school owned technology resources. System users at School therefore have no right to privacy and should have no expectation of privacy in materials sent, received, created or stored with school-owned hardware or on the school network. All communications (including email) and information accessible via the network are assumed to be school property. If suspected acceptable use policy violations are discovered, the Technology Department may provide this data to school administrators and/or appropriate authorities.

UNIS maintains the right to enable remote use of tracking software on school-owned devices reported as lost or stolen. This action may only be initiated by UNIS' school administrator or his/her designee. UNIS may share data gathered through tracking software with law enforcement as required by law.

As a member of the UNIS community, users are expected to uphold local ordinances and state and federal law.

Users of UNIS’ computing and network resources must:

• Abide by all federal, state, and local laws.

• Abide by all applicable copyright laws and licenses. UNIS has entered into legal agreements or contracts for many of our software and network resources which require each individual using them to comply with those agreements.

• Observe the copyright law as it applies to music, videos, games, images, texts and other media in both personal use and in production of electronic information. The ease with which electronic materials can be copied, modified and sent over the Internet makes electronic materials extremely vulnerable to unauthorized access, invasion of privacy and copyright infringement.

• Not use, copy, or distribute copyrighted works (including but not limited to Web page graphics, sound files, film clips, trademarks, software and logos) unless he/she has a legal right to use, copy, distribute, or otherwise exploit the copyrighted work. Doing so may provide the basis for disciplinary action, civil litigation and criminal prosecution.

Please visit The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education web pages for full discussion of your legal obligations.

While every effort is made to insure the privacy of UNIS email users, this may not always be possible. In addition, since employees are granted use of electronic information systems and network services to conduct school business, there may be instances when the school, based on approval from authorized administrators and/or officers, reserves and retains the right to access and inspect stored information without the consent of the user.

The school recognizes the rights of and encourages the participation of students, faculty, staff, admin, and employees to participate in online social networking.

Far more than mere distractions, social media services are increasingly powerful tools for a variety of purposes. UNIS graduates and faculty/staff/admin understand the unique benefits of social media and how best to apply them.

Social media services empower people to:

• Connect and stay connected with anyone—friends, colleagues, experts, clients, and others—across barriers of time and space.

• Collaborate, assemble, and crowdsource for learning and work across networks larger and more diverse than any one existing organization.

• Filter and curate digital content, helping ourselves and others to glean the best content from an information-overloaded world.

Social media services also present special challenges as sometimes they can:

• trick us into feeling what we share is private, even as digital footprints are public and permanent. It lends a loudspeaker and an audience as soon as we wish to share—but no dependable way to take back today what we regret sharing yesterday.

• tempt us with anonymity into conduct we may not want associated with our character, and it denies us vocal and physical cues to tell when we’re being offensive.

• can pull us constantly away from the present, into the “out there” rather than the “right here,” which can distract us from the moment and the people around us, and can keep us from reflecting inwardly.

• can expose youths directly to dangers: for example, people intent on theft or abuse.

• even so, can only seem to expose us to more diverse points of view. Encoded algorithms filter social media to show us mostly what we prefer to see, limiting our perspective.

• make it easy to distribute content that we do not own and have no right to distribute.

Our guidelines are designed to create an atmosphere of goodwill, honesty, and individual accountability. UNIS faculty, staff and admin should always keep in mind that information produced, shared, and retrieved by them is a reflection on the school community and is subject to the School’s policies. When accessing, creating, or contributing to any blogs, wikis, podcasts, or other social media for classroom or, in some cases, for personal use, we expect you to keep these guidelines in mind.

Please inform the Communications Office of any use of social media that will interact with students and the UNIS community.

“Social Media” includes the various online technology tools that enable people to communicate easily over the internet to share information and resources. Social media can include text, audio, video, images, podcasts, and other multimedia communications. These websites not only provide information, but allows for interaction during this informational exchange through user-generated content.

UNIS encourages faculty, staff and admin to utilize social media as a learning tool, and as a way to share relevant UNIS information. Avoid interacting with students through your personal social media profiles. It is recommended that you create a separate social media profile for interacting with the UNIS community. Be aware of the privacy controls and settings on the social media platform you are using, and set them accordingly when dealing with the UNIS community. Faculty members are encouraged to use Schoology, Veracross, Clever, and Google Workspaces to interact with students.

Users must be aware of what is being posted by others and if necessary respond appropriately to photos, posts or other evidence of concerning or destructive behavior.

Users must remember that social media is an extension of the classroom, and they must be sure all content is appropriate for this setting. The lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred in the digital world. A user, by virtue of identifying as an UNIS employee or student online, is now connected to employees, students, parents and the school community. When identified as a member of the UNIS online community the user should ensure that content associated with him/her is relevant to UNIS’ mission and purpose.

​6.1.1.​ Posting

• UNIS employees are personally responsible for all comments/information they publish online.

• UNIS employees must be mindful that what they publish will be public for a long time—and are encouraged to protect their privacy. Their online behavior should reflect the same standards of honesty, respect, and consideration that they use face-to-face, and be in accordance with the highest professional standards.

• By posting their comments, having online conversations etc. on social media sites UNIS employees are broadcasting to the world and must be aware that, even with the strictest privacy settings, what they ‘say’ online should be within the bounds of professional discretion

• Comments related to UNIS should always meet the highest standards of professional discretion.

• Respect brand, trademark, and copyright information.

​6.1.2.​ Multimedia

• Before posting photographs and videos, permission should be sought from the subject where possible. This is especially the case where photographs of professional colleagues are concerned.

• Before posting personal photographs, UNIS employees’ should be give thought as to how the images reflect on their professionalism.

• Remember, social networking site is an extension of personality, and by that token an extension of professional life and classroom.

UNIS employees must protect any sensitive information regarding all members of the UNIS community. When posting information relating to students, we request that UNIS employees abide by the following guidelines:

• All students must have a signed media release on file, signed annually as part of the registration contract, for their image to appear in photos or videos on the site.

• We will refrain from associating a student's full name with their image.

• Therefore when captioning pictures or video of students, UNIS employees should use only students’ first names and last initial.

• UNIS employees may only publish the first initial and last name of students in rosters or student lists.

• At the request of the parent or student, the school will remove any tags, captions or other identifying text.

• At the request of the parent or student, the school we will remove a student's image from our website or social media post.

Social media within the UNIS community should be used for educational purposes or to support the UNIS mission. Please ensure that all social media activity falls within these guidelines, and contact the Communications Office for any further questions or comments.

When using UNIS computing services, and accepting any UNIS-issued computing accounts, users agree to comply with this and all other computing related policies. Users have the responsibility to keep up-to-date on changes in the computing environment, as published, using UNIS electronic and print publication mechanisms, and to adapt to those changes as necessary.

Misuse of computing, networking, school owned devices or information resources may result in:

• Temporary or permanent restriction of computing privileges up to employment termination for faculty/staff/admin.

In some misuse situations, account privileges will be suspended to prevent ongoing misuse while under investigation. Additionally, misuse can be prosecuted under applicable statutes. All files are subject for search. Where follow-up actions against a user after an information security incident involves legal action (either civil or criminal), the evidence shall be collected, retained, and presented to conform to the rules for evidence laid down in the relevant jurisdiction(s). Complaints alleging misuse of UNIS‘s computing and network resources, school’s owned devices, school’s owned systems and/or data will be directed to those responsible for taking appropriate disciplinary action.

• U.S. Code Title 17 Chapter 1 § 110 Limitations on exclusive rights: Exemption of certain performances and displays

• Some elements found in the Social Media Guidelines are from the document shared by King School: “Social Media at King”.