Social Netwoking Policy - Example from Minnetonka - Who's created one?

[Bryan Berg]

Example below is from Minnetonka Schools. It's pretty good, but It's got some flaws, in my opinion. There is some contradictory statements in regards to work vs private use of the web tools (one area states that the District is essentially uninterested in what is done outside of the work hours and away from District Equipment, but another area is very vague about monitoring and content of a website by an individual - is that monitoring and content of a private site or a school-sponsored/approved site?) There needs to b some additional definitions for terms, and I found it strange that even though Minnetonka has a seperate policy regarding Student and Staff Relationships, this policy doesn't cross-reference it. But here it is, straight from Minnetonka's website (the policy was approved on March 4, 2010):

 

http://www.minnetonka.k12.mn.us/policies/470.pdf

 

Has anybodyelse created a policy, or included language in their AUP, regarding Social Networking? I haven't yet checked the MNSBA (http://www.mnsba.org) website to see if they have a generic policy ready for tweaking and adoption by district school boards in MN? Any interesting discussions? Might be a good topic for a summer get-together session?! :-)

[Brian Moskalik]

This part is just opening a can of worms:

"E. Anything posted on an employee’s Web site or Web log or other Internet content for
which the employee is responsible will be subject to all District policies, rules,
regulations, and guidelines. The District is free to view and monitor an employee’s Web
site or Web log at any time without consent or previous approval. Where applicable,
employees may be asked to disclose to the District the existence of and to provide the
District with access to an employee’s Web site or Web log or other personal social media
net work as part of an employment selection, promotion, or disciplinary process."

There was a huge uproar when a city government tried to do the same thing, by forcing their employees, etc, to open their personal / private content to their employer. As it is personal, and most especially, if it is marked as private on their site, it was labeled as an invasion of privacy, and the government eventually had to reverse their decision to mandate this.

I wish I knew where and when I read about city government issue.

Either way, I'd run, not walk, away from that wording.

[Bryan Berg]

That was exactly the area that Loren and I both got wide-eyes about, and wondered if this was supposed to reference only school/work-related/approved sites that the employess maintained, or if it really meant ANY site a employee maintained, even if it was a site that was done privately (outside of the work area, and otherwise unrelated to work) and on equipment other than that belonging to the district. This area doesn't spell that out very clearly. And if it does apply to personal sites, then that seems to contradict the statement made earlier in the policy on Page 1: "The District takes no position on employees’ decision to participate in the use of social media networks for personal use on personal time."

Granted, the very next line states: "However, use of these media for personal use during District time or on District equipment is prohibited. In addition, employees must avoid posting any information or engaging in communications that violate state or federal laws or District policies." - but that seems to me to apply to the fact that staff would need to be very careful in their posts so they didn't publish confidential information on any site they maintained?

So, I agree that if that paragraph applies to personal sites, that Minnetonka gets called to the table on that. Otherwise, the policy seems to be quite good - some more definitions are needed though: "Personal web site" and "School-related Website" (there's probably a better way to term that!) are two that need to be in that policy since those definitions would go a long way to clarifying that questionable paragraph!

Brian Moskalik said:

This part is just opening a can of worms:

"E. Anything posted on an employee’s Web site or Web log or other Internet content for
which the employee is responsible will be subject to all District policies, rules,
regulations, and guidelines. The District is free to view and monitor an employee’s Web
site or Web log at any time without consent or previous approval. Where applicable,
employees may be asked to disclose to the District the existence of and to provide the
District with access to an employee’s Web site or Web log or other personal social media
net work as part of an employment selection, promotion, or disciplinary process."

There was a huge uproar when a city government tried to do the same thing, by forcing their employees, etc, to open their personal / private content to their employer. As it is personal, and most especially, if it is marked as private on their site, it was labeled as an invasion of privacy, and the government eventually had to reverse their decision to mandate this.

I wish I knew where and when I read about city government issue.

Either way, I'd run, not walk, away from that wording.

[Bryan Berg]

I've done a little digging at the privacyrights.org website (specifically, here), but I haven't yet run across an area on that site that deals with the issue that Brian has highlighted with his reply to this forum post. If anyone discovers some additional information, that would be great!

[Bryan Berg]

Update - I did contact the MSBA (website is mnmsba.org) and this was the information that a contact there provided for me about existing policies regarding the use of Social Networking:

MSBA has not yet developed a policy specific to social networking sites. We do have policies that cover Employee-Student Relationships (#423) and Internet Acceptable Use (#524). The concepts in these two policies would cover most of the issues you would be concerned with, I believe.



Our policies are available to MSBA member schools that subscribe to our Policy Service. Over 90% of school districts subscribe to the Policy Service, so chances are that one of your SEMTEC Group members would have access to the model policies. The superintendent’s assistant or the principals are usually the people who work with the online policies the most. If you would like me to check whether a particular school district subscribes to the Policy Service, please let me know.



Best Regards,

Cathy

Cathy Miller, Director

Legal and Policy Services

Minnesota School Boards Association

Phone: [phone] or 800.324.4459

Fax: [phone]

[Brian Bartley]

We have just developed a district task force to come up with a policy for Hayyfield. It is a slippery slope but items do need to be addressed. Teachers/Staff havings students as Facebook friends on a personal site steps way over the line in my opinion. Same goes for Twitter, myspace etc....

Brian

[Jen Hegna]

Last Summer, I co-authored these guidelines. with Doug Johnson, Director of Media and Technology in Mankato. We will be presenting the guidelines at MEMO and TIES this year. I think the most important thing is to have the discussion with teachers. This is the presentation I shared with our staff.