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GUIDELINES AND USE POLICY REGULATING THE USE OF COMPUTER

RESOURCES IN THE AVERILL PARK CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

All students at the Averill Park Central School District are expected to abide by the conditions set forth in the board-adopted Acceptable Use Policy in order to access the technology available for student use. The policy is printed below. Please feel free to contact a school administrator with any questions you may have.

The Board of Education of the Averill Park Central School District encourages the use of computer resources as a valuable tool for education and an integral part of the curriculum. Computer resources shall be defined to include but are not limited to the following: computers, computer programs, electronic library resources and the network, along with access to the Internet, communication (e-mail) with teachers and the development and testing of staff and student programs. Included in this document are guidelines and regulations covering student and staff use of district computer resources, including:

-who shall have access to, and level of access to

-acceptable uses of

-sanctions for inappropriate use of

-proper use of copyrighted material

These guidelines and regulations shall be made known to all staff, parents and students prior to their use of district computer resources.

General Guidelines

Student and staff use of district computer resources is for school related use only. Computer resources are available to users solely for the purpose of supporting our educational programs (classroom activities, career exploration and limited directed discovery activities) and professional development. The use of district computer resources is a privilege, not a right and may be revoked at anytime. Each user must agree with and comply with the Board of Education Policy and related guidelines.

Procedures

All users of Averill Park Computer Resources are expected to become familiar with, and follow, the Acceptable Users Policy (AUP)as agreement to the terms and conditions of their use of any Averill Park Central School District Computer Resources, as well as agreement to the publication of any material developed while a student or staff member of the Averill Park Central School District.

In order to best utilize online and other research related computer resources users first should develop a search plan defining the problem or area of study.

Staff may access personal accounts for school-related purposes ~f computer resources are not in demand by another staff or student pursuing a curriculum or school-related project. Failure to comply with any of the policies or guidelines related to computer resources will result in appropriate disciplinary action including, but not limited to:

• • loss of usage privileges related to computer resources
• • monetary restitution for any damages caused
• • possible civil or criminal proceedings
• • loss of school privileges
• • detention
• • suspension from school
• • any other school penalties deemed appropriate

Acceptable Use

The use of district computer resources must be in support of education and research consistent with the educational objectives of the Averill Park Central School District.

The purpose of district computer resources is to support research and education in and among academic institutions by providing access to these unique resources and by allowing for the opportunity to engage in collaborative work. All material obtained by means of these resources should be considered copyrighted and included on a works cited page; furthermore, the Averill Park Central School District assumes no responsibility for the quality or accuracy of such material.

Users may have access to e-mail. Elementary students’ e-mail access will be via a classroom account under the supervision of the classroom teacher. Secondary students may be provided with an individual e-mail account, but must have the approval of the administration and their parents for such an account. Staff may request an e-mail account. Each user is to report to the system administrator any message that is received that the user feels is inappropriate or makes them feel uncomfortable.

Prohibited Activities

Following is a partial list of generally prohibited activities. This list in not all inclusive and is intended as a general guide for the user of district computer resources and may be updated at any time without notice.

Users are not allowed to:

• • engage in activities for commercial purposes or political lobbying
• • post personal contact information about yourself or others
• • engage in activities that will disrupt the system in any way
• • alter the operation system or application software on the district computers in any way
• • engage in any illegal activity
• • arrange to meet with anyone you meet online
• • share your password or account with others
• • use profane, vulgar, rude, disrespectful or threatening language in any correspondence
• • post or access obscene or profane material
• • establish unauthorized web sites or web pages
• • copy software
• • download unauthorized information or applications
• • load personal software or disks
• • alter, tamper with or destroy the material of another user or the district
• • use the computer to access data from secure areas (no hacking)
• • use personal diskettes without authorization

CYBER-BULLYING

Cyber-bullying includes, but is not limited to, the following misuses of technology: harassing, teasing, intimidating, threatening, or terrorizing another student or staff member by way of any technological tool, such as sending or posting inappropriate or derogatory email messages, instant messages, text messages, digital pictures or images, or website postings (including blogs) which have the effect of:

• Physically, emotionally or mentally harming a student or staff member;
• Placing a student in reasonable fear of physical, emotional or mental harm;
• Placing a student in reasonable fear of damage to or loss of personal property; or
• Creating an intimidating or hostile environment that substantially interferes with a student’s educational opportunities are a staff member’s ability to perform his or her duties.

“SEXTING”

“Sexting” means sending, forwarding, displaying, retaining, storing or posting sexually explicit, lewd, indecent or pornographic photographs, images or messages by or on a cell phone, computer or other electronic means during school hours or activities on or off campus, while on school district property, during any recess, lunch or leave periods on or off school district property, by use of school district property, or beyond the hours of school operation if the behavior detrimentally affects the personal safety or well-being of school-related individuals, the governance, climate or efficient operation of the school or the educational process or experience.

All such behavior by students, staff, or third parties is strictly prohibited and the commission of such acts shall subject the offending student(s) to appropriate disciplinary action, consistent with the student discipline code, which may include, but is not limited to, suspension or notification to the appropriate authorities.

You will receive a username and password from the Human Resource Department. You will need to login to the network on a device on campus

Once you login you will be prompted to change your password OR you can hit the Ctrl + Alt + Delete and select change password, this is where you will create your new password.

Please note: This will be the same username and password you will use to access the wireless network on campus

You can enroll to have the ability to reset your password even if you have forgotten it.  Click here for more information

1. Passwords must be at least 8 characters in length and contain at least 3 of the following 4 types of characters:
   • lower case letters (i.e. a-z)
   • upper case letters (i.e. A-Z)
   • numbers (i.e. 0-9)
   • special characters (e.g. !@#$%^&*()_+|~-=\‘{}[]:”;’?,./)

2. In addition, passwords must:
   • Not be a single word found in the dictionary (in any language), whether spelled forwards or backwards, or a single word preceded or followed by a digit (e.g., secret1, 1secret)

Note: It is OK to use real words in passwords as long as you use more than one and still include the different required character types. Modified dictionary words are even better. See “Additional Tips and Hints” below for details.

• Not include user name or login name
• Not be a common keyboard sequence, such as “qwerty89” or “abc123”
• Not be from examples you have seen in print, such as the ones on this page.

ADDITIONAL TIPS AND HINTS
for creating good, cryptic, hard-to-guess passwords

• Longer passwords are better.
• Avoid including personal information, names of family, places, pets, birthdays, address, hobbies, license plate number, etc.
• Avoid words that are slang, dialect, jargon, etc.
• A password consisting of several words separated by spaces can actually be more secure and easier to remember than a more complicated, obscure one.
  • Basing your password on a phrase that is familiar to you is one way to generate a password that is memorable to you, but obscure to others. For example, “The hills are alive with the sound of music!!” is actually a pretty good password, except for the fact that that it is inconveniently long and published here. A shorter version could be, “Hills! alive! Music!” or, using a variant on the first letter of each word, “ThRawts0m!”.
  • A few memorable, unrelated words can also be a good password, such as “correct horse battery staple”or, if the system requires additional complexity, “Correct horse battery staple!”
  • Automatic “password cracker” programs now also check for complete dictionary words in a row, separated by spaces or not, so it’s still always best to modify dictionary words. “The hills are alyve w/the sound of musyc!” is much more secure than “The hills are alive with the sound of music!” It’s also harder to remember, so it’s a trade-off.
• Be aware that automatic “password cracker” programs check for common symbol substitutions in words, such as “0” for “o” and “$” for “s”. Simply substituting common symbols for letters in a dictionary word, e.g. “Pa$$w0rd” instead of “Password,” might result in a guessable password even though it technically meets the above requirements. Passwords that are found vulnerable by automatic password strength checkers may be rejected.
• Passwords shouldn’t be toocommon (Password1 is very common. 2bor!2b is pretty uncommon and is also only 7 characters in length).

III. Password Security Standards – How to keep your passwords secret and secure:

1. Do not share your passwords with anyone else (meaning substitutes, teachers or other staff members), or in any way publish them.
2. Avoid writing passwords down.

• Whenever possible, change passwords to something you can easily remember.
  • One way to do this is to create a password from a familiar phrase (see Additional Tips and Hints, above, for more information).
  • Once you have a good, strong, memorable password, you can come up with a system to modify it slightly for each system or application. Then you only have to remember your base password and your system.
• If you have to write a password down, try to write it in a way that others won’t be able to decipher — such as using a hint for part of it — and store it securely in a safe, unlikely-to-be-discovered location, e.g., not under the keyboard or on your monitor.

3. If you think your password may have been compromised, notify the Tech department.

4. Don’t let your applications or browser remember/store passwords that provide access to restricted systems or data.

• That way if someone gets access to your computer, they don’t also get access to all of your accounts.

Google Drive can be accessed at any location you have internet connection

On your computer, you can upload from drive.google.com or your desktop. You can upload files into private or shared folders.

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
2. At the top left, click New   File Upload or Folder Upload.
3. Choose the file or folder you want to upload.

Drag files into Google Drive

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
2. Open or create a folder.
3. To upload files and folders, drag them into the Google Drive folder.

For more information on how to use google drive click here

Network Drives – Can only be accessed on campus

• Do not store document on your hard-drive of school computers. These computers are often re-imaged and cleaned out. Meaning all files are deleted from the hard drive.
• All network users are given a folder on a network server to store documents.
  Your folder is mapped to the drive letter Z:
• You can access your folder from any workstation on our network. This includes workstations in other buildings.
• To find your folder, open up my computer, under network drives, locate your Z: Drive

• If you are sharing your documents with colleagues you can use the public folder which is mapped to the drive letter P:

P: is to share with colleagues
Z: is your network folder

Before using your email account please be sure to read the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

To access your email go to our homepage at www.averillpark.k12.ny.us and click on the link in our quick links section

Signing into your Gmail

You MUST put @apcsd.org

Change your password

1. Sign in to My account.
2. Under ‘Sign-in & security’, select Signing in to Google.
3. Choose Password. If you see a prompt to sign in again, sign in.
4. Enter your new password, then select Change password.

Enroll in Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – Have you cell phone ready so you can get a text message

Sign in to your @apcsd.org account
When signed in go to https://myaccount.google.com/u/1/security
Scroll to 2 Factor Authentication and follow the prompts to set it up.
Any time you login to a device for the 1st time, you will receive a text message asking you to verify that it was you that signed in.
This is for your safety and security.

Averill Park Central School uses G-Suite for Education. To learn more about how to use Gmail click here

– Gmail Cheat Sheet

– Beginner Tips