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Information Technology Services

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES PRESENTATIONS

MUSD ETHICAL AND ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

The Montebello Unified School District is providing advanced technology and increased access to learning opportunities for the District’s learning community. The District has installed an intra-net “MUSD-Net” providing networked computing with an Internet gateway. Through use of these services, students and staff will be able to communicate with colleagues throughout the world, share information, learn new concepts, research diverse subjects, and utilize state-of-the-art personal productivity tools. The District provides these services as one means of fulfilling its mission to educate, inform, and culturally enrich user experiences, by providing resources for both formal and informal learning. The resources available on the Internet expands the District’s information services well beyond traditional collections and electronic resources opening access to information, ideas and commentaries from around the world and a vast array of tools and resources for different age levels and points of view. The District has defined MUSD-Net to have a purpose limited to the advance­ment and accomplishment of the District’s educational mission, goals, and objectives.
 
Because the District’s information services are used as a part of District and school activities, all District and school codes of conduct and disciplinary procedures apply to activities involving use of MUSD-Net. Board of Education Policy and Administrative Regulations address vandalism, unauthorized access to information, computer piracy, hacking, cyberbullying, appropriate online behavior including interacting with other individuals on social networking sites and in chat rooms, and tampering with hardware or software.
 
Acceptable Use Policy
 
The District has adopted an Acceptable Use Policy to set guidelines for the use of MUSD-Net services. All students, employees, and parents or guardians shall follow the rules set forth in the acceptable use policy (AUP) and to report any misuse of the system to a teacher, administrator, or super­visor.
 
The use of MUSD-Net is a privilege, not a right, and inappropriate, unauthorized, or unacceptable use will result in the restriction or cancellation of a user’s privilege to utilize MUSD-Net. Additionally, inappropriate, unauthorized, or unacceptable use may lead to disciplinary and/or legal action, including but not limited to suspension, expulsion or dismissal from school or employment, and/or criminal prosecution by government authorities. It is the user’s sole responsibility should restriction or cancellation of MUSD-Net privileges affect their ability to execute their duties as students or staff.
 
Limited Private Network
 
The District has restricted access to materials and placed restrictions on speech and content, to assure use of the system for educational purposes. MUSD-Net has not been established as a public access service or a public forum. Users have limited privacy expect­ations in the contents of their personal files and records of their online activity while using the system. The District declares its owner­ship of the hardware, software, data, network, and all work performed, and asserts its right to review and exer­cise its ownership at any time by search of the system, its equipment, and any inform­ation contained therein.
 
District Administration through the system administrator has the right and authority to monitor all accounts, including e-mail and other materials stored, transmitted or received utilizing the District’s equipment and/or services. All such materials are the property of the District. Users do not have any right to or expectation of privacy regarding such materials.
 
Acceptable Use
 
Users are expected to use MUSD-Net to pursue intellectual activities, seek resources, access libraries and other types of learning materials and activities. Users are encouraged to explore the vast educational resources available through these services, and discover what is available. Users should participate in new exciting learning experiences, and share their knowledge and experiences with others. The District endeavors to promote the safe, ethical, respon­sible, and legal use of the District’s technological resources, including the Internet; support the effective use of these resources for educational purposes; protect students against potential dangers in their use of the Internet; and ensure accountability.
 
  1. Student use and activities will be structured in a manner that is appropriate to the age and skills of the students, recognizing the importance of providing more secure environ­ments for younger students and supporting safe, responsible, use by older students. Student use of MUSD-Net will be supervised by staff in a manner that is appro­­priate to the age of the students and circumstances of use.
  2. The District desires that all users have positive, safe, and productive experiences while using MUSD-Net. The following safe and responsible use issues are incorporated to establish guidelines for use of MUSD-Net and the Internet.
    1. Students shall not reveal on the Internet personal information about themselves or about any other persons. For example, students should not reveal their full names, home addresses, telephone numbers, school addresses, or parents’ names on the Internet.
    2. Account access codes and passwords are established to provide users access to the network, to identify the user, and establish what services the user is authorized to utilize. Users shall not disclose his/her password to others or allow other users to use their accounts. Users shall not access any account not specifically assigned to them.
    3. Users should not meet anyone they have met on the Internet in a secluded place or a private setting. Minors shall not meet in person anyone they have met on the Internet without their parent’s permission.
    4. All users shall utilize appropriate language when communicating or posting information or images on MUSD-Net or any part of the Internet. Users may not post or distribute material that may contain content that could be considered threatening, defamatory, obscene, offensive, harassing, disruptive, or derogatory, including but not limited to, sexual comments or images, racial or ethnic slurs, or other comments or images that would offend someone on the basis of ancestry, color, race, creed, gender, ethnic group identification, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, political beliefs, or physical and/or mental disability. All content and communications shall meet the standards for use on a publicly-owned and operated communication vehicle.

      Users shall not access or store any material that may contain content that a reasonable person would consider to be obscene, pornographic, pedophilic, or sexually harassing. Unsolicited materials containing any of the above mentioned material shall not be dwelled upon, and shall be deleted as soon as possible. Transfer of any such unsolicited materials shall only be to supervisors or MUSD-Net security personnel and then only for the purposes of reporting the incident.
    5. Users may not harass other users or individuals either inside the MUSD community or on the Internet at large. If a user or individual asks that you no longer send them mail or in any other way contact them, you must stop all contact immediately.
    6. Users shall not post or send any material to either MUSD-Net or the Internet anonymously.
    7. Materials obtained or copied utilizing MUSD-Net may be subject to laws that govern making reproductions of copyrighted works. A work protected by copyright may not be copied without permission of the copyright owner unless the proposed use falls within the definition of educational “Fair Use.” Users are responsible for compliance with all international, national and state laws governing copyrighted materials.
    8. Users shall remain within allocated storage space. Users should check e-mail accounts and other services routinely, deleting all material that they are finished with, and appropriately archiving materials off-line to remain within storage space allocations.
    9. Users shall not utilize MUSD-Net or any of its services to encourage the use of drugs, alcohol or tobacco.
  3. No user of MUSD-Net or any District computing equipment shall utilize the system for any type of com­mer­cial or political purpose. Unacceptable uses include, but are not limited to:
    1. Selling or buying anything for personal gain; or
    2. Conducting for-profit business activities; or
    3. Using the system for gambling, non-District advertising or promotion; or
    4. Engaging in non-District related fundraising or public relations activities such as solicitation for reli­gious purposes, lobbying for political purposes, or soliciting votes.
  4. No user shall engage in any activity that would jeopardize the security or proper performance of MUSD-Net or any of the external networks that are accessible from it. Unacceptable uses include, but are not limited to:
    1. Illegal or unethical activities; including but not limited to:
      1. copying, modifying, deleting or forging other users’ files, data, or electronic communications,
      2. defacing others’ data or presentations,
      3. using any District equipment or service to pursue “hacking” internal or external to the District,
      4. attempting to access information that is protected by privacy laws;
    2. Actions or use that may disrupt or jeopardize the security or effective perform­ance of MUSD-Net or any other users of the Internet;
    3. Accessing, transmitting, or up-or-downloading computer viruses or other harmful or malicious code, files, or programs;
    4. Accessing, transmitting, or up-or-downloading ”SPAM,” “chain letters,” or any type of “pyramid schemes”;
    5. Illegal and system disruptive activities; actions taken to disrupt the performance of the system, actions or use that may disrupt or jeopardize the security or effective perform­ance of MUSD-Net or any other users of the Internet.
  5. Student privacy shall be protected at all times when posting materials on District or school operated Internet accessible sites.
    1. Express parent or guardian permission must be obtained before the District may utilize any of the following items in any manner that is accessible from the Internet:
      1. Individual student pictures or images;
      2. Individual student information;
      3. Identified group student pictures or images;
      4. Student work or reports that in any manner identify the student.
    2. Express parent or guardian permission must be obtained before establishing student accounts on any third party Internet service.
    3. A parent or guardian may restrict the District’s use of any specific information or materials concerning or created by their student, including but not limited to, unidentified group student pictures or unidentified student work or reports, which are accessible from the Internet.
  6. In compliance with the Childrens’ Internet Protection Act, the District has taken reasonable steps to protect against access to World Wide Web (“WWW”) and E-Mail materials that are considered educationally inappropriate in the following manner:
    1. The District has implemented WWW filtering and blocking software to restrict access to WWW sites containing pornography, obscene depictions, criminal intent, or material harmful to minors or that does not serve any legitimate educational purpose.
    2. E-mail will be filtered with electronic rules based policies to minimize the exposure to child pornography and pedophilic type materials. External mail servers will not be accessible from MUSD-Net.
    3. However, no electronic filtering process is foolproof, and there is still a risk that a user may be exposed to such materials. Users should notify teachers, supervisors, or parents of all such experiences. It is ultimately the user’s responsibility to utilize the system in a manner consistent with this policy.
  7. If a student under the age of eighteen (18) accesses MUSD-Net or any of its services outside of school, a parent or guardian must supervise the student’s use of the services at all times and is completely respon­sible for monit­oring the use in compliance with the District’s Acceptable Use Policy.
  8. Users shall ensure that all transmission of student confidential information is in compliance with District Policy and state and federal student privacy laws.
Offsite Use of MUSD-Net
 
The use of District computing equipment and/or services outside of the District premises shall be fully compliant with the District’s Acceptable Use Policy. The lack of automatic filtering when operating outside the District will require the user to be more diligent in complying with the provisions of the policy, and ensuring that no malicious code is installed on the equipment with or without the user’s knowledge.
 
District Liability
 
The Internet is a very broad public forum. The District is not responsible for the information found thereon. It is very possible that information found on the Internet may be inaccurate, biased, or inappropriate for any specific task or purpose. The information and links pertaining to services or material from outside MUSD-Net are solely provided to help locate information on the Internet, and do not in any manner constitute a recommendation of the institutions or services.
 
The District makes no warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied, that the functions or the services pro­vided by or through MUSD-Net will be error-free or without defect. The District will not be responsible for any damage users may suffer, including but not limited to, loss of data, interruptions of service, or exposure to inappropriate material or people. The District is not responsible for the accuracy or quality of the information obtained through the system. The District will not be responsible for financial obligations arising through the unauthorized use of the system. Users or parents/guardians of users will indemnify and hold the District harmless from any losses sustained as the result of misuse of the system by user.
 
References:
 
Board Policy
 
BP4040 Employee Use of Technology
BP6163.4 Use of Electronic Data Networking Technology Resources

SPAM PREVENTION

Do you receive lots of junk email messages from people you don't know? It's no surprise if you do. As more people use email, marketers are increasingly using email messages to pitch their products and services. Some consumers find unsolicited commercial email - also known as "spam" - annoying and time consuming; others have lost money to bogus offers that arrived in their email in-box.
 
The Federal Trade Commission's website has information about the recent law enforcement actions against deceptive commercial email and spammers' responsibilities under the CAN-SPAM law. In the "For Consumers" section, you'll find tips on how to reduce the amount of spam email in your in-box.
 
If you get spam email that you think is deceptive, forward it to [email protected]. The FTC uses the spam stored in this database to pursue law enforcement actions against people who send deceptive email.
 

MERIDIAN MAIL VOICE MESSAGING USER GUIDE

Meridian Mail is an electronic voice messaging system used by the Montebello Unified School District that gives you an easy, fast and dependable way to communicate. Click the link above to access the user's guide.
Dell Computer Quote
 
ITS RESOURCES
 
Dell Chromebook 5190 2-in-1 troubleshooting guide
Virus Alerts
Blackboard Training Video
A link more specific for the teacher portion of BB:
 
Teachers: Getting Started
 
Teachers: Create and Send Messages
 
Teacher Training Video
 
Blackboard Communication HQ app gives users access to the same message creation capacities for more information about the app click on the link below: HQ App Information